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By carAndrew Bossi — CC BY-SA 2.5 (Wikimedia Commons)

The Swiss Alps

Bernese Oberland and Valais · Switzerland

Four days in the Bernese Alps and the Valais done by car, but with one thing to be clear about before setting off: four of these places CANNOT be reached by driving. Zermatt, Mürren and Wengen admit no vehicles, and no road reaches the Jungfraujoch because it sits at three thousand four hundred metres. On those stretches you leave the car and go up by rack railway or cable car, which is precisely what makes this region special.

4 days3 nights218 km7 stopsBest season: Late June to September, when the passes and paths are open and the pastures green. July and August are the busiest and dearest months; September gives the same landscape with fewer crowds. In winter everything runs but it becomes a ski trip, which is another thing altogether.

Day 1Between two lakes and seventy-two waterfalls Day 2A tunnel inside the Eiger Day 3The village no road reaches Day 4Twenty-nine four-thousanders at once

Day 1 · Between two lakes and seventy-two waterfalls

Interlaken and Lauterbrunnen · 13 km

Dietrich Michael Weidmann — CC BY-SA 3.0 (Wikimedia Commons)

Interlaken

culture

A town wedged between two lakes, Thun and Brienz, and the railway hub of the whole region: trains to both valleys leave from its eastern station. On the Höhematte meadow, right in the centre, fourteen hectares have been kept unbuilt since the 19th century so as not to block the view of the Jungfrau.

Tip

Important practical note: the trains to Lauterbrunnen and Grindelwald leave together and split at Zweilütschinen. Check the sign on the carriage before boarding, because if you get it wrong you end up in the other valley.

20 min to the next stop · 13 km

chensiyuan — CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons)

Lauterbrunnen

nature

A U-shaped valley carved by a glacier, with vertical walls seven hundred metres high and seventy-two waterfalls coming off them. The best known is the Staubbach, which drops three hundred metres and which the wind breaks into water dust before it reaches the bottom. Tolkien passed through here in 1911, and this valley is thought to have inspired his Rivendell.

Tip

A level path runs along the valley floor and it is the best thing to do here. The village takes half an hour; the valley asks for two.

Day 2 · A tunnel inside the Eiger

The Jungfraujoch and Grindelwald · rack railway · 50 km

Photograph by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net). — CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons)

The Jungfraujoch

history

The highest railway station in Europe, at three thousand four hundred and fifty-four metres, on a saddle between the Mönch and the Jungfrau. The train climbs through a tunnel bored inside the Eiger that took sixteen years to drive, from 1896 to 1912, and in which workers died. At the top there is a viewing platform over the Aletsch glacier, the largest in the Alps.

Tip

It is one of the most expensive excursions in Switzerland and depends entirely on the weather: if there is cloud you see nothing and there is no refund. Check the summit webcam that same morning before buying the ticket.

Leonhard Lenz — CC0 (Wikimedia Commons)

Grindelwald

viewpoints

A village laid out on a shelf of pasture with the north face of the Eiger right above it, eighteen hundred metres of vertical wall that was for decades the unsolved problem of European mountaineering. From the village you see the whole of it, and up close you understand why they called it the murder wall.

Tip

Mind the stations: Grindelwald Terminal, where the cable car arrives, and the village station are different stops and not next to each other. Check which one you need before getting off.

Day 3 · The village no road reaches

Mürren and transfer to Täsch · 155 km

Andrew Bossi stitched by Marku1988 This panoramic image was created with Autostitch (stitched images may differ from reality). — CC BY-SA 2.5 (Wikimedia Commons)

Mürren

viewpoints

A village perched on a ledge at one thousand six hundred and fifty metres, with no road reaching it at all: only cable car or the little mountain railway that comes from Grütschalp. Opposite, with nothing in between, stand the Eiger, the Mönch and the Jungfrau lined up across the valley.

Tip

That no cars reach it is not a curiosity: it is the reason to come. Here the background noise is cowbells and water, and that cannot be faked.

Day 4 · Twenty-nine four-thousanders at once

The Gornergrat and Zermatt · without the car

Bob Tan — CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons)

The Gornergrat

viewpoints

A rack railway opened in 1898 climbs from Zermatt to three thousand and eighty-nine metres in a little over half an hour. At the top you see twenty-nine peaks over four thousand metres at once, the Gorner glacier spread out below and the Matterhorn head-on, with that crooked pyramid shape no other mountain has.

Tip

Sit on the right going up and on the left coming down: the Matterhorn is always on that side. And go early, because the afternoon cloud covers the summit almost every day.

Andrew Bossi — CC BY-SA 2.5 (Wikimedia Commons)

Zermatt

culture

A mountain village that was beginning to receive climbers when, in 1865, Edward Whymper climbed the Matterhorn with six companions. On the way down a rope broke and four of them died. The news went round the world and turned Zermatt into the alpine destination it is today.

Tip

Look for the Hinterdorfstrasse, the old street: there are wooden granaries several centuries old, some from the Middle Ages, raised on stone pillars with flat slabs on top, put there so the mice could not climb up. And the village cemetery holds the graves of climbers killed on the Matterhorn.

This getaway is in the app, day by day, with every stop on the map, the drives between them and where to sleep, and the option to save it for when there is no signal.

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