oh forgot to mention – would also love to see Lauterbrunnen at some point (even if only for a few hours) – Thanks!

Well, you could base your Swiss visit in Interlaken and take day trips to other mountain villages—Lauterbrunnen, Grindelwald, Wengen, etc. That would let you see the “whole area”…but at the risk of spreading yourself too thin. You could spend three days in any of those towns just by themselves, exploring the more immediately local sights.

My only concern is that if you give Interlaken one day, Gimmelwald one day, Grindelwald half a day and Lauterbrunnen the other half…..you’ll wind up merely taking in a few decent views and never really dive into what each place has to offer. I spent three days in Interlaken alone and two days in Grindelwald, and it was nowhere near enough for either. There was so, so much more to see and do.

So my suggestion would be to pick (and I know it will sound crazy) only one of those places and keep yourself there the whole time—unless it’s absolutely horrid and you can’t WAIT to leave. You’ll thank yourself later for giving the city its due, and you’ll be that much more encouraged to come back and give each other town a few days as well!

You pass through Lauterbrunnen to get to Gimmelwald, so you will have the opportunity to see it.

I don’t particularly like Interlaken; it is more a resort than a village (good for buying groceries, signing up for excursions, and riding ferris wheels), and to get from there to almost any of the popular mountain villages, you have to go to Lauterbrunnen. So my suggestion would be to stay in Lauterbrunnen if you don’t want to stay in Gimmelwald (which is quite small), but my first choice would be a mountain village such as Gimmelwald, with trips to other villages from there.

I would also stay the 3 nights in Gimmelwald as suggest cleveland. You’re only going to get so much from ‘village hopping’. Hike, Bike and climb at Gimmelwald and enjoy it’s beautiful surroundings and immersion in nature. The views will not get much better than what you will be experiencing there.

There’s a hostel near Gimmelwald. See http://www.mountainh…

I’ve not stayed there, but many people report enjoying a stay there.

Don’t mix up Gimmelwald with Grindelwald; two different places.

I’ve stayed at Mountain Hostel. It’s pretty cool! Kind of a younger crowd, so if you’re over 30 you might feel more comfy staying in one of the B&Bs in town instead (or maybe not), but either way I’d recommend it. Chances are you would meet people to hang out with if you’re there by yourself, and even if you’re not. The people that run the place are really friendly too (especially if you can speak some variety of German).

I second the warning about spreading yourself too thin, though. Pretty much anywhere in the Lauterbrunnen valley is readily accessible from anywhere else, so if you really wanted to you could stay in one place for 3 or 4 nights and then “commute” to the other places. But honestly, the views from either side of the valley really aren’t significantly different to warrant doing both, in my opinion.

I’d recommend you take the train into Interlaken-Ost, get some groceries at the store across the street from the station, and then make your way down the valley towards Gimmelwald. If I remember correctly, you take the train from Interlaken to the town of Lauterbrunnen, where you get off and you can either take the bus, or walk further south to the town of Stechelberg, where you catch the cable cars up to Gimmelwald. Personally, I recommend walking, as it gives you time to take in the amazing scenery.

Thank you everyone for your suggestions! They are very helpful.

We are young (all just graduated college) so we are looking for a younger crowd. The mountain hostel looks amazing – I will have to put some more research into it.

If we stay 3 nights in Gimmelwald (as a bunch of you have suggested) will that still allow us to see Interlaken/go canyon-ing? We would love to be able to do that. We also want to spend time hiking (i’ve read about in-mountain waterfalls?) and checking out the restaurant at Schilthorn.

If we want to experience the nightlife in Interlaken, would it be worth it to stay one night there and then two nights in Gimmelwald? I have heard that the Balmer’s Herberge hostel in Interlaken is one of the best in Europe…not sure if you all agree or not.

Finally, we are hoping to catch a train from here to Venice. Is that a tough trip? I’m assuming we would have to catch it in Interlaken. If anyone has any insight on these topics that would be great. Thanks again!

Honestly if you’re in the Alps, I’d save the “nightlife” stuff until you get back to a big city. It’s best to be to bed at a decent hour so your days can be full of fun outdoors exploration (this is coming from a younger person, too). That said, the suds flow pretty readily up at Mountain Hostel anyway. So if you were looking to knock back a few with some new people before bed time, you’d have no problem. If you’re looking to play Saturday Night Fever until 4am, I’d do it somewhere other than the Swiss Alps

As for getting from Gimmelwald/Interlaken to Venice, it’s doable but kind of rough. If you could get down to Interlaken by about 8 AM, I know you can catch a train to the next town over and then ride up to Brig and from there it’s a straight shot to Venice. But the whole trip would take 6 or 7 hours. Unfortunately as far as I know there is not really any efficient way to get down into Italy from the central Alpine region, though someone may be able to correct me here. Even if you went up to Zurich or Basel, I don’t know of any night trains or other way to get to Venice or Florence without switching a number of times.

Thanks for your tips Feich. Definitely will save the “nightlife” for the big city and will enjoy a few beers at the hostel evening.

If anyone else has any tips on getting to Italy, I would love to hear them. Maybe there is somewhere else in Italy that would be worth stopping over it (that is easier to get to) and then head to Venice the next day? I’ve been trying to get the German train website to work, but I am having trouble with it as it doesn’t recognize the city names I type in…

It might ask you to verify (while it translates the names into German; “Venice” becomes “Venise” for instance) but you just hit the button at the bottom right and it takes you to the schedules.

Try the Swiss rail site at http://www.sbb.ch/

Switch it to English. Put in Gimmelwald to Venice, with an early morning start time. It will give you multiple routings, one taking less than 8 hours. It includes all legs, including 2 minute walks, but the short one goes through Spiez to Brig to Venice Santa Lucia (Venice has two stations; Santa Lucia is the one closest to the grand canal; Mestre is actually on the mainland).

Be sure to get the right train at Spiez. One goes through a tunnel and takes less time. The other goes over the mountains and is more scenic, but longer. I don’t mind long train rides, particularly in Switzerland. The cars are clean and spacious, you can walk around, have a picnic, nap, whatever, and in second class the people are generally friendly and can give you valuable advice.

My Swiss itinerary involved 1 night in Lucerne, 2 in Gimmelwald, 1 in Interlaken.
Lucerne was nice but I can recommend scrapping that and going straight to Gimmelwald.

Was amazing. After our 2nd night there we went down the cable car and walked the length of the Lauterbrunnen Valley with our backpacks. Was sensational. Picturesque, perfect, watching up to 10 paragliders fly above us and watching mini rainbows caused by cliff waterfalls. We stopped by Trummelbach (sp?) Falls on the way, so good. After treating ourselves at a Lauterbrunnen pub we went back to spend the afternoon in Interlaken. Staying here made it easy to get straight on the train to Venice the next day, which is where you’re going, so all easy!