Lauterbrunnen and the Jungfrau region

About 20 years ago whilst holidaying in Europe, my boyfriend (now husband) and I did the obligatory Contiki tour.  The second destination on our whirlwind tour was Lauterbrunnen, a tiny village in the heart of the Swiss alps.  From this brief visit has developed a real love affair with the region and we have returned on numerous occasions for another dose of Swiss charm.






Lauterbrunnen is your typical Swiss chocolate box village – quaint alpine houses and chalets are surrounded by towering snow-capped peaks, even in Summer when all of our visits have taken place.

Situated in the Bernese Oberland, Lauterbrunnen is only an hour from the Swiss capital Bern and about 90 minutes from Zurich.  As you would expect in Switzerland, transport services are excellent and the village can be reached by train, bus or car.  Whilst Lauterbrunnen itself is small (definitely part of the charm), Interlaken is only 10 minutes drive away and offers a wide range of supermarkets and the usual tourist fare and is the starting point for many of the cruises on nearby Lake Thun and Lake Brienz.

But, back to Lauterbrunnen and our reasons for returning time and again.  On arriving in the village, one of the first things you will notice are the huge rock faces surrounding the town.  Nestled in a valley, the village sits surrounded by these rock walls from which waterfalls spill over, and each morning you wake to the soothing sounds of water rushing over the rocks. The only other sound you will hear regularly, is the clanging of bells tied around the necks of the local cows as they graze nonchalantly on the summer grass. Within the valley, 72 tumbling waterfalls surround the area, whilst the Trummelbach Falls are an easy 30 minute stroll from town. These thunderous waterfalls have carved corkscrew channels through the valley walls: a stepped catwalk leads you over and around the enclosed, foaming cauldrons of rushing water (up to 20,000 litres a second), which throw up plenty of spray and have gradually eroded the rock into weird and wonderful shapes.