Grindelwald is world-famous for the spectacular scenery of the Berner Oberland, including unbeatable panoramas of the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau. This First side together with the Männlichen side, over Kleine Scheidegg towards Wengen and also over on the Mürren / Schilthorn side makes up the Jungfrau region and offers a very popular tourist destination with plenty of varied skiing.

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This does mean, however, that you’re much more likely to hear British English in the lift queues and restaurants than Swiss German, and it also means that the prices can be kept high without massive investment in the infrastructure – beware horrendous queues for the morning gondola and unmanned, unprepared drag lifts.

Having said that, the queues once you’re up are not too bad, and there’s plenty of artificial snow being pumped in the early season. And the views of the Wetterhorn and Eiger in the afternoon sun are quite special.

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First is a wonderful place to go hiking in Summer. You can choose different kinds of hiking routes. The most easy one is from First to Bachalpsee. It takes about 45 minutes one way and you can see the perfect invert image of Jungfrau from Bachalpsee.

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Getting there

By train, Grindelwald is reached in around half an hour from Interlaken Ost, and then from the station you’ll have either a walk or a shuttle bus to the lifts. The “Snow and Rail” tickets from the SBB include, as always, return train travel and a day’s lift pass.

From Zurich by train, you need to change in Bern and Interlaken, with a total time of around 2h50m, plus a walk or a shuttle bus to the lifts, making it a bit far (and pricey) for a day trip.
By car from Zurich, it’s a long but scenic run through Luzern and over the Brünig pass to Interlaken, and then up the Grindelwald valley, taking around 2 hours. Parking is a bit problematic in the centre of Grindelwald, you might have to use the park-and-ride car parks outside the centre.