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Switzerland

Things to do in Wengen

Why you should go

Ninety seconds on Wengen

Wengen occupies a sunny shelf at about 1,270 metres on the eastern side of the Lauterbrunnen valley, reached by the Wengernalp cog railway and closed to private cars. It grew from a farming hamlet into a British-favoured resort in the late nineteenth century and still keeps a good deal of that Edwardian hotel architecture. Above the village the same railway climbs to Wengernalp and Kleine Scheidegg, putting the north faces of the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau within half an hour. It is best known internationally for the Lauberhorn downhill, the longest race on the World Cup circuit, run on the slopes directly above the village each January.

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Things to do

6
  1. Hotel Bellevue des Alpes

    Hotel Bellevue des Alpes

    Hotel

    A hotel on the pass at Kleine Scheidegg, kept deliberately as it was in the 1930s, which is why the Eiger climbing films are shot in it. It sits between the Eiger and the Jungfrau railway and the guests are mostly there for the silence after the last train.

  2. Kleine Scheidegg

    Landmark · 1.5 hr

    The Eiger north face at close range, from a railway platform with no reason to leave it all afternoon.

  3. Lauberhorn

    Landmark · 2.5 hr

    Ski racing's longest and most feared descent, walkable end to end in summer.

  4. Männlichen

    Cableway · 2 hr

    One ridge, two valleys and the whole Jungfrau wall, with almost no walking required.

  5. Männlichen to Kleine Scheidegg Panorama Trail

    Trail · 1.5 hr

    An hour and a half of near-level walking with the three great faces never leaving the frame.

  6. Wengernalp

    Railway · 1 hr

    The Jungfrau at close quarters from an almost empty alp, one stop short of the crowds.

Basemap Meridian · data © OpenStreetMap

Dispatches

1
The Bernese Oberland, Floor to Summit
Lauterbrunnen

The Bernese Oberland, Floor to Summit

No road has ever reached Mürren or Wengen; everything above the valley floor moves by rail and cable, and in 2026 the whole system finished rebuilding itself.
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