Lauterbrunnen sits at about 800 m on the floor of one of the deepest valleys in the Alps, with 72 waterfalls by the local count. The road ends here: Wengen and Mürren above are car-free, so everything higher is a lift. This guide settles which lift and which pass, which day to go up, what closes by season and where to sleep in Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland.
The valley floor of Lauterbrunnen is free to walk, Trümmelbach Falls costs US$21.90 (CHF 18), and the lift to the Schilthorn costs US$139.70 (CHF 115) return from Stechelberg. Two full days cover the valley floor, Mürren and one peak. A third day goes to the Jungfraujoch or over to Grindelwald. The weather on the tops, not the calendar, decides which day you go up.
Key takeaways
Every Lauterbrunnen trip comes down to six choices, and each one has its own page on this site.
Start low, because the valley floor costs nothing and holds the two headline falls of the valley.
Two summit systems serve the valley and they price and run very differently.
The lifts do the climbing, so most walks here start high and run gently down.
Food follows the lifts here, because everything above the valley floor arrives by rail.
The village you pick decides whether your mornings start with a lift or with a walk out the door.
With three days or more the valley becomes a base and the neighbouring valleys become day trips.
Visitors talk about Lauterbrunnen as one place, but the trip splits into six. Two sit on the valley floor, two hang on ledges above it and two are summits at the top of the lifts.
The village sits at about 802 m on the floor of the U-shaped valley, beside a church built in 1487-1488. Staubbach Falls drops 297 m from a hanging valley directly over the village, and Goethe wrote a poem about it after a visit in 1779. Everything else in the valley starts here: the trains, the cableways and the Postbus up the valley floor.
The floor of the valley runs flat for kilometres under walls that carry, by the local count, 72 waterfalls. Trümmelbach Falls drains a 24 km² catchment off the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau through ten falls inside the mountain. The road and the Postbus end at Stechelberg, where the big cableway to Mürren and the Schilthorn starts.
Mürren sits at 1,638 m on a ledge above the valley and is car-free. Supplies, residents and visitors all arrive on the cableway from Stechelberg or the railway from Grütschalp, a line that opened in 1891. One quiet stop down the mountain sits Gimmelwald at 1,364 m, a village of around a hundred people.
Wengen sits at 1,274 m on a shelf opposite Mürren, reached only by the Wengernalpbahn rack railway, the longest continuous rack railway in the world, whose full line opened in 1893. The village hosts the Lauberhorn races each January, and the 97th edition runs from 15 to 17 January 2027 with tickets on sale from 2 November 2026.
The Schilthorn rises to 2,970 m at the top of a four-stage cableway from Stechelberg that takes about 30 minutes. The revolving restaurant Piz Gloria starred in the 1969 Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service, and the Bond World exhibition stays on the summit. At the Birg mid-station the Thrill Walk and Skyline Walk cling to the cliff face.
The Jungfraujoch at 3,454 m is the highest railway station in Europe, reached from Lauterbrunnen by the Wengernalpbahn to Kleine Scheidegg and then the Jungfrau Railway, which opened in 1912 and runs 9 km almost entirely in tunnel through the Eiger and the Mönch. It is the biggest single day out of the valley and the one most sensitive to weather.
Lauterbrunnen rewards a low-to-high order: walk the free valley floor first, then ride the lifts once you know the tops are clear. The full list of what the valley holds sits on things to do in Lauterbrunnen.
Staubbach Falls from the village. Photo: Oleg Yunakov, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Staubbach Falls drops 297 m from a hanging valley over the cliffs above the village, falling past the church that was built in 1487-1488. Goethe stood here in 1779 and wrote the poem Song of the Spirits over the Waters about it. The name comes from staub, the German word for dust, because the fall breaks into spray long before it lands.
It is free to see from the village streets and the road, and it needs no ticket, no lift and no weather window, which is why it comes first on every visit. Treat it as the orientation point of the whole valley: nearly every path, train and lift in Lauterbrunnen starts within sight of it. The details and the walking route to its base are on Staubbach Falls.
Trümmelbach Falls, carved into the mountain. Photo: JoachimKohler-HB, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Trümmelbach Falls is ten glacier waterfalls inside the mountain, reached partly by a tunnel lift, and it is the only glacier falls inside a mountain in Europe open to visitors. The water drains a 24 km² catchment about half snow and ice on the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau, and in the melt it moves up to 20,000 litres a second. The falls were first made accessible in 1877, and the name means a stream that sounds like a drum.
Adults pay US$21.90 (CHF 18) and children aged 6 to 15 pay US$9.72 (CHF 8), with no group rates. It opens daily from the beginning of April to the beginning of November, 09:00 to 17:00, extended to 08:30 to 18:00 in July and August. Children under 4 and dogs are not admitted.
The Postbus runs from Lauterbrunnen station, about 3 km up the valley. Hours and prices are the operator's own, on truemmelbachfaelle.ch. Everything practical is on Trümmelbach Falls.
A street in Mürren with the Eiger behind. Photo: Balise42, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Mürren sits at 1,638 m on a ledge about 850 m above the valley floor, and no public road reaches it. You reach it two ways: the cableway from Stechelberg, single fare US$14.34 (CHF 11.80), or the cableway to Grütschalp and the little railway through Winteregg, a route of about 20 minutes in total on a line opened in 1891. The village is the trailhead for the North Face Trail and the via ferrata, and it is the mid-station for the Schilthorn cableway, so most visitors pass through it twice.
Supplies arrive by rail, which is why the mountain restaurants cluster at the lift stations. Watch the calendar in autumn: the Stechelberg-Mürren cableway closes for maintenance from 19 to 30 October 2026, with a shuttle bus via Mürren running 08:00 to 18:00 with limited seats. The village guide is on Mürren.
Gimmelwald sits at 1,364 m one cableway stop below Mürren, a village of around a hundred people where the Stechelberg cableway makes its first call. It is car-free too, and its best-known bed is the Mountain Hostel, which the hostel's own site confirms. Above and below it runs the Mürren-Gimmelwald via ferrata, about 2.2 km of steel-cabled cliff path with about 300 m of height and a 90 m Nepal suspension bridge over the Mürrenbach gorge.
The route is free to use, open 1 June to 31 October, and you pay only for gear rental if you need it. It is a real alpine climb, not a walkway, and it should not be attempted in rain or by anyone without a head for exposure. The village page is on Gimmelwald and the climb on the Mürren-Gimmelwald via ferrata.
Wengen sits at 1,274 m on the sunny shelf opposite Mürren, reached only by the Wengernalpbahn, the rack railway that runs from Lauterbrunnen over Kleine Scheidegg to Grindelwald and is the longest continuous rack railway in the world. The full line opened on 20 June 1893, and the village is car-free. Wengen's date in the calendar is the Lauberhorn, the classic downhills of the ski world cup: the 97th edition runs from 15 to 17 January 2027, with the super-G on Friday, the downhill on Saturday and the slalom on Sunday, and tickets go on sale online from 2 November 2026.
Outside race week it is a quiet base with lifts of its own. No point-to-point fare for the train up is printed on any official page we could read, so check the SBB app or the station machines. The village guide is on Wengen.
Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau from the Schilthorn. Photo: GGDELABAS, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The Schilthorn tops out at 2,970 m. The ride from Stechelberg runs Stechelberg, Gimmelwald, Mürren, Birg, Schilthorn and takes about 30 minutes, and its first section, the new cabin up to Mürren, is what the operator calls the steepest cableway in the world at 159.4 percent. The summit building is Piz Gloria, the revolving restaurant built for the 1969 Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service, with the Bond World exhibition beside it.
At the Birg mid-station the Thrill Walk along the cliff and the Skyline Walk are included in the ticket. The standard adult return from Stechelberg is US$139.70 (CHF 115), and the Viator listing that shows from US$73.32 is the Swiss Half Fare option, not the normal fare. The full picture is on the Schilthorn and Schilthorn tickets.
Most bookings from Lauterbrunnen are a lift ticket or a flight off a ledge rather than a guided walk, because the valley's own transport system already does the guiding. Card prices below are the platforms' listed US-dollar figures.
from $73.32
This is the operator's own Stechelberg-Schilthorn return ticket sold through Viator, with the Bond World exhibit and Thrill Walk folded in, not a separate tour. Ascents run every hour at xx:25 and xx:55, so time your arrival at the valley station around that clock.
Check Availability
from $315.00
This is a train ticket, not a guided tour: you board at Lauterbrunnen and ride yourself to Jungfraujoch's ice palace and observation deck. Late arrivals still travel but lose the reserved seat on the Kleine Scheidegg to Jungfraujoch leg.
Check Availability
from $241.00
A pilot straps you in at Mürren and you run a few steps off the launch field before the ground drops away over the valley's cliffs and waterfalls. The 20-minute flight lands at Stechelberg, not back in Mürren, so budget the bus or the walk back afterward.
Check Availability
from $254.00
A door-to-door minibus with an English-speaking host instead of a fixed meeting point, built around an easy walk rather than a hike. The Trümmelbach Falls entry fee is not folded into the price, it is paid at the gate.
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from $302.00
A guided e-bike loop from Interlaken along the river into the valley, with the Trümmelbach Falls entry fee already folded into the price. Riders who cannot handle a bicycle are turned away at the start, so this is not a beginner's first ride.
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from $310.00
An hour in Lauterbrunnen village then three hours loose in car-free Mürren, all by public rail and cable car with a small group. Trümmelbach Falls sits on the route but its entry fee is paid separately at the gate if you stop there.
Check AvailabilityCard prices are the platforms' own listed US-dollar figures, and each platform bills in your account's currency. Figures current in Q3 2026.
Prices, ratings and details are the platform's own. Dollar figures are the listed prices. The platform bills in your account's currency.
One day in the valley is enough for a real slice of it, but only if you pick the right day plan for the sky. These four routes are built from published fares and hours alone.
Look at the tops before you look at your plan. If the Schilthorn and the Jungfraujoch are clear in the morning, go up early, because a clear morning is no promise of a clear afternoon. If the peaks are in cloud, stay on the valley floor, where the waterfalls run whatever the weather and nothing you do depends on visibility.
The lifts are the expensive part of the day, and paying US$139.70 (CHF 115) for a white-out is the most common mistake in the valley. Lauterbrunnen weather by month and the day plans on one day in Lauterbrunnen both start from this same check.
Take the Postbus from Lauterbrunnen station up the valley to Stechelberg. Ride the cableway to Mürren, single fare US$14.34 (CHF 11.80), walk the village ledge, then continue on the same line to the Schilthorn, US$139.70 (CHF 115) return from Stechelberg, with the Piz Gloria revolving restaurant, Bond World and the free Thrill Walk at Birg at the top. Descend to Mürren and ride the other way home: the cableway to Grütschalp, then the railway down to Lauterbrunnen, a route of about 20 minutes that looks back across the whole valley.
Finish with Staubbach Falls in the evening light, free, from the village street. That is one summit, both villages on the ledge and the waterfall, all in published-fare order.
Start at Staubbach Falls, free from the village, and walk the flat valley floor toward Stechelberg under walls that carry, by the local count, 72 waterfalls. Stop at Trümmelbach Falls, where ten glacier falls run inside the mountain whatever the sky is doing. It opens daily from early April to early November, 09:00 to 17:00, extended to 08:30 to 18:00 in July and August, and adults pay US$21.90 (CHF 18).
Children under 4 and dogs are not admitted. Continue or take the Postbus to Stechelberg, the end of the road, and ride back for the afternoon. The cloud-day fallbacks are on rainy days in Lauterbrunnen.
Dorfstrasse by Wengen station. Photo: Marie-Lan Nguyen, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
If you are arriving from Interlaken, about 20 to 22 minutes on the Berner Oberland Bahn, you can still ride a lift. Take the rack train from Lauterbrunnen up to Wengen, the car-free shelf village at 1,274 m, and walk the village on foot: no point-to-point fare is printed on an official page, so buy from the SBB app or the station machines. It is the one summit-adjacent day that runs almost entirely on the railway timetable, which makes it the safest bet on a day of fast-moving cloud.
Timings and the return leg are on Interlaken to Lauterbrunnen and the train station page.
The table cuts a single day down to what actually fits. The honest rule is that each big lift costs half a day by the time you have ridden up, looked and come down, so a one-day visit holds one summit and no more.
| If you have | Keep | Drop |
|---|---|---|
| A full clear day | The Schilthorn from Stechelberg, Mürren, Staubbach in the evening | Trümmelbach and Wengen, save them for a second day |
| 6 hours | Staubbach, the valley walk to Trümmelbach, Stechelberg | Both summits, the lifts eat the whole window |
| A cloudy day | Trümmelbach, the valley floor, Wengen by train | The Schilthorn and the Jungfraujoch, you would see nothing |
| A day between November and March | The valley floor, Wengen, winter lifts that are running | Trümmelbach, closed until early April |
The hour-by-hour build of all three routes is on one day in Lauterbrunnen.
The valley floor costs nothing and can be walked in an afternoon, so the length of your stay is really a question of how many lifts you want to buy. Each summit takes half a day to a full day, and the weather decides which of your days is a summit day. Plan the whole stay around that, not around a fixed list.
| Days you have | What fits | What you give up | Plan it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 day | One summit, or the valley floor with Trümmelbach | The second peak and the far ends of the valley | The one-day plan |
| 2 days | The valley floor, Mürren and Gimmelwald, plus one peak | The Jungfraujoch unless the first day is perfect | The two-day plan |
| 3 days | Both peaks across two weather windows, Wengen, and a free day in hand | Nothing in the valley itself, only the out-of-town trips | The three-day plan |
| 5 days | All of the above plus Grindelwald, Interlaken and the Jungfraujoch at leisure | The pace of a short break, and some money | The day trips |
Pick a base village before you pick a length, because the base decides how much of each day the lifts take. The trade is set out on where to stay.
Three published price lists set the budget of a Lauterbrunnen trip: the Schilthornbahn tariff for the cableways out of Stechelberg and Mürren, the Trümmelbach Falls entry list, and Jungfraubahnen for the Jungfraujoch. Every row in the table below comes from one of them. The pattern is simple: the two summits are the expensive rows, the short hops between villages are cheap, and the passes change the maths only if you ride the same side of the valley more than once or twice.
The cableway rows are read from the Schilthornbahn tariff page, the Jungfraujoch row from jungfrau.ch.
| Lift or entry | Adult price | With a pass |
|---|---|---|
| Stechelberg-Schilthorn return | US$139.70 (CHF 115) | US$55.50 (CHF 45.70) with the Swiss Travel Pass, free on the Berner Oberland Pass |
| Mürren-Schilthorn return | US$111.10 (CHF 91.40) | US$55.50 (CHF 45.70) with the Swiss Travel Pass, free on the Berner Oberland Pass |
| Stechelberg-Mürren single | US$14.34 (CHF 11.80) | Free on the Swiss Travel Pass and the Berner Oberland Pass |
| Mürren-Allmendhubel return | US$19.44 (CHF 16) | not stated |
| Trümmelbach Falls adult | US$21.90 (CHF 18) | not stated |
| Jungfraujoch return (from) | From US$157.50 (CHF 129.60) | Not fully included in the Jungfrau Travel Pass |
Three passes matter here. The Jungfrau Travel Pass runs 3 to 8 days from US$200.50 (CHF 165), includes the boats, and covers most of the valley's trains and cableways, but the Jungfraujoch is not fully included in it. The Berner Oberland Pass covers the region's trains and gives a free Schilthorn trip and free Stechelberg-Mürren rides.
The Swiss Travel Pass is the nationwide option and prices the Schilthorn return at US$55.50 (CHF 45.70) with the Stechelberg-Mürren cableway free. The arithmetic test is blunt: one adult who rides the Schilthorn from Stechelberg and the Jungfraujoch at its lowest fare class pays US$297.20 (CHF 244.60) by our sum, before any train in the valley. That is the point where pricing a multi-day pass is worth ten minutes.
Which lines each pass covers in full, and which it only discounts, is on its own page. The full comparison is on tickets and passes.
The lifts set the calendar as much as the weather does. Trümmelbach Falls opens from the beginning of April to the beginning of November only, so a winter visit sees the falls closed and running as a trickle under ice. The Stechelberg-Mürren cableway closes for maintenance from 19 to 30 October 2026, with a shuttle bus via Mürren running 08:00 to 18:00 and limited seats, and again from 26 April to 7 May 2027.
The Mürren-Allmendhubel funicular closes from 19 October to 11 December 2026, so the Allmendhubel meadow is walk-up only in that window. Check how to get around the valley before you commit a late-October or early-May day to the Mürren side.
Piz Gloria on the Schilthorn. Photo: Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net), CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The Schilthorn is the quicker, cheaper summit and the one that looks back into the valley you are staying in. The cableway from Stechelberg runs through Gimmelwald, Mürren and Birg, about 30 minutes each way, and the standard adult return is US$139.70 (CHF 115). On top sits Piz Gloria, the revolving restaurant built for the 1969 Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service, with Bond World beside it, and the Thrill Walk and Skyline Walk at Birg are included in the ticket. The Schilthorn cableway ticket is the operator's own return fare sold through a booking platform, so treat the listed 'from' price with care, since US$73.32 is the Swiss Half Fare option.
Ascents run at xx:25 and xx:55 past each hour. Full detail is on the Schilthorn and Schilthorn tickets.
The Jungfraujoch is the bigger, slower, costlier day: the highest railway station in Europe, at 3,454 m between the Eiger and the Mönch. From Lauterbrunnen you ride the Wengernalpbahn rack railway to Kleine Scheidegg and then the Jungfrau Railway, which opened in 1912 and runs 9 km almost entirely in tunnel through the mountain. There is no single price: the advertised from-price of US$157.50 (CHF 129.60) is the lowest fare class, the full adult return from Lauterbrunnen is higher and changes with the date, and the price calculator on jungfrau.ch shows your real figure.
A guaranteed seat costs US$12.15 (CHF 10) and is strongly recommended in good weather by Jungfraubahnen, not mandatory. The Jungfraujoch ticket from Lauterbrunnen is the same round trip sold as a booking card. Detail is on the Jungfraujoch and Jungfraujoch tickets.
Run three comparisons. Cost: the Schilthorn from Stechelberg is US$139.70 (CHF 115) return at the standard fare, the Jungfraujoch starts at US$157.50 (CHF 129.60) and climbs with the date and your route. Time: the Schilthorn is a clear half-day, the Jungfraujoch a clear full day, and on the Jungfraujoch Jungfraubahnen recommends the guaranteed seat in good weather.
View: the Schilthorn looks down into the Lauterbrunnen valley itself, so it rewards people staying here, while the Jungfraujoch puts you at 3,454 m inside the Jungfrau-Aletsch World Heritage site, first inscribed in 2001. If you have weather for only one summit and you are sleeping in this valley, the Schilthorn usually wins. The full argument is on Schilthorn or Jungfraujoch.
You do not need a 3,000-metre summit for a big day. The Allmendhubel funicular lifts you from Mürren for US$19.44 (CHF 16) return into flower meadow walking country, though it closes from 19 October to 11 December 2026. On the Wengen side, Kleine Scheidegg is a stop on the Wengernalpbahn itself and Männlichen sits on the ridge above Wengen.
Back on the Mürren side, the North Face Trail starts high above the village. These ledges cost a fraction of the summits and start from villages you would visit anyway. They are the right answer for families, for first afternoons and for anyone keeping powder dry for one real summit day.
The lift fares and dates live on Allmendhubel and getting around.
Wengen and Mürren are reached only by public transport, on foot or by bike, which shapes every menu above the valley floor. With no road up, every crate of food rides up on the rack train or the cableway. The practical result is that mountain restaurants cluster at the lift stations, where the supply line and the customers share the same cable.
The most famous table in the region revolves: Piz Gloria at 2,970 m on the Schilthorn, the revolving restaurant from the 1969 Bond film, at the top of the cableway. Plan meals around lift closing times on the ledge villages, because a late lunch in Mürren means the cableway home is the clock. The working picture is on where to eat and the Schilthorn.
Lauterbrunnen village and Stechelberg have the valley's only road access, so this is where choice is widest and where the normal Swiss rules of lunch apply. This site names no restaurant until it can cite a published list, and no official source we read prints a restaurant price or a coffee price, so we print none. What we can say is structural: the village sits on the rail line and the Postbus route, the tourist office at Stutzli 460 about 50 m from the station keeps local hours Wednesday to Sunday and can point you to what is open.
Treat the valley floor as the reliable-meal zone and the ledges as the plan-around-the-lift zone. The full breakdown is on where to eat.
The cheapest eating in the valley is the kind you carry. Buy bread and cheese on the valley floor before the first lift, and the flat walk from Lauterbrunnen toward Stechelberg, free and under the falls, becomes the lunch spot. On the ledges, self-catering in a flat with supplies carried up on the train beats any restaurant bill.
For hikers heading up the inner valley on the Lauterbrunnen walks, a morning supermarket stop in the village before the first lift is the move. Budget the picnic against the lift costs on what Lauterbrunnen costs.
Sleeping in Lauterbrunnen village itself is the low-friction option. You step off the Berner Oberland Bahn train from Interlaken, the tourist office is about 50 m from the station, and the Postbus, both cableways and the rack railway all start here. The trade is the view: you look up at Staubbach Falls instead of looking down on the valley, and you ride a lift every morning to reach the ledges.
The village sits at about 802 m, around its church of 1487-1488. This is the right base for anyone arriving late, leaving early or mixing valley days with out-of-town trips. Compare rooms on Lauterbrunnen hotels and the full village choice on where to stay.
Waking on a ledge is what the valley sells, and only these two villages deliver it. Wengen sits at 1,274 m on the sunny shelf with the rack train at its door. Mürren sits at 1,638 m, higher and smaller, with the cableway down to Stechelberg and the railway down to Grütschalp.
Both are car-free, so you cannot drive to your hotel in either, and your luggage travels the same way you do. The choice between them is mostly about which side of the valley and which lift system you want at your doorstep, and it is close enough that weather patterns and personal taste decide it. We lay the two side by side on Mürren or Wengen, with rooms on where to stay.
Gimmelwald. Photo: edwin.11, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Budget beds exist in the valley and they sit in three places we can name because their own sites confirm them: Camping Jungfrau in Lauterbrunnen, Valley Hostel in Lauterbrunnen, which lists 92 beds across three chalets, and the Mountain Hostel in Gimmelwald, one cableway stop below Mürren at 1,364 m. We print no prices for any of them because no official price list was available to us. The trade for the cheap bed is the same as for any ledge village: everything arrives by lift, including you and your groceries, and the last cableway down sets your evening.
Gimmelwald also puts you at the foot of the via ferrata and a short walk from the Mürren trails. The options sit on Lauterbrunnen hostels and Lauterbrunnen camping.
The fixed cost of any night in the municipality is the visitor tax, the Kurtaxe, which runs US$4.25 (CHF 3.50) per adult per night and US$2.13 (CHF 1.75) for ages 6 to 16, with children under 6 free. You pay it through your accommodation provider, not at a desk, and paying it unlocks the regional Guest Card, issued through your accommodation. No official source we read prints a hotel room price for any village, so we publish none, and room rates move with the season and the ledge.
What we can say is that the tax and the Guest Card apply across all six villages alike, so the choice of base is not a tax question. The cost picture is on what Lauterbrunnen costs and beds on where to stay.
Almost everyone arrives by rail, and the last leg is short. Interlaken Ost to Lauterbrunnen runs on the Berner Oberland Bahn, about 20 to 22 minutes, with about 32 trains a day, so missing one costs you minutes and not hours. No point-to-point fare for this leg is printed on any single official page we could read, and the same applies to the Lauterbrunnen-Wengen train and the Lauterbrunnen-Mürren route via Grütschalp, so check the SBB app or the machines at the station.
From Zurich the run is a mainline ride to Interlaken Ost and the change described above, which we lay out end to end. The station itself, with the Postbus, the rack railway and the Grütschalp cableway at the door, is on the Lauterbrunnen train station page, the Zurich leg on Zurich to Lauterbrunnen and the Interlaken leg on Interlaken to Lauterbrunnen.
A rental car is useful up to the valley and useless above it. Wengen and Mürren are car-free, so the road ends in the valley and the car parks at Lauterbrunnen and Stechelberg are where driving stops. The main facility is the Parkhaus Lauterbrunnen at the station and bus terminal, with 974 spaces, open around the clock, and it functions as the designated car park for car-free Wengen and Mürren.
Parkhaus Lauterbrunnen AG charges US$21.90 (CHF 18) per 8-hour block. From the car park it is a short walk to the trains and both cableways. The full picture, including the Stechelberg option at the other end of the valley, is on Lauterbrunnen parking.
The airport answer is simple: Zurich airport is the gateway for Lauterbrunnen, and the rail run from the airport concourse to Interlaken Ost and on down the valley is a single ticketed journey with changes. Once you are in the valley, remember that the last leg of any airport day is a lift, not a road: Wengen takes the rack train from the station forecourt, and Mürren takes either the Stechelberg cableway or the Grütschalp route, about 20 minutes from the valley floor. Time your airport departure against lift and train finishing times, not just against the flight.
The routes are set out on Zurich airport to Lauterbrunnen, Lauterbrunnen to Wengen, Lauterbrunnen to Mürren and getting around.
Average daily high by month in Celsius with the Fahrenheit reading underneath, from the ERA5 reanalysis for the valley-floor grid cell at 799 m, 1995 to 2024. The summits run far colder than these figures.
July is the warmest month at 22.0°C and also the wettest at 214 mm, while February is the driest at 109 mm. The month-by-month detail is on Lauterbrunnen weather and the season choice on the best time to visit.
Here is one adult's big day built entirely from official prices. The heaviest line is the Schilthorn return from Stechelberg, which is why the pass question on the lifts section exists at all. Food, the train to Interlaken and a bed are all on top of this total, and the visitor tax is per night wherever you sleep.
| Item | Cost | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Stechelberg-Schilthorn return | US$139.70 (CHF 115) | Schilthornbahn official tariff |
| Trümmelbach Falls adult entry | US$21.90 (CHF 18) | Trümmelbach Falls official |
| One night's visitor tax | US$4.25 (CHF 3.50) | Jungfrau Region visitor-tax regulation |
| Our sum before food, trains and a bed | US$165.90 (CHF 136.50) | Our sum |
The valley can be done for nothing on the door: Staubbach Falls is free from the village streets, the flat valley-floor walk toward Stechelberg under the 72 waterfalls of the local count costs nothing, and the Mürren-Gimmelwald via ferrata is free to use from 1 June to 31 October if you bring your own gear, paying only rental otherwise. Against that, a booking-card tour buys transport and a host rather than entry. Two examples from the current listings: a small-group day from Interlaken to Lauterbrunnen and car-free Mürren by public rail and cable car runs US$310.00 as a listed price, and a guided e-bike loop from Interlaken into the valley with the Trümmelbach entry folded in runs US$302.00.
Both cover ground you could reach yourself at posted fares, so you are paying for the guiding and the pickup. The full ledger is on what Lauterbrunnen costs.
Schilthornbahn, Trümmelbach Falls and Jungfrau Region visitor-tax official price lists.
Three ready-built plans take the decisions off your plate, each matched to the weather rules on this page.
A single day holds either a summit or the valley floor, not both, and the morning sky picks which. This plan gives you both versions, hour by hour, with every fare named.
Two days let you split the valley: the floor and the Mürren ledge on one day, the Wengen side and a summit on the other, with the weather deciding the order.
Three days fit both summits across two weather windows, the via ferrata or the North Face Trail, and a spare half day for rain. This is the sweet spot for a first visit.
With a base in the valley, the neighbouring valleys become full days out, and three of the most-booked cards cover them. Prices are the platforms' listed US-dollar figures.
from $315.00
The most-booked Jungfraujoch day trip on this list, with a coach from Interlaken through Grindelwald and a live guide the whole way, descending through Lauterbrunnen. The route runs in reverse without notice, so the Lauterbrunnen stop can come first or last depending on the day.
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from $87.00
Just the gondola and the Cliff Walk platform, no guide and no adventure activities bundled in. The First Flyer zipline, Mountain Cart and other rides on top of Mount First are all separate paid extras once you arrive.
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from $119.00
The Zurich departure of Best of Switzerland Tours' three-village day, the most-reviewed tour on this whole list. Twelve hours covers a lot of bus time for a single walk through each village, so this is the pick for a Zurich base, not for anyone already staying in the valley.
Check AvailabilityPrices, ratings and details are the platform's own. Dollar figures are the listed prices. The platform bills in your account's currency.
These are the six questions that decide a Lauterbrunnen trip before you book anything.
No. Both villages are car-free, reachable only by public transport, on foot or by bike. Cars stop at the valley floor, and the Parkhaus Lauterbrunnen at the station, with 974 spaces, is the designated car park for both. It costs US$21.90 (CHF 18) per 8-hour block. Where to leave the car
It depends on how many lift days you pack in. The pass runs 3 to 8 days from US$200.50 (CHF 165), includes the boats, and covers most valley transport, but the Jungfraujoch is not fully included in it. One Schilthorn return and one Jungfraujoch at its lowest fare class already reach US$297.20 (CHF 244.60) by our sum, so it is worth pricing if you plan several lift days. Jungfrau Travel Pass explained
Both are car-free ledges above the valley, Wengen at 1,274 m on the rack railway, Mürren at 1,638 m on the cableway. The choice is mostly which lift system you want at your door and which side of the valley you want to look at. We compare them properly on their own page. Compare the two villages
Only from the beginning of April to the beginning of November, open daily 09:00 to 17:00 and 08:30 to 18:00 in July and August. Outside those months the falls run as a trickle under ice and the mountain is closed. Adults pay US$21.90 (CHF 18) and children under 4 and dogs are not admitted. Trümmelbach hours and prices
Yes, and it is a different valley. Trümmelbach is closed, but the rack trains and cableways run, Wengen and Mürren are ski villages, and the Lauberhorn races bring the 97th edition to Wengen from 15 to 17 January 2027. Pack for valley-floor highs of a few degrees above freezing in January, and far colder on the tops. The valley in winter
Lauterbrunnen puts you under the waterfalls with both the Schilthorn cableway and the Wengernalpbahn at your door. Grindelwald puts you at the Eiger Express and the First lifts. Each side of the ridge has its own lift economy and its own pace, and the right answer depends on which summits head your list. Lauterbrunnen or Grindelwald
Yes, and the honest case is structural. The village sits at about 800 m on the floor of one of the deepest valleys in the Alps, with 72 waterfalls by the local count, two car-free ledge villages above it and two summits served by lift. The valley floor is free to walk, so even a tight budget gets the full scenery. Start at what to see first.
The waterfalls and the shape of the valley. Staubbach Falls drops 297 m straight over the village, and Trümmelbach Falls runs ten glacier falls inside the mountain, up to 20,000 litres a second in the melt. The upper valley lies inside the Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch World Heritage site, first inscribed in 2001. The count of 72 is the local standard, from Jungfrau Region and Lauterbrunnen Tourism.
To be precise, the James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service was shot in 1969 on the Schilthorn above the valley, at the revolving restaurant Piz Gloria, not in the village itself. On the literary side, Tolkien's 1911 walk from Interlaken through Lauterbrunnen and Mürren to the head of the valley shaped his picture of Rivendell, as he described in his own 1967 letter. Read more on the Schilthorn.
Two full days cover the valley floor, Mürren and one summit. A third day fits the second summit or a trip over to Grindelwald, and it doubles as your weather reserve, because the tops decide which day goes up. Five days add Interlaken and the neighbouring valleys at an easy pace. Match your dates to the one, two and three day plans.
The valley floor is free, and the cost lives in the lifts. A worked summit day for one adult comes to US$165.90 (CHF 136.50) by our sum: the Schilthorn return at US$139.70 (CHF 115), Trümmelbach at US$21.90 (CHF 18) and one night's visitor tax at US$4.25 (CHF 3.50), before food, trains and a bed. The full ledger is on what Lauterbrunnen costs.
Pick the village before the room. The valley floor suits early trains and road access, Wengen and Mürren give you the ledge wake-up in car-free villages, and Gimmelwald and the hostels carry the budget trade, with Valley Hostel and the Mountain Hostel confirmed to exist on their own sites. Compare rooms on where to stay in the Lauterbrunnen valley and read the whole choice on where to stay.
Book the bed first, then the summit that needs a weather window. In practice that means the Schilthorn cableway ticket, the operator's own return from Stechelberg, where the listed from-price of US$73.32 is the Swiss Half Fare option and the normal adult fare is US$139.70 (CHF 115), and the Jungfraujoch ticket from Lauterbrunnen for the second summit day. Both are lift tickets rather than guided walks.
Three walks through Lauterbrunnen village and the valley floor, filmed at street level, so you can see the scale of the cliffs and the distances between the falls before you arrive.
The village main street, the church and Staubbach Falls at walking pace.
Video: European Walking ToursA longer walk that leaves the village and follows the flat valley floor under the walls.
Video: Tourist Walk ToursWhat a cloudy day on the valley floor actually looks like, the day the tops stay hidden.
Video: The TravelerVideos load from YouTube only when you press play.
The office, phone and email above belong to the city's own visitor service, published on the official tourism site and checked on 2026-09-23 — they are not this site's contact details. To reach us, use the contact page.
Lauterbrunnen City Guide