Allmendhubel, Switzerland

Every resort village in the Alps has a hill it treats as its back garden, and for Mürren that hill is Allmendhubel. The summit sits at 1,907 m, a few hundred metres above the village itself at 1,638 m, and the funicular that connects them takes just four minutes. That short ride makes it the quickest and cheapest way to gain altitude anywhere in the valley, which is why so many families make it their first outing. Operator is Schilthornbahn AG, the same company that runs the cableway up to the Schilthorn, and the station in Mürren sits at the upper edge of the village, an easy walk from anywhere you are likely to sleep.

The appeal is what waits at the top. A panoramic restaurant with a sun terrace faces the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau, three of the most recognised peaks in Switzerland, laid out across the horizon. The terrace is level and grassy, so pushchairs and small legs cope fine. Beyond the restaurant the land rolls into alpine meadow, which is where the flower trail and the playground live. In winter the same slope is given over to a beginner piste and a toboggan run. There is no via ferrata, no glacier and no admission gate, just a mountain terrace you can enjoy for the price of a short lift ride. If you are staying in Mürren for more than a night, you will probably end up on Allmendhubel more than once, and that is exactly how the village uses it too. For other lift-served viewpoints across the region, our day trips page is the place to look next.

The Allmendhubel Flower Trail is the mountain's signature walk. The path leads past more than 150 species of mountain flowers, and among them the famous alpine names: gentians in their deep blue, alpine roses, and edelweiss growing in the kind of setting most people only see on postcards and souvenir mugs. The trail is a loop from the summit area, easy underfoot, and it turns a simple stroll into a botany lesson. Children who can read enjoy matching the flowers to the names, and adults who thought a meadow was just a meadow usually come away looking at the ground differently. The trail is at its best through the summer season, when the funicular runs from mid-June to mid-October and the display changes week by week.

The second draw at the top is the Flower Park adventure playground, built around giant models of alpine flowers and insects, so children climb on a bloom the size of a car rather than a generic climbing frame. Beside it sits a water labyrinth, a maze of channels and sluices where children can dam, divert and float things for as long as the weather allows. Bring a change of clothes. Together the playground, the labyrinth and the restaurant terrace make Allmendhubel the single easiest full-family outing in the Mürren area, and the return fare of US$19.44 (CHF 16.00) keeps it affordable against most alternatives in the region. Combine it with a village stroll using our map of the area, or plan a bigger walking day from our Lauterbrunnen hikes list.

In winter the meadows above Mürren become a small, gentle ski area that suits beginners and young children far better than the big resorts down the valley. A beginners' blue piste runs on the summit slope, served by a platter lift, and next to it is Lilly's Kids Slope, a themed run designed to make a first day on skis feel like play rather than instruction. The lift and the pistes are covered by the ski and toboggan pass, which also includes the funicular fare, so there is nothing extra to buy once you hold the pass.

The other winter headliner is the toboggan run, the Bob sled run, which descends through the Blumental past snow-covered fir trees all the way back to Mürren. Sledging down and riding the funicular up is a routine local families repeat all season, and it works just as well for visitors. If you would rather move under your own power, a groomed winter hiking trail links Allmendhubel and Mürren, about 1 hour descending and about 45 minutes back up, and a signposted snowshoe trail runs the Mürren-Chänelegg-Allmendhubel loop in about 90 minutes. Both give you the same high meadow scenery without skis. If the funicular is shut for its maintenance window, remember the mountain is still reachable on foot 365 days a year, so hikers and snowshoers lose nothing but the ride. Pair a winter visit with the cliff-edge Mürren via ferrata in summer or the North Face Trail for a longer walking day.

The Allmendhubel funicular only starts once you are already in Mürren, and Mürren itself is car-free, so the trip up the mountain is really the second half of a two-stage journey. From Lauterbrunnen there are two ways onto the ledge: a cableway to Grütschalp and a small train the rest of the way, about 20 minutes in total, or a bus to Stechelberg followed by the Stechelberg-Gimmelwald-Mürren cableway, about 30 minutes. Drivers leave the car at Stechelberg or in the multi-storey Parkhaus below Lauterbrunnen station and finish the journey by public transport like everyone else.

From Interlaken Ost the whole trip to Mürren takes about 53 minutes, and on the BOB train toward Lauterbrunnen it matters which half of the train you board, since the rear carriages split off at Zweilütschinen for Grindelwald. Once you are standing in Mürren, the Allmendhubel funicular station is a short walk from the main street, and from there the mountain itself is only four minutes away.

Allmendhubel rarely fills a whole day on its own, so most visitors pair it with something else Mürren already offers. The simplest combination is an early ride up for breakfast on the terrace before the meadows fill with day-trip crowds, then a walk back down on the winter trail if there is snow, or straight back on the funicular in summer, followed by an afternoon in the village itself. Walkers who want more elevation gain the same day usually add the Mürren via ferrata, which starts on Mürren's own viewing terrace rather than at Allmendhubel, so the two are separate outings on the same base, not a single connected route. The North Face Trail, Mürren's other named hiking option, is a third way to spend an afternoon without adding a second lift fare.

For a summit day higher than Allmendhubel, the Schilthorn cableway continues on from Mürren to 2,970 m, a return fare of US$111.10 (CHF 91.40) from the village, a different tariff system to the Allmendhubel funicular and a different scale of view. Families travelling with young children generally rank Allmendhubel first because of the playground and the short ride, and save the Schilthorn for a second day or for the members of the group who want the higher altitude. Whichever combination you choose, none of it requires a car: everything described here connects by the same cableway and funicular network that brought you up from Stechelberg or Lauterbrunnen in the first place.