Travel Guide: Wengen, Switzerland

And I realized I never shared travel details with y’all. So, I’ll do so in a series of several posts because there’s just too much goodness to condense. (I also love looking through these photos again – photo above was taken by my oldest, Ben). 

 Let’s start with how we arrived and where we stayed. We had been in L’Hermitage, France where we had to do a little work (I’ll share about this leg of the trip soon, as well) and had rented a big van to get around. For us, with five kids, a car is so much easier than managing trains. (We had taken the train from Germany to France and that was convenient but also expensive for seven people). So, we had a car for the rest of our travels. We drove from France to Switzerland and it was absolutely stunning driving through the alps. When we finally arrived in Lauterbrunnen, we parked the car and took a small train into our car-free village of Wengen. (Yes, I realize the contradiction of parking a car but I also didn’t realize how easily accessible the Bernese Oberland Railway would be to travel within the region). 

On the train into the village, we passed Staubbach Falls – a breathtakingly waterfall – and after a quick 10 minute train ride, we arrived in Wengen. 

Wengen is picture perfect. And, I actually found the village by accident – I was searching for an Airbnb that was affordable and could fit all 7 of us around in the Lauterbrunnen Valley and found the Airbnb via Wengen Apartments. I hadn’t read much about Wengen in my travel research but the photos looked beautiful and the reviews were great so I hoped for the best and booked. 

It felt like we were in a Hallmark movie. The views were incredible and the lack of cars set the tone for a family-friendly village. The main lawn contained lawn games and there are multiple playgrounds around town. And, best of all, the village wasn’t overrun by tourists. We always prefer to stay in off-the-beaten path places and Wengen felt like an authentic visit to a lovely hometown of an old Swiss friend (we have no old Swiss friends but after a week’s stay, we knew several of the locals and loved passing by our new friends on the street and greeting them with familiarity). 

I highly recommend booking through Wengen Apartments because they send a comprehensive local guide for everything you need to know about the train schedules, restaurants in town, etc. It was extremely helpful for planning our daily outings… I’ll share more on those soon! 

Wengen, Switzerland:

Where to Stay: Wengen Apartments

Where to Eat: We didn’t eat out often (we went to the grocery store and cooked most dinners at home) but we loved our first lunch and subsequent snacks + a drink in the afternoon at Crystal Bar and we had to try fondue while we were in Switzerland (we did make some at our apartment one night and it was so good!) but we also ate out on our last night at Restaurant Eiger and it was delicious! 

How to get around the Lauterbrunnen Valley: Berner Oberland Railway