Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
terrainislabor-intensive.Onefamilyharvestsenoughtofeedonlyabout15cows.Butthey'd
have it no other way, and, unlike the absentee-landlord town of Mürren, Gimmelwald is loc-
ally owned. (When word got out that urban planners wanted to develop Gimmelwald into a
town of 1,000, locals pulled some strings to secure the town's bogus avalanche-zone build-
ing code. Today, unlike nearby resort towns, Gimmelwald's population is the same all year.)
Those same folks are happy the masses go to touristy and commercialized Grindelwald,
just over the Kleine Scheidegg ridge. Don't confuse Gimmelwald and Grindelwald—they
couldn't be more different.
Thanks to the leadership of schoolteachers Olle and Maria, and their son Sven, Gimmel-
wald has a helpful little website (
www.gimmelwald.ch
)
, where you can check out photos of
the town in different seasons, get directions for 11 of the best hikes out of town, and see all
the latest on activities and rooms for rent.
Getting to Gimmelwald
To get from Lauterbrunnen to Gimmelwald, you have two options:
1.SchilthornbahnCableCar:
Thefaster,easierway—bestinbadweatherorattheend
of a long day with lots of luggage—is to drive. It's 10 minutes from Lauterbrunnen (or 30
minutes from Interlaken) to the Schilthornbahn cable-car station near Stechelberg (parking
lot: 2 SF/2 hours, 6 SF/day, cash only).
If you don't have a car, ride the PostBus from Lauterbrunnen to the Schilthornbahn
cable-car station (buses depart with the arrival of trains in Lauterbrunnen, 15-minute ride, 4
SF,
www.postauto.ch
)
.
