Get to know Jungfrau Region
What's it all about?
Sitting at the edge of the Bern canton in the south of Switzerland, the Jungfrau Region is home to some of the most enigmatic names in the Alps – such towering peaks at the Mönch, Jungfrau and Eiger, and such picturesque villages as Grindelwald, Mürren and Wengen. At the gateway to the region is the town of Interlaken, set between two stunning mountain lakes Thun and Brienz. As popular in summer as it is in winter, the area is a mountain playground full of adventure.
This is a feature from Issue 17 of Charitable Traveller. Click to read more from this issue.
The Top of Europe
Cascades A-Plenty
Forget New Zealand’s claims to Middle Earth, the Lauterbrunnen Valley, with its steep rock faces and snowy peaks glimpsed through misty mountains, was the real inspiration for J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Visiting the region on a hiking tour in 1911 when he was 19, the landscape has barely changed and today, visitors can follow those same walking trails. Try to count all 72 spectacular waterfalls that tumble into the lush meadows of flowers beneath!
A First for Adrenaline
A Chocolate-box Classic
A new cable car, the Eiger Express, takes just 15 minutes to travel from Grindelwald to the Eiger Glacier Station
Fictional connections
Three more special sites
TRÜMMELBACH
The world’s only glacial waterfalls that are accessible underground by lift, galleries, tunnels, paths and platforms, the Trümmelbach Falls are a collection of 10 cascades fed by the enormous glacial walls of the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau.
MÜRREN
Set on a sun trap of a plateau above the Lauterbrunnen Valley, the little village of Mürren is car-free and picture-perfect. Surrounded by gentle hiking trails through the hills, get a view of it all from the Schilthorn.
GELMERBAHN
You won’t miss a moment of the view on this open-air funicular, the Gelmerbahn, as it travels backwards up the mountain. The steepest funicular in Europe, it takes you up to Lake Gelmer at an altitude of 1,850m.
This is a feature from Issue 17 of Charitable Traveller.
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