A stunning holiday resort situated between two mountains is called Wengen. This village is located in the Lauterbrunnen valley in the Bernese Alps. Wengen is known for its excellent winter sports facilities, wooden lodges and fabulous white churches. This village is just like Zermatt car-free. Wengen is situated at an altitude of 1274 metres, 400 metres above the Lauterbrunnen valley. In this blog, we will inform you about everything Wengen has to offer, to prepare you for a visit to Wengen. Let’s dive right into it!
Wengen and its surrounded villages offer a lot of possibilities to stay, there are nostalgic wooden lodges and beautiful hotels. Many of these hotels and lodges still have their interior in the style of the Belle Époque period, this gives this village so much character. When you visit Wengen in real life you will see how picture-perfect this village is.
Interesting is because of the way Wengen is positioned, to the southwest, this village has above average sun hours. This means you can enjoy a lot of sunshine. In 1893 it was decided to clear Wengen from all cars, the village is as said car-free. Good to know, just park your car in Lauterbrunnen and reach Wengen by the extraordinary railway. You may think, why car-free; annoying. But this creates such a different atmosphere. The village is quite touristic but because there are no cars, it is way more relaxing to enjoy a stroll through the village or enjoy a fresh coffee on one of the terraces at a cafe.
How to get to Wengen?
As we mentioned above, the mountain village is car-free. You can reach Wengen by train. The surroundings of this village can be explored by cable cars, on foot, by bicycle or by train. The best way to get to Wengen is by parking your car in Lauterbrunnen, in the parking garage. This is a paid parking garage. The garage can be found here. This garage is paid, but you can directly access the train station to travel to Wengen.
From the station in Lauterbrunnen, you can take the cogwheel train to Wengen. This cogwheel ride will take around 15-20 minutes. If you can, travel by train through Switzerland or to Lauterbrunnen as well, this will save you parking costs in Lauterbrunnen. This region can not easily be explored by car, in our opinion making use of the public transport is better.
How to explore the surrounding area of Wengen?
Wengen is beautiful, but its surroundings are unique and gorgeous too! Of course, you can travel from Wengen back to Lauterbrunnen and explore this famous village. We wrote a blog about Lauterbrunnen too, if you’re interested check it out. If you travel to Lauterbrunnen you can travel further to Interlaken for example or other cities. There are endless possibilities. From Wengen, you can go on an adventure up in the mountains. travel by train to Kleine Scheidegg and there is a possibility to travel to Jungfraujoch. From Kleine Scheidegg you can hop on another train to reach Grindelwald.
In to hiking? Maybe check out the cableway which leads you to Mannlichen. This is a starting point for many hiking routes.
What is the best time to visit Wengen?
This is a tricky question but in our opinion, the months of June, July, August, September or October are the best months to visit Wengen. You might think but this is the summer season? Yes, that’s right, but during the winter season, it is even busier. And the temperatures are way more comfortable of course during the summer months. Temperatures range from 18-22 degrees celsius. Keep in mind temperatures can drop fast in the evenings. The significant benefit of the summer months is that it won’t rain as much, which means you can explore a lot in and around Wengen.
Highlights of Wengen – Jungfrau region
The Lauberhorn Trail
This is both a hiking trail during the summer months and during the colder months, the winter season skiers go down at a fast speed up to 100 km/h! We think this is a lovely activity during the spring/summer months. The hike offers spectacular views of the Eiger, the Monch and of course the Jungfrau. Plenty of time to admire the views and the steepness of the ski slopes.
- the hike is 6 kilometres long
- the duration of the hike is around three hours
- you will ascent a little more than 800 metres
- you will decent around 250 metres
The hike starts from the Allmend railway station, first, you hike on a forest path to Heggbrücke. Here the hike starts up the route of the winter ski slope. There are several information signs along the road, fascinating to learn more about the longest downhill race in the Ski World Cup. Please check out the Lauberhornn Trail here. You can find more technical information, the route and more.
The Männlichen Wengen Hike
This hike offers you spectacular views during the hike. The trail from Männlichen to Wengen descents, but is not steep, it’s gently. The path is easy, you will be surprised by the unique and beautiful views of the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau. The path is wide, so don’t be afraid to admire the beauty around you:).
The hike is a bit longer in distance than the Lauberhorn hike. This hike will take you around 3 hours, so that is almost the same as the hike described above. The distance is longer around 11 kilometres. First, you will have to take the Wengen-Mannlichen cable car to get to the starting point of this hike. From the Mannlichen upper station, take the panorama trail, which leads you to the Kleine Scheidegg. The views on the Eiger will blow you away. The trail is a bit parallel to the Lauberhorn trail described above, which is nice because that hiking trail is fantastic too. Find out more technical information about the hike here.
Conclusion
Wengen definitely is a special place. In our opinion, this place should be on your bucket list. Closely located to Lauterbrunnen this village shouldn’t be overlooked. The village is car-free which gives it a relaxing atmosphere. In this blog, you can read about two special hikes, the Lauberhorn trail and the hike down to Wengen from Mannlichen. Both are highly recommended. Read more technical details about the hikes in the blog.
The best time to visit Wengen is the summer months, the temperatures are more comfortable and there will be less rain. Of course, if you want to perform wintersport activities visit Switzerland during the winter months. Be aware that Wengen is more crowded during the winter months than during the summer months. We hope you enjoyed this blog, if there is still something unclear, please leave a comment below!