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Swiss Alps Tours › Grindelwald or Lauterbrunnen? Two Swiss Alps Villages ComparedUpdated 2026-09-26

Grindelwald or Lauterbrunnen? Two Swiss Alps Villages Compared

Hours, prices and access verified by the Swiss Alps Tours team — last checked 2026-09-26.

A village of chalets spread across meadows below a sheer rock peak

The short answer. Give Grindelwald the longer stop if you want lifts and walks: the First gondola and the Eiger Express both leave from the village. Give Lauterbrunnen the stop if you want waterfalls and the trains up to Wengen and Mürren. To sleep, pick Lauterbrunnen if your tour picks up there, and Grindelwald if you want the Eiger outside your window and do not mind the ride to Interlaken.

Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen are the two valleys south of Interlaken, split by the ridge that runs up to Kleine Scheidegg. Most coach days visit both. Weighing up Swiss Alps guided tours to the villages? Here is what each one gives you, and how long you get.

GrindelwaldLauterbrunnen
From Interlaken by train36 minutes22 minutes
Lifts from the villageThe First gondola; the Eiger Express from the TerminalTrains to Wengen and Kleine Scheidegg; the cable car to Mürren
Signature sightThe Eiger's north face above the villageWaterfalls off the cliffs
Car-free villages nearbyNoneWengen and Mürren
Guided pickups in the villageNoneThe valley hike and the valley walk

Grindelwald: lifts and the north face

Grindelwald spreads over meadows under the Eiger. You come here to go up. The First gondola takes you in 25 minutes to First, at 2,166 m, where the First Cliff Walk clings to the rock. From there Bachalpsee, the lake that mirrors the peaks, is about an hour's walk. Jungfrau Railways sells the First gondola from CHF 38. At the other end of the village, Grindelwald Terminal is where the Eiger Express leaves for the Jungfraujoch.

On the coach days you get time to do one of these yourself. The Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen day from Interlaken gives you about four hours free in Grindelwald and one in Lauterbrunnen, for $96. The lifts are not in that fare, so budget for First or the other options on top.

Useful tip. Four hours in Grindelwald is enough for First and Bachalpsee if you head straight for the gondola. Stop for lunch at the top rather than in the village, and you lose no time.

Lauterbrunnen: waterfalls and the valley floor

Lauterbrunnen sits on the floor of a deep, straight valley between rock walls. Staubbach Falls pours off the cliff behind the village. Lauterbrunnen Tourism measures it at 297 m, the highest free-falling waterfall in Switzerland, while Jungfrau Railways rounds it to 300 m. Further up the valley, Trümmelbach Falls roars through the mountain itself, reached by a tunnel lift.

The village is also a junction. The train climbs to Wengen in 11 minutes and to Kleine Scheidegg in 38. On the other side, a cable car and a train take you to Mürren in 21 minutes. Wengen and Mürren are both car-free. Everything about the valley's falls, on foot or by bike, is in Lauterbrunnen's waterfalls in a morning.

Wengen and Mürren: the villages above

The two valleys each have a village on a shelf above them, and both are worth knowing before you choose. Wengen, at 1,274 m, sits above Lauterbrunnen on the railway that climbs on to Kleine Scheidegg. Mürren, at 1,638 m, faces it from the other side of the valley, on the way up to the Schilthorn. No public road reaches either one, so you arrive by train or cable car, and the quiet is the reason to go.

They change the question. If you want Lauterbrunnen's waterfalls and a village high up with the peaks in front of you, Mürren gives you both in one day. If you want Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen in a single loop, the train over Kleine Scheidegg joins them, with Wengen on the way down. The Kleine Scheidegg rail day follows exactly that line.

How long each tour gives you

The time in each village depends on the tour, and it varies a lot:

  • The coach day from Interlaken: about 4 hours in Grindelwald, 1 in Lauterbrunnen.
  • The coach day from Lucerne: the same split, plus 45 minutes in Interlaken, for $114.
  • The glass-roof bus: 75 minutes in each village and 2.5 hours in Interlaken. It boards in Lausanne, not Interlaken.
  • The Kleine Scheidegg rail loop: an hour each in Grindelwald, Wengen and Lauterbrunnen, and 2 hours at the pass, with the trains in the fare.
  • The Mürren rail day: about 3 hours in Mürren and 90 minutes in Lauterbrunnen, trains included.

If you want the lifts paid for, take one of the rail days. If you want the most time in Grindelwald for the lowest fare, take a coach day and buy your own gondola ticket.

Which one to sleep in

Almost every guided day meets in Interlaken, so the village you sleep in decides how early you get up. From Lauterbrunnen, Interlaken Ost is 22 minutes away, and the valley hike and valley walk pick you up opposite the station. From Grindelwald it is 36 minutes, and no tour meets there.

Grindelwald wins on views and on lifts outside your door. Lauterbrunnen wins on connections. If you plan more than one guided day, Interlaken itself beats both. Each base is compared on where to stay in the Swiss Alps, with the train times on getting there.

If it rains

Rain changes the answer more than anything else. Grindelwald's pull is the view from its lifts, and a gondola into cloud shows you very little. Lauterbrunnen holds up better: Trümmelbach is inside the mountain, and the falls off the cliffs run harder after rain, not softer. On a wet day, give the valley the longer stop and save First for a clear morning.

The guided rail days and the valley walks need good weather to run, and if the operator cancels for it you get a new date or a full refund. The coach days carry no such clause, so they go ahead, and you choose what to do with your free time on the spot.

A day in each, without a tour

  1. Grindelwald: train from Interlaken, gondola to First, walk to Bachalpsee and back, gondola down. Allow five hours.
  2. Lauterbrunnen: train from Interlaken, walk to Staubbach, bus up the valley to the falls in the mountain, then the cable car and train to Mürren. Allow six hours.

A rail pass can cut the cost of both; see rail passes on the mountains for what each covers. The weather makes more difference than the village, so check the weather by month before you choose the day.

Where these facts come from

Days that stop in both villages

Next: Compare the three summits above the valleys in Jungfraujoch, Schilthorn or Titlis?. Every summit, train and valley day sits side by side on Swiss Alps Tours.