hey lady, t.todd spent a couple of magical days in Interlaken during the winter a few (okay,quite a few) years back! think about hiking up to / around the impossibly quaint lil' town called Grindlewald, which is just above Interlaken. There is a huge blue ice home carved out of a glacier - i think it was called La Mer de Glace. hike to the glacier and go inside the ice cave, where people have carved out shapes of sofas, tvs, a kitchen, etc. Also, Grindelwald is the legendary/mythical home of that lil' Swiss girl, Heidi. We stayed in the rockin' youth hostel there, which i am guessing is not what you are looking for for the fam . . . Also, be sure to gorge on the decadent fondue and swiss/austrian goulash. tzaba!

Happy new year you sexy cub from me downunder and a follower (not stalker) for years.

Michael

I'm trying to remember the literary references.
I think this town might be mentioned in Mary Shelly's Frankenstien and in a F. Scott Fitzgerald book . . or similar towns in the Alps. If I remember correctly the characters just sorta lounge, rowed out on a lake, and hiked.
Perhaps you'll get lucky and see a monster, but more likely you'll get to see couples mooning all over each other, if you need reference to that go read Brett's latest post. Bitter, Party of One. *smirks*

It's been a long time for me, but I 2nd what t.todd said. I can't tell you what the snow conditions will be like, but the Schimmelhorn Mountain is near there. And it was either Gimmelwald or Grindelwald that was especially charming. There are trains and lifts all through that valley. Get a decent camera before you go, the views are stunning.

Yeah, I stayed at that youth hostel in Grindelwald too, but that was in like 1992, can't say it's still there or that you'd want to stay there. But there are hiking trails all around Grindelwald if you want that Heidi experience with cows with cowbells and mountain paths, but please don't pick the eidelveiss flowers!

I'm so jealous I could barf. You're going to LOVE it, TJ, and you'll cry like a little girl with no lunch money when you leave.

It's been a few years, so all I can remember is to be sure of your train stop - there's Interlaken East and West and I got confused. And know there are Americans freakin everywhere there - or at least there were 8 or so years ago - for the climbing and skiing. I stayed in Bern and there were no Americans around and then went to Interlaken for the day and felt like I'd gotten off the train in the middle of Cleveland. Let's see - it's Gimmelwald (population 175?) that will make you fall in love, it is my favorite place I've ever been in the world out of 25 or more countries. Truly. And taking the tram up the mountain (via Murren) is nice and going up the Schlithorn is great. Heavens, Lauterbrunen is a tiny village you'll go through on the way up where you will not believe the beauty of the area. The fields filled with wildflowers are enough to make you want to move there forever.

I remember not being able to believe how steep the mountains were, and how the hostel (I think there's only one up there) So don't just stay in Interlaken. It's a cute city with a few cute shops with wooden Swiss toys, but you'll have to go up to explore.

Jealous, jealous, jealous.

DB: Awesome--thanks to you, t.todd and Jimbo for the tips! I'll think of all of you when I'm paragliding there this spring. :)

I'm sure there's bathhouse for cloistered pocket cubs like yourself. Maybe one called Bei Fritz und Schwanz?

HA HA... TJ is definitely a POCKET CUB. I think the Swiss will love him.

I know an excellent place to go when you are in Switzerland-- It's called France.

My recommendation would be to NOT stay in Interlaken if you are exploring the alps. Interlaken is the gateway to the Berner Oberland area, but going up and down each day will be a waste of time. Every day that you will want to go up to the mountains you will have to take the train up to Lauterbrunnen anyway, so why not stay in Lauterbrunnen? We stayed in Interlaken one night and if I had my choice I would have pressed on into Lauterbrunnen and just stayed there. But Interlaken is interesting enough for one day, I guess. The only reason I can see in staying in Interlaken for more than one night is if you are a Lake Guy and want to check out the Lakes that make Interlaken's name make sense (I think there are castles to see too, but I can't comment on their coolness level). If you are a Mountain Guy, then I suggest you say at a higher elevation (e.g., Lauterbrunnen or higher) I was there in September and stayed at the Hotel Silberhorn (Lauterbrunnen), which was a great value for us. It has a strong ski cabin feel. It's not super fancy, but it's not cheap either. We loved it there so much we extended our stay and bagged Lucern. I think we paid 160 francs per night. They had a delicious bagged lunch for 10 francs that was perfect for two - cheap, convenient, and tasty; great for a day of hiking.

The "hike" from Mannlichen to Kleine-Scheidegg is easy and has a huge View Return on Investment. Kleine-Scheidegg is also the gateway to the Jungfraujoch Top of Europe.

Trains: Check out the prices on trains at Rick Steve's website or book. He has a very helpful guide to the various passes in Switzerland. Not knowing your full plans I can't make a recommendation, but if you plan to travel to the mountain peaks, then you should at the very least consider the Half-fare card (There is a special one-month half fare card for non-Swiss that costs about 99 Francs.) The mountain trains are expensive, but this card makes things more reasonable. (Be sure to ask if the card applies to any boat trips you might make too).

I did not travel to more than one peak, but Jungfraujoch was tremendously exciting and worth the cost. Silberhorn was clouded in when we were at its base so we didn't go up (I'm glad we didn't). In my not-totally-informed opinion Jungfraujoch ("Top of Europe") has more to see and do.

If you are an iPhone Guy, then check out the Swiss Peak app. It wasn't available when I went, but it seems cool (and I know one of the guys who wrote it). The App for Switzerland is free. The App for the world costs money (I think). http://peaks-app.ch/

To actually answer your question, we stayed at the Hotel Splendid by default. The town was sold out, but the travel office tipped us off to a cancellation at the Hotel Splendid, which we promptly snapped up. It's a fine hotel - moderate, neither fancy nor spartan. I think we paid 200 francs.

One note I'll pass along, you might consider making your plans flexible. If the weather is bad (cloudy) then the mountains will kind of suck. My friend who studied in Switzerland suggested keeping plans flexible so that if the weather was better in southern Switzerland we could go to see the Matterhorn instead (Gateway town: Zermatt). Hence the lack of hotel when we arrived in Interlaken, but that was because there was a marathon in Interlaken that weekend.

Have fun. The Alps were the highlight of our trip!

We stayed in Zermatt. It was like a dream, and the Matterhorn is amazing!

grumpy

U should have visited h.r. giger museum and giger bar in gruyeres. It's only 123km from interlaken.