Lauterbrunnen walking tour & city guide

The village and Staubbach Falls

The village is a single main street of wooden chalets, guesthouses and shops, with a white church and meadows where cows graze in summer. Above it, the Staubbach Falls leap from the cliff edge in a free fall of almost 300 metres, turning into spray before they reach the ground. A short path leads to a gallery behind the falling water.

The valley is often called the valley of 72 waterfalls. In early summer, when the snow melts, ribbons of water appear all along the cliffs, and the Weisse Lütschine river runs fast and milky-green through the meadows.

Trümmelbach Falls and the villages above

Further up the valley, the Trümmelbach Falls thunder inside the mountain: ten glacier-fed waterfalls that carry meltwater from the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau through a twisting gorge. A tunnel lift and lit stairways take visitors up beside them from spring to autumn.

High on the terraces on either side sit two car-free villages. Wengen is reached by the cogwheel train towards Kleine Scheidegg, and Mürren by cable car and a small railway. From Mürren, cable cars continue to the Schilthorn, whose revolving summit restaurant appeared in the 1969 James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service. The valley is part of the Jungfrau-Aletsch UNESCO World Heritage region.

A walking route

From the railway station, walk up the main street to the church and the meadow below the Staubbach Falls, then climb the short path to the viewing gallery behind the water. Continue up the flat valley floor along the river, with waterfalls on both sides, to the Trümmelbach Falls, about an hour from the village. A bus runs back down the valley.

Visiting tips

Trains reach Lauterbrunnen from Interlaken Ost in about twenty minutes. Lauterbrunnen is a good base for the whole Jungfrau region, but space is limited, so parking and rooms fill up quickly in summer. The waterfalls are fullest from May to July, and the valley is quiet and snowy in winter, when Wengen and Mürren become ski resorts.