EZTrip.com International Destination Guide and Hotel Listings

Valley-floor trains from Interlaken Ost also run to the more popular and visited holiday centre of GRINDELWALD in its own broad valley further east, nestling under the craggy trio of the Wetterhorn, Mettenberg and Eiger. Numerous trails around Pfingstegg and especially First - both at the end of gondola lines from Grindelwald - provide excellent hiking, and the icy caverns of the Oberer Gletscher are a ninety-minute walk, plus 890 stairs, away (May-Oct daily 9am-6pm; Sfr5). The tourist office (Mon-Fri 8am-6/7pm, Sat 8am-5pm; July & Aug also Sun 9-11am & 3-5pm; tel 033/854 12 12, www.grindelwald.ch ) is near the station, alongside the region's main Bergsteigerzentrum (Mountaineering Centre; tel 033/853 12 00), which offers easy guided ascents (Sfr77 to the 2928-metre Schwarzhorn), canyon jumps (Sfr95), glacier abseils (Sfr45), and more. Grindelwald is famous paragliding country, and Tandem Flights (tel 033/853 55 53, www.paragliding-grindelwald.ch ) offers accompanied jumps from Sfr150. A bus from opposite Hotel Bernerhof , or a steep fifteen-minute walk, will get you to Terrassenweg, a quiet lane running above the village, where there's an excellent HI hostel (tel 033/853 10 09, www.youthhostel.ch ; £10-15/$16-24) and a Naturfreundehaus (tel 033/853 13 33; £10-15/$16-24). SB Mountain Hostel (tel 033/853 39 00, www.mountainhostel.ch ; £10-15/$16-24) is on the valley floor beside Grindelwald-Grund station. (Trains from Grindelwald pass through Grund on their way up to Kleine Scheidegg.) Camp at Aspen (tel 033/853 11 24, aspen@grindelwald.ch ; closed Nov-Feb).

The nearby Grosse Scheidegg pass is closed to private cars, but you can cross it on any of several two-, three- and four-pass summer tours by postbus, which take in spectacular scenery on some of the highest roads in Europe around the major Alpine pass-routes of the Grimsel, Furka and Susten. Consult the tourist office or postbus office (tel 033/828 88 28, www.post.ch ) for reservations. Regular buses ply over the Grosse Scheidegg to MEIRINGEN , from where trains depart to Luzern and Interlaken.