Hiking to Bachalpsee in the Jungfrau Region of Switzerland

When hiking in the Jungfrau Region of Switzerland, hiking to Bachalpsee is sure to delight!

The Logistics

There are three different hikes that we have done that involve a visit to the beautiful Bachalpsee.

Option 1: First to Bachalpsee to First

The easiest option is simply to hike round trip from First to Bachalpsee to First. This hike is fairly easy (with a bit of uphill) and beautiful.

Difficulty: Easy
Distance: 3.6 miles
Time: 1 hour 40 minutes round-trip
Elevation: up/down 363 feet
Starting/Ending Point: First Gondola Station

Option 2: First to Bachalpsee to Waldspitz to Bort

Our favorite option is to go from First to Bachalpsee to Waldspitz to Bort. In this case, there will be a gentle elevation gain of about 363 vertical feet to Bachalpsee, but then the trail will become a little rougher and you will descend about 2500 vertical feet. It’s a little rough on the calves, but much easier than hiking it in the uphill direction! Note that there is a bus from Waldspitz to Grindelwald if the downhill becomes too much.

Difficulty: Moderate
Distance: 5.1 miles
Time: 2 hours 25 minutes
Elevation: up 363 vertical feet, down ~2,500 vertical feet
Starting Point: First Gondola Station
Ending Point: Bort Gondola Station

Option 3: Schynige Plattee to the Faulhorn to Bachalpsee to First

The third option is to include the Faulhorn on your hike. While you can do this roundtrip from First through Bachalpsee, or take a shorter route that ends in Bussalp, the traditional route is from Schynige Platte to the Faulhorn to Bachalpsee to First. This is a solid all-day hike, so start as soon as the cog train to Scheynige Platte starts running! We did this hike years ago, but without our kids; we were actually hoping to do this trip now that they’re teens, but the Schynige Platte cog train was closed for maintenance until the day we left.

Difficulty: Medium-Hard
Distance: 10.1 miles
Time: 6 hours
Elevation: up 2,700 vertical feet, down 2,100 vertical feet
Starting Point: Schynige Platte Station
Ending Point: First Gondola Station

Our Experience from First to Bachalpsee to Waldspitz to Bort

We thoroughly enjoy hiking to Bachalpsee. Coming from Wengen, it is a bit of a trek to get to First, but if you are in the area for a full week, it is an experience that shouldn’t be missed. If you don’t have the Jungfrau Travel Pass, the least expensive way is to take the train to Grindelwald via Lauterbrunnen and Zweilütschinen.

However, we had the Jungfrau Travel Pass, so we chose to first take a gondola up to Männlichen and then another gondola down to Grindelwald. We find this route to be much more peaceful, and it also saves a little time. If you don’t have the Jungfrau Travel Pass look into the Half-Fare Card, the Swiss Family Card, or other options.

If you take the gondola up to Männlichen, make sure to stop at the playground!

Read: Hiking the Panoramaweg Trail from Männlichen to Kleine Scheidegg in the Jungfrau Region of Switzerland

From the gondola station, you can either take a short train to the Grindelwald center or walk. Since it was only ten minutes until the next train would arrive, we decided to wait. Our time wasn’t wasted since we decided to pick up some drinks and chocolate bars at the grocery store.

Upon arrival in Grindelwald, we took a walk across town to the gondola station to First. If you are looking for lots of dining and shopping opportunities, Grindelwald is a great town to visit! At the time of our visit, they were repaving the main road through the town, which wasn’t quite as messy as you might expect.

Gondolas like the one to First cost more than the trains, but this one is covered by the Jungfrau Travel Pass, or you can get a significant discount if you have the Half-Fare Card, the Swiss Family Card, or other options. The ride is on the long side (25 minutes to the top), but it has some nice views.

If you are into adventure activities, there are quite a few options between Grindelwald and First. From First, you can take either the First Flyer or the First Glider, which will take you down to Schreckfeld. From Schreckfeld, you can take the First Mountain Cart to Bort, and from Bort, you can take the Trottibike to Grindelwald. During the summer, you may want to book ahead; we haven’t done these activities, but saw multi-hour waits for folks buying tickets on arrival.

If you want a free adventure activity, don’t miss the First Cliff Walk, which is located just a few steps from the First Gondola Station. Jeremy and I are a bit afraid of heights, so we ended up not doing the whole thing…

From here, we started our hike to Bachalpsee. If you don’t get an early start, expect this trail to have quite a few people. Fortunately, the views make up for the potential crowds!

The trail to Bachalpsee is reasonably wide, with a little loose gravel, but at least this portion of the hike should be suitable for most hikers of any ability.

The trail will overlook some beautiful landscapes.

Eventually, you will approach the lake, which is lined with benches and makes an excellent place for a picnic. If you need a restroom, there are some buildings that look like outhouses, but they have real plumbing.

From here, you have a couple of choices:

Easy: You can turn this into a roundtrip hike and go back to First (gentle downhill hike).
Moderate: You can continue on to Waldspitz and/or Bort (steep downhill hike).
Harder: You can make a very steep climb to the top of the Faulhorn. Do make sure you have enough water and enough time to make it to your final destination before your transportation of choice closes for the day (triple-check this, but on order of 4:30-5pm). From there, you can return to First or head towards Schynige Platte or Bussalp.

We considered hiking up the Faulhorn, but the kids were worried whether I would be able to make it to the bus in Bussalp in time, so we decided to do our more typical thing and hike to Bort.

There were a couple of patches of snow to play in, and John was enjoying hiking ahead and finding a comfortable spot to wait.

Note that this trail does have both some steep parts as well as some places that consist of wide flat rocks that can be quite slippery in the rain. Make sure that your shoes have good traction and use caution if rain is predicted.

Approaching Waldspitz, you can find a restaurant, although you will want to double check the hours if you are counting on it to be open upon your arrival. There is also supposed to be a bus that runs through Waldspitz, but we have never taken it. Instead, we usually take the very steep 40 minute downhill hike to Bort. If your calves or knees aren’t feeling up to this, consider taking the 1 hour walk down the road/biking path to Bort.

The steeper path is quite lovely. It will start out as a forested path with lots of steps and switchbacks, then will open up to a beautiful meadow with a nice stream.

My calves were in a little pain from multiple days of downhill hiking, so the boys decided to go ahead and meet us at the playground adjacent to the Bort Gondola station.

From here, we decided to take the gondola back down to Grindelwald. We were planning to do some souvenir shopping, but were too tired and headed for the train station instead. Since we had the Jungfrau Travel Pass, we debated the various ways to get back to Wengen, but eventually settled on going back the way we came, taking the gondola up to Männlichen. We thought about taking either the Panoramaweg Trail down to Kleine Scheidegg again, but decided that we were too tired and just wanted to rest at our apartment.

In the evening, we took a walk through town, enjoyed the sheep, and found this cool fairy village!

Isn’t it amazing how many super fun days we have had in the Jungfrau Region of Switzerland?

Bonus: Our 2011 Faulhorn Hike

While we have not hiked the Faulhorn recently, Jeremy and I did manage to do this hike all the way back in 2011. Someday, we will do it again!

We started our morning by taking the first train of the morning, up to Schynige Platte. If you delay too long, you will risk not making it to First in time for the last gondola down the mountain.

If hiking the entire Faulhorn trail is too much, there are plenty of shorter, but still really pretty, hiking trails right around Schynige Platte (try the 25 minute Nature Cinema route, the 1 hour Botanical Alpine Garden route, or the 2.5 hour Panorama hike. Regardless of whether you do one of the shorter trails, or the longer Faulhorn hike, you will be able to get some nice views of the lakes down by Interlaken.

The trail will continue through beautiful meadows, patches of snow, and plenty of rocks!

By the time we made it to the Faulhorn, we realized that we didn’t have enough water and bought some ridiculously expensive water at the restaurant. Bring more than you think you need for this hike! If you plan ahead, you can even sleep in dormitory-style rooms at the top of this mountain!

Now that our slow and steady climb was done, we were ready for the steep descent to Bachalpsee. What a relief to know that the uphill climb was over!

From here, we took the same path back to First that was described in the beginning of this post. Feeling quite exhausted, it was quite nice to end our hike with some gentle downhill. While this trail was signed for 6 hours, I am a very slow uphill hiker. Apparently I was not as fit as the local senior citizens, and it took me closer to 8 hours. Oh well, I still did it!

If you’re in the area, are fit for the hike (and the train isn’t under maintenance like it was this year), definitely consider hiking the Faulhorn!