Our Winter Weekend Getaway to Switzerland

Posted on February 4, 2019

Going on a ski trip to the Swiss Alps was near the top of my bucket list, and I was finally able to cross that one off the list the last weekend of January.

I’ve been to Switzerland many times — it was the destination for my first real overseas trip back in 2006 — but I’ve never been in the winter. I’m convinced it’s the most beautiful place in the world and seeing the same landscapes covered in a blanket of white was no different!

Skiing in the Jungfrau Region

For me, planning a trip to Switzerland in winter was more about the scenery than the skiing itself. I’d consider myself a beginner-intermediate skiier, so the thought of skiing in the Swiss Alps was a bit intimidating at first. Luckily the Alps are huge, spanning across four countries in fact, so there are many options for skiers of all skill levels at the various resorts scattered throughout the region.

The number of options of ski resorts are actually a bit overwhelming at first, but after some research I settled on the Jungfrau region, which is one of the main summits in the Bernese Alps with UNESCO World Heritage Site status. This area has a great balance of beginner and intermediate runs, a lively après-ski scene, and beautiful alpine views. It checked all of the boxes for what I had envisioned skiing in the Alps to be, and I couldn’t be more pleased with our decision.

Grindelwald: Our Home Base

The Jungfrau region is accessed by a network of short train lines that form a circuit that starts and ends in Interlaken. A single train line extends from Kleine Scheidegg at the top of the circuit to Jungfraujoch, which is known as the “Top of Europe” due to its status as the highest railway station in Europe.

Illustration showing the Jungfrau train circuit

You can technically stay anywhere along this route and take the train to the slopes, but we wanted to stay in the middle of the action and chose Grindelwald as our home base. Lifts at either end of town will take you directly to two of the area’s three ski areas: First and Wengen. Tourists staying in Grindelwald also get to ride the town’s bus for free, which shuttles passengers to and from the lifts with various stops along the way.

We spent both of our ski days at Grindelwald Wengen, which is the larger of the two options. The vast majority of the slopes were considered intermediate, but we found these to be a little harder than the US version of intermediate. I ended up sticking more to the beginner slopes and a few of the intermediate, which ended up working out just fine.

Where we stayed: Hotel Cabana

Grindelwald had a bunch of great restaurants as well, which made it a nice place to return to after a long and tiring day of skiing.

Our first day in town we had a tasty lunch at restaurant C und M that consisted of beetroot soup and bratwurst. We also had two really great dinners in Grindelwald. One night we had some excellent coal-oven pizza at Onkle Tom’s Hutt, and the following evening we enjoyed a couple of delicious burgers at Barry’s Restaurant.

Beetroot soup and bratwurst at restaurant C und M in Grindelwald

Fondue & Night Sledging

Of course, no trip to Switzerland is complete without a little fondue. To get our cheese fix for the weekend, we headed to Bussalp Restaurant, a mountainside restaurant in Grindelwald that’s along the world’s longest sledging route. There we participated in a popular nighttime activity that combines cheese, beer, and sledging.

Is it touristy? Yes. Is it fun and a little bit terrifying? Also, yes.

After stuffing ourselves with an assortment of bread, potatoes, and pickles, we headed outside to locate our rented sledges and then away we went with our headlamps, down the mountainside and around hairpin turns back to town.

Unfortunately, sledging in the dark doesn’t make for particularly good photos or video, but it was definitely a memorable experience!