GRINDELWALD, SWITZERLAND - Traditional mountain town in spectacular scenery.
For stunning views from your hotel window and from the slopes, there are few places to rival Grindelwald, and two of them are just over the hill. The village is nowhere near as special as Wengen or Mürren, but staying here does give you direct access to Grindelwald's own First area.
But you can spend hours waiting for or sitting in the gondola or trains up into the Kleine Scheidegg area shared with Wengen. (The gondola ride takes over half an hour.) Grindelwald regulars accept all this as part of the scene, and some elderly skiers even find it adds to the holiday by enforcing a slow pace.
| What's Great | What's Not-So-Great |
| + Dramatically set in magnificent scenery directly beneath the towering north face of the Eiger + Lots of long, gentle runs, ideal for intermediates, with links to Wengen + Pleasant old village with long mountaineering history, though the tourist trade now sets the tone + Fair amount to do off the slopes, including splendid walks and recently expanded toboggan runs | ? Village gets very little midwinter sun ? Few challenging slopes for experts ? Inconvenient for visiting Mürren ? Snow-cover unreliable ? Major area accessed by slow gondola, queue-prone especially at weekends, and very slow and infrequent trains - life revolves around timetables |