Seebergsee Lake Hike & Viewpoint In Switzerland

SEEBERGSEE LAKE HIKE & VIEWPOINT

In this blog post, I’ll share everything you need to know before visiting Seebergsee, one of the prettiest lakes in Switzerland.

HOW TO GET TO SEEBERGSEE LAKE

Seebergsee Lake is just a 45-minute drive from Bern and a couple of hours from Zurich. When we visited we were based in Fribourg and it took us about 1.5 hours to reach the parking spot for Seebergsee. If you are driving all the way to the closest parking lot, just head to the pin on the map below.

If you want to enjoy the short 20-minute hike in from the alternate parking lot, know that it is up to the far right of the lake as you are driving in, so always stay right and head up the hill. You will then walk down to the lake. There was a gravel parking lot and a sign here. I’ve pictured that below the map for your reference.

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SEEBERGSEE LAKE HIKING ROUTES

There are several options for how to reach the lake and how to enjoy the journey there. I will detail them below. I took option two, which is the experience you will see in this blog. I can’t speak from experience for the other routes/options.

• 1. Park your car in the closest parking lot and walk for 5 minutes (This doesn’t count as a hike guys!)
• 2. Park in the second-closest parking lot and enjoy the 30-minute walk (the sign says 40 minutes) down to the lake viewpoint and then down the winding trail to the lakeside. This is what I did.
• 3. Do the same as option 2 but as we did, hike up to the cliffs on the right, which directly overlook the lake. This way you get your hiking in while always having a view of the lake. It added an extra hour or so to our hiking time.
• 4. Take the 18km hiking trail from Zwischenflüh Post, which passes by Meniggrund on the way to Seebergsee. This route is 900m of incline.

There are also lots of other trails from different directions to reach the lake but those are the four most common.

MY EXPERIENCE AT SEEBERGSEE LAKE

The drive up to Seebergsee was incredible with a narrow winding road leading you up into the mountains. It’s hardly wide enough for two cars as we constantly stopped to send half our car off the road to allow people to pass. The scenery became more and more incredible as we slowly wound our way up to 1900m of altitude by the time we reached the parking lot. The drive itself was worth the visit to Seebergsee.

We parked the car in the top parking lot. Here we found a sign that said it was a 40-minute journey to Seebergsee Lake. It was more of a walk through a field than a hike and after 15 minutes we found ourselves at the entrance to the trail down for Seebergsee.

Here you have a great vantage point of the entire lake and surrounding mountains. The water is so clear you can see through it from this area.

At this point, we decided our legs had only just warmed up, so we decided to head up to the cliffs on the left. It isn’t for everyone and can be a little dangerous at times but overall there were no parts of this trail that were incredibly dangerous. Small footholes have been created by past hikers that make the journey up the incline possible. There are two distinct viewpoints with the first one being quite easy to reach and the second a little tougher.

At the first viewpoint, there is a protruding rock that was just too picturesque not to sit on for some pretty epic views and photos. This was probably the only dangerous part of the hike and isn’t necessarily something I’d recommend as it was quite hard to turn around and wiggle your way back to the big, safe rock. Good views though!

Now we decided to carry on to the second viewpoint. Things got a little trickier from this point and I would only suggest this section to people comfortable with heights and climbing.

You don’t need to be a professional by any means but it isn’t for everyone. Know your limits. There is a bit of a narrow ridge you climb down and then scurry across before climbing up the steep incline to the top of the viewpoint.

Once you reach the top here you really do feel like you are on top of the lake. It’s quite incredible just how many other peaks you can see from this spot. It’s well over a hundred, which is just mindblowing to start thinking about all of the other great hikes in Switzerland. We hung out here at the top of the second viewpoint for a while and then flew the drone for some aerial perspectives.

After we finished up at the viewpoint we headed down to the trail entrance and then ran down the hill to the lake. It was almost 5 pm now and the water was freezing but we swam out to the rocks in the middle of the lake. If you also do the same leave a comment below to mark your bravery!

OPTION 1: Buy the Swiss Half Fare Card: Switzerland trains, buses, and cable cars are EXPENSIVE! I found the best way to get around cheaply was to buy the Swiss Half-Fare Card before I arrived. It gives you 50% off every regular train, bus, and even many cable cars. It only costs $150 USD but pays itself off in just a few days with many train tickets in Switzerland costing close to $100 alone. If you are staying for more than 5 days, I suggest buying the Swiss Half-Fare Card.

OPTION 2: Buy the Swiss Travel Pass: The second option is to get the Swiss Travel Pass, which gives you unlimited train, bus, and (many) cable car rides but it’s pretty expensive at around $100 USD per day so if you don’t travel each day it isn’t worth it.

OPTION 3: Buy the FLEXI Swiss Travel Pass: The final (BEST) option is to get the FLEXI Swiss Travel Pass, which allows you to buy 8 days’ worth of transit but you can choose the night before if you want to activate the next day. That way you don’t need to travel every day to get your money’s worth, you can just activate the FLEXI Swiss Travel Pass on the days when you are doing sizeable transits. My advice is to book the Swiss Half-Fare Card or the FLEXI Swiss Travel Pass in advance before your trip so it’s ready to go when you arrive.

GET A SWISS TRAVEL PASS!

Enjoy UNLIMITED train, boat, and bus rides in Switzerland for up to 15 days. Click to book a flex Swiss Travel Pass or choose the Consecutive Swiss Travel Pass.

The Swiss Travel Pass starts at $260 for 3 days. Click here to check if it’s available on your travel dates.

Book Swiss Travel Pass