Our fifth week in Switzerland took us on a journey with a new style of travel. We linked up with a couple of regional tourism boards in Jungfrau, Engelberg and Zermatt. They invited us out to stay at a few nice hotels in their region, provided us with cable car passes, train passes and some meals. We had an open schedule but the staff we met helped us plan a nice itinerary of hikes and off we went.
It was a dream collaboration with almost no requirements other than to go out and hike and then post about it on the blog and Instagram. When given freedom like this we often produce some of our best work as we can go at our own pace and visit the mountains we choose.
Jungfrau was incredible with small villages like Wengen and Murren where cars were banished and that small mountain-village vibe captured the hearts of tourists. Flower pots hung from the chalets and people sat for coffee on the street watching people go by. It was a very charming place and that charm paired with the epic Lauterbrunnen, a village in a valley of waterfalls made Jungfrau one of the top Switzerland destinations.
Zermatt is an iconic town in Switzerland, known for its mountain village charm in a region where no cars are allowed. The famous Matterhorn peak looms over the town constantly and is the focus of all hikes despite their proximity to the famous horn. Many climb the Matterhorn but it is known to be three times more deadly than Mount Everest and requires considerable experience. Needless to say, that is an adventure for another time. We enjoyed a number of great hikes here before Josh took a day off to warm up for his Skyrunning race, which will be the focus of the next ‘Weekly’ review.
Engelberg, on the other hand, was a bit off the beaten path. It had one big attraction, Mount Titlis, which many foreign tourists took a cable car up to but besides that, the rest of the hikes were quite empty. This suited us perfectly as we explored some incredible mountain trails without any crowds at all. We tried our first Via Ferrata, which is a harnessed ladder climb up the mountain essentially. I created a small vlog about it, which I will post below with my other favorite video and photo moments from the week.
meshal
Wednesday 28th of August 2019
for some reason i can't view most of your pictures :(