The hook
A flat green valley walled in by sheer cliffs with seventy-two waterfalls spilling off the tops, and car-free villages perched on the rim above it. Tolkien is said to have modelled Rivendell on it.
01Why it's worth it
Lauterbrunnen is a classic glacial trough, a straight-floored valley with vertical rock walls, and the waterfalls pouring over those walls are the signature, most famously the Staubbach, which falls almost three hundred metres and blows to mist before it lands. Above the cliffs sit Wengen and Mürren, villages with no car access reached only by cog railway or cable car, and behind them stand the big Bernese peaks: the Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau. From here you can ride the train up to the Jungfraujoch, the highest railway station in Europe, though it is expensive and often cloud-socked, so the valley trails and the two clifftop villages are frequently the better use of a day. The scale of the walls above the meadows is the thing photos undersell.
02How to experience it
Base in the valley or up in Mürren, and give the high trails priority over the pricey Jungfraujoch train. The Mürren-to-Gimmelwald walk and the North Face trail put you under the Eiger with the valley dropping away below. Staubbach Falls is a short walk from the village and best after snowmelt.
The honest note
Travellers lead with the cost, every time: "Switzerland is probably the second most expensive country in Europe, after Norway," runs the standing warning to backpackers. The verdict from people who went anyway is consistent though — "while it was the most expensive place we've been to, it was well worth every penny." Budget accordingly: cook where you can, use the regional passes, and treat the trains and cable cars as the thing you're actually paying for.
Two more accounts, both from threads about places that defeat their own photographs. On arriving cold: "I remember getting off the train at the Lauterbrunnen station not knowing a thing about this place, and just from the station you see the valley and the waterfall — absolutely breathtaking. Walking down the valley was one of the happiest moments of my life."
And on the gap between the pictures and the place: "Surprised: Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland. It's just… absolutely amazingly beautiful. Pictures cannot capture how immense the cliff walls are, or the sound of the waterfalls, or the glacial stream rushing through the valley."