Explore Lauterbrunnen

First impressions of Lauterbrunnen

Lauterbrunnen is one of the most extraordinary valleys in Europe — a deep U-shaped glacial trough barely 800m wide at the floor, with sheer vertical limestone cliffs rising 800 to 1,000 metres on either side, and an extraordinary 72 separate waterfalls plunging directly down them. The most famous and dramatic is the Staubbachfall (‘Dust Brook Falls’, 297m), the third-tallest waterfall in Switzerland, which plummets in a single spectacular ribbon directly behind the small village, and looks especially magical in spring when the snow melt is at its peak. The valley reputedly inspired J.R.R. Tolkien's Rivendell in The Lord of the Rings (Tolkien visited as a young man in 1911 and sketched the cliffs). The famous Trummelbach Falls just 4km down the valley are a series of 10 glacial-melt waterfalls thundering through a narrow cleft inside the mountain — you walk up through illuminated tunnels and bridges, with up to 20,000 litres a second roaring through the rocks. The cable cars from Lauterbrunnen climb to the spectacular car-free village of Mürren (1,650m) and from there to the famous Schilthorn Piz Gloria revolving restaurant at 2,970m (the 1969 James Bond filming location for 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service'). The valley is also a famous BASE-jumping spot — over 700 jumps from the cliffs per year.