The Best Hiking Trails in Bern

Leave Adelboden and enter the valley, following the Allebach stream and then the Gilsbach stream. Jump onto the road, which leads uphill to the Gilbach terrace. Leaving the cluster of holiday cottages behind you, follow the trail into the woodland, then across meadows....

From Meiringen head to Reichenbachfälle waterfalls, which you may know from the Sherlock Holmes novels! Go along Via Rosenlaui through woodlands and meadows passed the SchwarzwaldAlp climbing higher and higher up to the Grosse Scheidegg Pass....

Close to the famous Brienzer Rothorn there is a less crowded path starting directly from the train station in Brienz and leading up to a part of the spectacular Hardergrat between Tannhorn and Brienzer Rothorn....

This is a tough 14.5km hike with many ups and downs. Starting at the Gries Alp, walk through the wood and then across meadows to the hut above Bundstäg. The trail leads you through many hairpin bends as it climbs up through woodland to the Underi Bundalp huts and across meadows, along a stream to Oberi Bundalp, where you’ll be rewarded with beautiful views down into the Kiental valley and over to the Sefinenfurgge pass....

From Kandersteg head in a south direction along the railway line, and then up to Usser Üschine hamlet by following the Alpbach stream through a wood. From the hamlet, you need to be prepared to a steep climb, passing two huts before coming over a rock ledge....

That headline takes some justification, but this hike more than lives up to the hype! It starts and finishes at the Schynige Platte station, which is reached via a slow but breathtakingly beautiful train ride up from the little village of Wilderswil....

Far away from the madding crowds the Shreckhorn Hut, deep in the true remote wilderness of the Oberland, is a serene place to spend the night. It is a substantial walk to get there but justified by the beauty and the isolation....

From Lauterbrunnen head into the valley for 350m, before climbing steeply up through woodland and across several streams and past a couple of waterfalls, continuing along the side of the Lauterbunnental valley to reach the Grütschalp-Mürren railway tracks....

The Gleckstein Hut approach is particularly beautiful and, being at a modest altitude should be possible for people of most ages to manage. There are slightly exposed sections, where metal cables can be used as handrails....

From Grindelwald follow signs for the Kleiner Scheidegg along the railway track to Alpiglen. Keep climbing up through cembra pines, through the Mettla trough and up to the Kleine Schiedegg, where you’ll see as far as the Eiger, Mönch, Jungfrau, and deep down the valley of Grindelwald, overlooked by the magnificent Wetterhorn....

This section of the Via Alpina starts with a tough climb out of the village Engelberg through woods and alpine meadows to Gerschnialp. Follow the mountain trail along a ridge past the glistening Trüebsee lake to Joch pass....