Lauterbrunnen · Valley floor
The valley floor is the smart base: the station, the shops and the trailheads are all here. Below is where we'd stay across the valley, our own Chalet Staubbach a short walk from the centre (with a private wood-fired hot tub in The Apartment), plus the local hosts and villages we happily send guests to.
The Lauterbrunnen valley gives you two kinds of base. On the valley floor, Lauterbrunnen village itself, you get the railway station, shops, restaurants, a winter ski shuttle and direct access to both the hiking trails and the lifts up to Wengen and Mürren. It's the most practical and the best value. Up the mountain, in car-free Wengen or Mürren, you're closer to the snow but pay a premium, carry your bags up by train or cable car, and have far fewer beds to choose from, which is why those villages sell out a year ahead around big events like the Lauberhorn.
For most visitors, skiers and hikers alike, staying on the valley floor and riding up each day is the easier, cheaper and more flexible choice. You're never more than a short, scenic railway journey from the action, and you come home each evening to a quiet valley rather than a busy resort.
Full disclosure: we run one of the places on this page. Chalet Staubbach sits at the foot of the Staubbach Falls, a ten-minute walk from the village centre and station (and right by the ski-shuttle stop in winter). It's an apartment and two studios, each self-catering. The Apartment, the premium of the three, has its own private wood-fired hot tub with a view of the waterfall, the thing guests remember most after a day on the slopes or the trails, and is a Top 1% home on Airbnb. It's the one we know best, but it isn't the only good base in the valley, so further down we've listed the other valley-floor apartments and the Wengen and Mürren hosts we'd send you to just as readily.
Pick the size that suits, all three share the same prime valley-floor address. The Apartment has the private hot tub; the Studio suits longer stays; the Nest is the budget option.
Two more apartments we rate down in Lauterbrunnen itself, in the same traditional-chalet style as ours. Chalet Elza sits in a quiet, leafy spot by the river, about ten minutes from the village centre, hosted by Patricia and Dave. Each apartment has its own entrance and a full kitchen, and they share a garden, barbecues and a sauna, with free parking on site.
Seven places we know and trust up in Wengen, the car-free village on the sunny terrace above Lauterbrunnen, all from long-established local hosts and all a short walk from the station and the pistes. The two Talblick apartments share a traditional 1930s chalet, Monica's is a cosy hideaway for two, and the four Wengen Rentals apartments sit within a minute's walk of each other, handy for groups of up to 10 splitting across units.
A ten-minute walk from the centre, steps from the trailheads, and (in The Apartment) a private hot tub waiting when you get back.