Hiking Switzerland: The best routes by the water

Hiking tips around the youth hostels

Lace up your hik­ing boots and off you go. Hik­ing is prob­a­bly Switzerland’s favourite pas­time. But what can we say? Switzer­land is sim­ply too beau­ti­ful not to be explored. In sum­mer, it can get pret­ty hot. That’s why we pre­fer to stay close to the water. It’s the per­fect way to cool down while out and about.

Brienz: Drei Wasserfälleweg three waterfall path

Brienz Youth Hos­tel is just a few metres from Lake Brienz. The ter­race is a great place to pic­nic and recharge your bat­ter­ies before start­ing your hike. The Drei Wasser­fälleweg is an easy tour that can also be com­plet­ed in two stages, and best of all: You can set off on your hike right from the youth hos­tel.

The turquoise water of Lake Brienz almost makes you think you’re some­where in the Caribbean. But as soon as the path leads through shady forests and past lush green cow pas­tures, it becomes clear: You’re in the mid­dle of a pic­ture-per­fect Swiss land­scape. And, of course, don’t for­get to say hel­lo to every cow you meet along the way.

Hid­den in the woods are not only cows, but also the Giess­bach Falls. The thun­der­ing water­falls with their fine mist are a wel­come way to cool off on warm days. Through­out the tour, one impres­sive view fol­lows the next. Def­i­nite­ly a hike where there’s some­thing new to mar­vel at around every bend. Here’s a sneak peek for you:

Nina, Con­tent & Social Media Spe­cial­ist

Laax: Four Lakes Trail from Flims

Good morn­ing from wellnessHostel3000 in Laax. With views of the sur­round­ing moun­tains and morn­ing sun­shine, it’s a great place to start the day. After a bal­anced break­fast, it’s time to head for Flims, where the four lakes hike begins.

If you include Lake Laax direct­ly in front of the hos­tel, there are even five idyl­lic moun­tain lakes wait­ing for you on this day. The Four Lakes Trail, also known as “Sen­da quat­ter lags da Flem” in Romansh, pass­es Lag Prau Pulté, Lag Prau Tuler­itg, Lake Cau­ma and Lake Cres­ta. Unbe­liev­able how the lakes shim­mer with their turquoise and emer­ald-green waters. And that’s not all: On the way through the shady Flim­ser­wald for­est, a van­tage point opens up views of the impres­sive Rhine Gorge. On Route 657, it’s one breath­tak­ing view after anoth­er, as the water sparkles in count­less shades of blue along the way.

If you want to eat some­thing on your hike, it’s best to plan a pic­nic stop at one of the lakes. You can pre-order a packed lunch from the youth hos­tel for just this pur­pose. Pre­fer to keep your ruck­sack light? You’ll find great places to eat at both Lake Cau­ma and Lake Cres­ta. And in the hot sum­mer tem­per­a­tures, you can cool off with a swim in the two lakes. What a treat!

Eve­lyn, Mar­ket­ing Spe­cial­ist

Solothurn: From the Öufi (eleven) town to the local mountain Weissenstein

After an invig­o­rat­ing break­fast at Solothurn Youth Hos­tel, we set off. Our first steps take us through the charm­ing old town, which is peace­ful­ly qui­et fol­low­ing yesterday’s live­ly sum­mer evening. We stop at a bak­ery to pick up sup­plies for a pic­nic. But the youth hostel’s packed lunch would have been more prac­ti­cal: For CHF 10 you can get a sand­wich, a piece of fruit and a bar.

Out­side the city, Route 478 starts through the mys­ti­cal Ver­e­na Gorge. We then make our way through forests and fields to the val­ley sta­tion of the gon­do­la cable­way. An easy hike up to this point. That’s when we make a clas­sic hik­ing mis­take: With­out a sec­ond thought, we fol­low the first yel­low sign­post we come across and imme­di­ate­ly head off in the wrong direc­tion.

Back on track, we pass the quar­ry. The trail starts get­ting steep­er and rock­i­er. It real­ly has us sweat­ing! When we see the inter­me­di­ate sta­tion of the gon­do­la after the biggest climb, we decide to cheat and hop on the gon­do­la for the last leg. A good deci­sion, as it soon became clear: At the top of the Weis­senstein, we can enjoy our pic­nic with a great view before dark clouds start to gath­er. We’re forced to post­pone the Plan­et Path or a dessert until next time… instead tak­ing the gon­do­la to escape the incom­ing thun­der­storm. Back in Solothurn, we pick up our lug­gage and say good­bye to the Öufi town. See you next time!

Nicole, Sales Man­ag­er

St. Moritz: From Sils Maria to Lej de la Tscheppa back to Silvaplana

We start the day with a deli­cious break­fast at St. Moritz Youth Hos­tel. We then take the bus to Sils Maria. Thank­ful­ly, we can leave our lug­gage from our overnight stay back at the youth hos­tel.

Even the bus ride along Lake Sil­va­plana is impres­sive. In Sils Maria, our hike begins with a steep climb. It’s fair­ly stren­u­ous, but we’re reward­ed with breath­tak­ing views of Lake Champfèr, Lake Sil­va­plana and Lake Sils.

After around two hours, we reach Lej da la Tschep­pa and have already com­plet­ed most of the ascent. A cool breeze is blow­ing, so we decide to keep hik­ing a bit before tak­ing our first break. Along the way, we pass sev­er­al small moun­tain lakes and find a beau­ti­ful spot shel­tered from the wind. There, we enjoy our pic­nic in the midst of the mag­nif­i­cent moun­tain land­scape.

We then begin our descent. The last part of the trail is steep once again, and so we’re rather exhaust­ed when we arrive in Sil­va­plana. From there, we take the bus back to St. Moritz, col­lect our lug­gage from the youth hos­tel and round off the event­ful day.

At the end of the day, it’s clear to us that we are rarely allowed to enjoy such an impres­sive view of three lakes and the Engadin moun­tains.

Mar­lena, Mar­ket­ing & Sales Back Office Intern

Montreux: Along the lakeside promenade from Vevey to Chillon Castle

What a start: The first high­light of the day is the deli­cious break­fast at Mon­treux Youth Hos­tel with a view of the lake. Refu­elled, I look for­ward to a relax­ing day of hik­ing by the water. Just five min­utes from the youth hos­tel, the S‑Bahn runs direct­ly from Ter­ritet to Ver­ney. At the sta­tion, I take a look at the hik­ing route I’ve select­ed: Stage 5 of the ViaFran­ci­ge­na.

I stroll through the charm­ing lit­tle town and reach the water­front fea­tur­ing a unique work of art: A giant fork in the mid­dle of the lake.

For the next four hours, I enjoy incred­i­ble views of Lake Gene­va and the moun­tains. There’s hard­ly any dif­fer­ence in alti­tude, so after the first hour and a good four kilo­me­tres I reach a nice spot to take my first stop. Many thanks to the youth hos­tel for the deli­cious packed lunch.

I con­tin­ue briefly along the road, which has very lit­tle traf­fic. Back on the lake­side prom­e­nade, I dis­cov­er Mon­treux in the dis­tance. From here, there are plen­ty of seclud­ed spots right by the lake with bench­es that are a bit hid­den by the colour­ful flo­ra on the shore.

There’s a lit­tle more going on in the cen­tre of Mon­treux itself, and I hike towards Chillon Cas­tle with­out a break. There’s still a short stop to be made: Home­made ice cream – some­thing I can’t miss.

After anoth­er 30 min­utes, I reach my des­ti­na­tion: Chillon Cas­tle, over 3,000 years old and brim­ming with excit­ing his­to­ry. What an impres­sive sight. Exhaust­ed but hap­py after hik­ing more than 13 km, I return to the youth hos­tel know­ing: I’d do that again any day!

Lin­da, Head of Mar­ket­ing