Short summer excursion to Engelberg

Engelberg – paradise on your doorstep

The week­end is just around the cor­ner and the weath­er fore­cast for the whole of Switzer­land is fan­tas­tic. High tem­per­a­tures and sun­shine – ide­al con­di­tions for a spon­ta­neous excur­sion.

The first thing I auto­mat­i­cal­ly think of is a youth hos­tel by the lake. But I can’t find a room for myself and my com­pan­ion at such short notice. I there­fore have to study which youth hos­tel is oth­er­wise suit­able for two adults and a 3‑year-old.

Due to a rel­a­tive­ly short jour­ney from Zurich, you can choose from the moun­tain youth hos­tels in Grindel­wald, Val­bel­la and Engel­berg. Final­ly, Engel­berg impress­es us with the fam­i­ly-friend­ly Brun­ni hik­ing area.

We set off for Cen­tral Switzer­land on Sat­ur­day morn­ing. After just over an hour, we reach Engel­berg Youth Hos­tel.

Isabel, the Hos­tel Man­ag­er, has been informed about our ear­ly arrival and has already pro­vid­ed us with an enve­lope with keys and brochures about the region. After mov­ing into our room, get­ting changed and apply­ing sun­screen, we head for the Brun­ni moun­tain lifts (about 20 min­utes on foot).

We take the aer­i­al cable­way to Ris­tis and then con­tin­ue on the chair­lift to the Brun­ni hut.

There we are wel­comed by Lake Här­zli – a heart-shaped lake – with a 220-metre bare­foot trail/tick­le trail that enthus­es many chil­dren.

Surprise at lunchtime

Equipped with a children’s car­ri­er ruck­sack, our first leg begins. We pass the paraglid­ing start­ing point and enjoy a breath­tak­ing view of the moun­tains all along the way. Our des­ti­na­tion is the Berglodge Restau­rant Ris­tis, which we reach after about 45 min­utes. We eat some­thing there and, to our sur­prise, we are enter­tained by Glo­bi with an accor­dion. This can be found on Wednes­days, Sat­ur­days and Sun­days around the Ris­tis. After­wards, we head to the Alpine play­ground, which makes children’s puls­es race. Climb­ing wall, tram­po­line, see-saw, slides, water world, swings and many oth­er play­ground equip­ment offer plen­ty of enter­tain­ment for chil­dren, and adults can relax in the seat­ing areas over­look­ing the sur­round­ing moun­tains.

Relaxed return journey and a cosy end

The jour­ney con­tin­ues into the val­ley for about one more hour. The trail pass­es over cow mead­ows and is a lit­tle steep­er. We then arrive exhaust­ed at the youth hos­tel, where in the mean­time some fam­i­lies have arrived and are play­ing in the gar­den.

After hav­ing a show­er, we are drawn to town for din­ner. After­wards, when our lit­tle girl is already in bed, we end the evening with a glass of wine on the bal­cony of the youth hos­tel.

The long day in the sun and the fresh moun­tain air at night let us sleep fan­tas­ti­cal­ly, and we look for­ward to the break­fast buf­fet in the morn­ing.

After check­ing out, we head back home, but make a stop at Lake Zug. There we spend anoth­er great summer’s day at Hünen­berg lido.

Hik­ing, play­ing, enjoy­ing our­selves and swim­ming – lots of activ­i­ties in a short space of time that there­fore doesn’t feel so short.