Hiking with kids: Niederhorn

Yesterday we went back to Lake Thun, but unlike last week we went on its other side, to the top of Niederhorn (1 950m.n.m.).

At the beginning a good tip for travelers: in Switzerland if you decide to take a trip on the cable car, find out in advance if there are any discounted fares. I do not mean half fare for children aged 6-16 or for adults who own Halbtax Abo. Some companies offer reduced prices if you arrive before or after a certain hour. And at some sites can someone who has a birthday on that day travel completely for free.

Unfortunately, we missed this opportunity a few days, but we found that if you come to the funicular train station in Beatenbucht before 8:44, you can save 42% on a return ticket for an adult. And that’s quite significant savings if you consider local prices!

How to get to the top

First, we took the funicular train from the station Beatenbucht to Beatenberg (leaves every 20 mins), from there we took the cable car to Niederhorn. From there was a beautiful view of Lake Thun and Mount Niesen – the Swiss pyramid, about which I wrote in one of our previous posts.

V pozadí Niesen – švýcarská pyramida

On the top

After getting out of the cable car kids headed first to the playground with a slide in the shape of a dragon, and after a couple of slides we went up to the lookout, where magnificent views of both Lake Thun and the rocks on the opposite side opened.

Pohled na druhou stranu

Niederhorn – Vorsass

The weather was fine, so we set off for a 5km hike – first along the ridge, and then down to the middle station Vorsass.

View over the cliffs

The path from Oberburgfeld led through the sparse forest and was mostly rocky, we had to watch every step (definitely not suitable for strollers). Information leaflet promised that if we’re lucky, we’ll see some mountain animals, like mountain goats. But the only chamois on the trail was our older son, who was enthusiastically looking for more and more red and white tourist signs, painted either on the rocks or the trees.

Blueberries all along the trail

Picnic place

The hike took us about three hours, but we held up by picking blueberries, which have been all around. I guess that since childhood I haven´t eaten so many blueberries as today 🙂 Finally, just few hundred meters before Vorsass came a reward in the form of grilled sausages.
There was only this one picnic area along the trail, but fortunately had three fire pits, so every hungry tourist could find his place here (in this post you can find 12 essentials to take with you for a picnic in Switzerland).

The last few hundred meters of our hike we had a beautiful view of the famous trio of Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau, which finally peeked through the clouds. Before the descent back into the valley, we have refreshed at a small restaurant near the middle station Vorsass (and there is a small playground too).

Vorsass

As you can see on the map, you can rent a scooter here on the way back to the station Beatenberg. We did not use this option and chose to return safely by the cable car. The route we have hiked, is marked in pink on the map.