Trip Report - Murren and Grindelwald

A snowHead

So we decided to do it 4**** at hotels this year - first time for us - and chose Murren and Grindelwald because

a) service levels in German Switzerland are great
b) both resorts had some unusal attraction (north face of the Eiger, jungfrau in Grindelwald, the revolving James Bond restaurant in Murren)
c) alpine food rocks
d) both resorts have a good number of red runs with a smattering of blacks
e) they had snow...

Murren
The resort itself is very small but does have sufficient restaurants/bars and shops to sustain a week's evening explorations. Unfortunately the week we went was very quiet so there was no atmosphere, but I could imagine the atmosphere gets a good buzz on when the resort is busy. The runs are good but few in number, and we were glad to be moving after 3 days. Having said that we were restricted to the upper runs because the lower ones were brown and slushy. For off-pisters there's a great run all the way from the Schiltorn to Lauterbrunnen - check Chris Brookes's video links in the "Jungfrau Region" thread. I'd have done it with a guide but the lower levels were slushy and Lauterbrunnen was without snow... Sad

The mountain is reasonably well served with restaurants - some built annoyingly uphill from any approach - and the Piz Gloria itself is obviously a great attraction - eating your lunch while enjoying a 360°view of the alps is amazing - but the menus were a bit plain and limited for my tastes, depending too heavily on sandwiches, steak and sausages and too few cheese'n ham or pasta concoctions.

Our hotel was the Hotel Eiger. If you look at its website you will see a nice picture of an open fire in a small stubli-style room. This is in fact the smoking area, located right next to a cheesy 70s style dancefloor at an equally cheesy bar. Not really a hotel bar at all, more like a slightly posh pub with delusions of clubness (it has a DJ booth....). The thing about the open fire was this - it never got lit. The whole time we were there. On the website, it's flaming nicely. When I look for a ski hotel or chalet, and open fire is one of the absolute must-haves, and we had chosen the Eiger specifically because of it and the pool/wellness. So on our second night I asked the barmaid to light the fire.

barmaid : "no"
me : "what do you mean no ?!" (laughing in amazement)
barmaid : "I have to ask the manager"
me : "so ask him"
barmaid, taken aback, goes to get the manager. He tells me that on that night the have a "flugn" or "furng" or "fulngngn" or some such which he explains is a wind that comes down the valley in the wrong way and blows the smoke back in the room. I translate this into English as " Be Nice please!

off, I don't want to".

The wellness area was nice - as shown on the website. However - no hot tub. The jacuzzi is a cold bubble bath only. I know we have a variety of opinions on this subject on snowheads, but for me a hot tub is a post-ski essential.

The front desk staff were extremely helpful, going over and above on a couple of occasions. Also they actually understood what "gluten free" meant without having to have it explained to them as one would to a child (which is the normal experience), and they provided us with the most awesome GF bread and buns we've ever tasted for breakfast (brand name Schar).

The room itself - superior double - was shockingly small by US/middle east standards, but hell it's just a place to sleep right ? The staff had already pushed the two single beds (WHY do the Swiss insist on this ?) together to make a double, as we had requested.

Overall I'd recommend it but they need to light that damn fire (should have one in the middle lounge really) and the jacuzzi needs to be hot (just build up the wall between it and the main pool and install a heater !).

Best food by far and away was at the Bellevue. Nice cosy room (the front one, on the right), open fire, great service. I had deer steak and it was awesome. Best lunch spot was the train station restaurant on the bottom-right hand run (as you look at the piste map). Great rostis, good selection.

I'll post about Grindelwald later....

A snowHead

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Grindelwald
So we moved over to Grindelwald after 3 days. The resort itself is much bigger than Murren and retains a village feel, but is marred by the roads and traffic which are absent in Murren (and Zermatt, Saas Fee..). The runs are generally US-style wide blue motorways but there's plenty of off-piste to go falling about in. There's a narrow black just off the top run of Kleiner Scheidegg (the hotel and station in The Eiger Sanction) which is good, and lots of off-piste to be found from several drop-off points along the top. Skiing down to Grindelwald itself is mostly tree-lined blues and reds which is very pleasant and there's a couple of good bar stops along the way. Quite good for once-a-year skiers like us but no pistes for the triple-black diamond skiers. The First ski area is mainly rolling blue motorways with some entertainingly steep reds.

Mountain restaurants in Grindelwald/Wengen are generally better than Murren but still 'meh'. The two standout exceptions are the bloke who does sausage and rosti on the platform at the train station (because it's fast, tasty, and hot) and the place at the bottom of the black run 1stleft from top lift Kleiner Scheidegg. The one with a crow's nest-style viewpoint beneath the North Face. The food in this place was amazing. We only went there because my wife had spotted the Swiss Army (all of them) going in. Beef stew and polenta, absolutely perfect and knocking all the other mountain restaurants (including Murren) out of the park.

We stayed at the Hotel Belvedere - one of the grandest in Murren, a traditional 19th century alpine grand hotel. More on that soon....

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The Belvedere is a 4**** grand hotel in an older Swiss resort, and as such it is very much as you might expect - grand, in an imposing kind of way, with modern amenities kind of tacked on. The bar is small and dark, made to feel kind of 70s sleazy, the kind of thing you could imagine Some middle-aged dude in a DJ and a woman in a slinky dress oozing around in. The lounge area is very open and relaxing, although the staff needed some encouragement to light the fire, and we ended up doing it ourselves instead. The bar has a pianist who will happily play requests, and I whiled away a very contented half-hour with a cold glass of Johannisberg and Rhapsody In Blue played live (listened to from the lounge, in front of the fire).

Arrival was hit-and-miss. Checking in was OK, front desk staff were great, but it was a tad slow for my tastes. The 'miss' part came when we asked how to get to the slope - we were told to get the bus. After some to-and-fro it dawned on me that what the receptionist meant was the PUBLIC bus, not a hotel shuttle. (It was also said in a kind of "what else do you expect ?" kind of way). Given the price of staying at the Belvedere I expected an all-day concierge with an all-day shuttle from the hotel door. They had shuttles at breakfast and tea time, but that was it. In this day and age of ski-in ski-out hotels I expected better from a 4****. The hotel is a 3-4minute walk to the train station for the Kleiner Scheidegg area or a 10-min ride to the First area lift.

The large room was a pleasure after the small cabin at the Eiger in Murren, but oddly there was no wi-fi, as it was still being installed when we stayed. I think they have fast wi-fi in all the rooms now. The view from the room was fabulous, north face clearly visible and great for some awesome sunsets behind the mountains. The wellness area is outstanding - particularly the outdoor hot tub. There's nothing quite like swimming in warm water in the open air. As with the Eiger the sauna and steam room were nude zones, but the locals didn't seem to mind if we went in with swimming gear on, as long as we kept the bench dry by using a towel. It's funny how they immediately - upon seeing this behaviour - assumed we were Brits. The individuals that we did meet in this rather unusual manner did in fact demonstrate no little skill in folding their limbs in just the right way, which was definitely appreciated. First time for everything I guess, and discussing the skiing and weather with a completely nude man and my wife in a little dark wooden box was definitely a first for me.

Breakfast was very good, everything you'd expect from a 4***. Again we were really impressed when the staff produced Schar gluten free bread when we mentioned GF, with zero fuss. Awesome awesome awesome.

The bars and restaurants in Grindelwald itself were....meh. Maybe I'm spoilt by too many visits to Dubai (4 hrs drive from Muscat, where we live). There was one bar in particular on the main road where the saisonnaires all congregated, the two barmen were stoned and while the atmos was good the service was terrible, with a definite territorial vibe coming from the crowd and all the barmen's mates getting served before the real punters. Lame. However, the place redeemed istelf by providing a very unusual entertainment - possibly the most ham-fisted attempt at getting a free drink I have ever experienced. I was sat at the bar with my wife when this lithe young strumpet stood next to me on the other side, and blew on my hand. My hand was on the bar and she blew on it, quite hard. I turned and there she was, gurning in my face. All three of us then proceeded to make small talk and she started to lean into me - possibly imagining that my wife wouldn't notice - and I had to slide along the bar avoid being in full body contact with the girl. After a couple of minutes she must have realised the hoped-for free drink wasn't coming and off she went.

Places to visit - the Eiger bar, the Australian lady's open air gluhvein bar at the bottom of Furst lift, and the Kreuz&Post restaurant. Don't eat at the Eiger bar, food is bland stodge. Just park yourself on the left in the corner and get merry.

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Belwyn
Did you not eat in the Belvedere restaurant, one of the finest in the Alps, They have 5 chefs and 2 comi to cook for a max of 110 guests.
6 Course dinner with a cheese table to die for. We have stayed there 7 times in 9 years and I cant see any reason to eat out in any of the "hit and miss" places on the main street.
Also the hotel minibus to the lifts/station runs until 1030 am and if you speak to the driver he will usually do a run to whichever area you want.
Sorry the Belvedere experience wasnt as great for you as we have found it, but I think it would be hard to find the owner and his wife available almost all the time in most 4 star plus hotels, and definately not in Muscat.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

Hiya, still lol'ing at your review. We had pretty much the same view as you about Grindelwald, a bit too commercial for us. Always remebering the cost of a round of drinks in the Hotel Eiger here being about £30 for 4! We had a great time at the on street apres ski bar at the bottom of the First lift too with the seasonairres but suffered the same wait for the drinks whilst they served "mates" first!

Always found with apres ski in Switzerland that they need some lessons from the Austrians but still love it here nevertheless. We have had a look at the Eiger in Murren for next Jan and will defo book the same week as we loved how quiet it was (did you see the reoprt on the snowheads home page about why this is?) the cost has gone up quite a lot but they might just put some offers on if they don't start selling soon.

Maybe see you again sometime on the piste? wink

Suzy

After all it is free

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Blewyn, pity you didn't dine at the Staeger Stubli in Muerren, awesomely good steaks and fine wine list.

The Bar (the "Tachi") in the Eiger really only comes into its own on Inferno night. And actually was a bit quiet this year, apparently the nightclub in the Blumenthal has taken over.

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

Under A New Name - we did dine at the Stager Stubli - it was meh. The food was OK (you need to try a Ruth's Chris Steakhouse somewhere...) but the service was very indifferent indeed, like we were just an inconvenience. I don't expect a red carpet or anything but a smile and bit of banter isn't asking too much, I think. The Bellevue was much more like the experience we were looking for.

snow reports

Blewyn, I must confess I'm struggling to understand the particular appeal of a Ruth's Chris??

The Stäger stubli is reknowned for it's grumpy service if you're not a local wink

Under a New Name, I've heard this from a couple of people, both Americans. Maybe the outlets are a little bit different in different countries. The only Ruth's Chris I've been to is the one in Dubai (Monarch Hotel, Shaik Zayed Rd, opposite-ish WTC), and it rocked. Waguy steak with gratin dauphinoise.....I'm salivating just thinking about it.

You know it makes sense.

Stager stubli excellent again a few weeks ago...

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

A snowHead

Was reading this again having missed it the first time arround last year, re the not lighting the fire because the wind was blowing a certain direction, having been in a hotel in Wengen where the wind changed direction during the evening and seen the resulting chaos I can verify that this does happen occasionally, you'd thing that the locals would use a rotating cowl on their chimneys and thus avoid this but apparently not, perhaps they don't work so well with snow getting into them or something, but I can verify that when you get gusts of wind blowing ash around a lounge it is no damn fun at all.

A snowHead

Other places have fires behind glass doors etc for this reason. They just didn't want to be bothered.....which is very lame because for me, sitting in front of a real fire with a gluhvein is an essential integral part of a ski holiday.

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Trip Report - Murren and Grindelwald

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