Hotel Gletscherblick and Switzerland
This item appears on page 16 of the October 2015 issue.
Commanding a spectacular view of Switzerland’s Wetterhorn, the Rosenlaui Glacier and the Gadmen Valley, Hotel Gletscherblick (Urseni, 6085 Hasliberg, Goldern, Switzerland; phone +41 [0] 33 972 40 40, www.gletscherblick.ch) is situated on a bend in the road on the Hasliberg plateau above Meiringen.
My husband, Dick, and I, along with our son Jim and his family, spent a week there in July 2015. For Dick and me, it was our ninth visit to this special place, which I had discovered around 20 years ago while hiking in the area.
Built in 1906 by the Hirsig family, the hotel is operated today by the grandchildren of the original owners. Peter Hirsig and his wife, Fiona, Christine Branch and Rosine Biebl welcome you with warm Swiss hospitality.
Twenty comfortable, elevator-accessible rooms, a large dining room serving delicious, buffet-style meals and a large patio for cocktails all overlook magnificent scenery. There is also guest parking.
Rates vary with the season and length of stay. In high season, rates range from CHF92 per person per day for B&B to CHF118 (near $122) for half pension (room, breakfast and dinner). Dick and I had a double room with bath and shower en suite, and for our week’s stay during high season we each paid CHF106 per night, half pension.
The hotel is located above the village of Goldern, a 4-minute walk from Twing, where you can ride the gondola to Käserstatt. In winter, this opens up the entire Hasliberg ski area, with trails for all abilities and a junior park for children above Mägisalp.
In spring, summer and fall, this area is crisscrossed with mountain hiking and extensive, well-marked walking and biking trails. Two Muggestutz Dwarf Trails (based on a family in children’s books) are popular with children. Trotti-bikes and mountain bikes are available for rent in Käserstatt and Mägisalp.
Restaurants at Käserstatt, Mägisalp, Bidmi and Planplatten are open most of the year.
A PostBus (www.postauto.ch) stop at the hotel connects you with the whole Bernese Oberland area via the excellent Swiss transportation system. The purchase of a Swiss Card or Swiss Flexi Pass gives you a discount on surface transportation as well as on gondolas, cable cars, etc.
You can easily take boat trips on Lake Brienz or Thun, visit the Ballenberg open-air museum, ride a cable car to high mountain walks and vistas and visit Trümmelbach Falls in the Lauterbrunnen Valley. In Interlaken, an adventure park with obstacle courses and zip-lines is a real hit with children.
This is only a sampling of things to see and do. Fiona Hirsig is a wealth of information about events and activities in the area, and the area tourism website www.meiringen-hasliberg.ch is also informative.
During our week at the Gletscherblick, one special hike we did was the “Grandmother’s Walk,” one of the most famous high-Alpine walks. To get there, we took a cog-rail train from Lauterbrunnen to Wengen, then an aerial cableway to Männlichen. The walk to Kleine Scheidegg was approximately 3 miles on a mostly level, well-maintained footpath.
The train brought us back from Kleine Scheidegg to Lauterbrunnen. The day was crystal clear, with views into Grindelwald Valley and the sun sparkling on the glaciers of the Eiger, the Mönch and the Jungfrau.
SHEILA SIENER
Exeter, NH