So you’ve heard about the amazing Flower Playground at Allmedhubel and you know it sits just above the village of Mürren. On a map, it doesn’t look so far. And yet, the most talked about way to get there is to take the funicular, which costs more money. So let’s ask what we’re all thinking. Can you walk to the Flower Playground from Mürren?
The short, easy answer is yes. You can! But like my favorite boss once taught me, just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.
In this post, we’re going to talk about the hike from Mürren to the Flower Playground — and yes, it is a hike, not a stroll. We’ll discuss exactly how to do it (like where it starts and how to follow the trail), but we’ll also discuss the difficulty, how our 5-year-old child handled it, and whether or not we’d do it again.
Keep reading to see if this hike is for you.
Flower Trail Details
The hike from Mürren to the Flower Playground is part of a larger loop trail called the Flower Trail. The trail rightfully earned its name from the 150 varieties of wildflowers that bloom alongside the trail every summer. (Allegedly … I have not personally counted, nor did I catch them in peak bloom.)
Note: There’s also a small path through a flower garden on the top of the hill above the playground, which is sometimes called a flower trail. This path just takes a few minutes to walk and is not the same as the actual Flower Trail.
Throughout this post, we’re specifically referring to the portion of the Flower Trail that connects Mürren and Allmendhubel — the hilltop where the Flower Playground. Here are the details for that segment of the trail.
- Endpoints: Central Mürren (here, just south of the Coop) and the Flower Playground (here)
- Distance: ~1 mile
- Elevation Change: 890 feet
- Time: 30 – 60 minutes
- Difficulty: difficult up, easy down
There are also a few different routes to take. The main trail follows a service road around the meadow. This route, noted in blue below, is the route Google Maps will give you. It’s a paved route, but not stroller friendly because of the steep incline. The elevation change on this route is slightly more gradual and the distance slightly longer than the other option.
Alternatively, you can climb the switchbacks up through the meadow. This route is slightly shorter, but follows a dirt and gravel path at a much steeper grade. This route is marked in orange below. To find the switchbacks, you’ll want to jog right when the path splits here, then follow the path past a small farm and up the hillside.
What it’s Like to Walk from Mürren to Flower Playground
You can hike the Flower Trail between Mürren and the Flower Playground in either direction. Most people who talk about this trail talk about walking down from the Flower Trail back to Mürren. Hardly anyone talks about walking up, so that’s what we’re going to do.
The trail is easy to pick up from most anywhere in Mürren. There’s a main set of trail signs here, which we’ll call the trailhead. It is steep right off the bat, and will continue to climb as you leave town.
After about 0.5 miles (here), the path will split.
If you stay left, you will continue following the service road to Hotel Sonnenberg, and then stay right at the fork to loop back toward the Flower Playground. (The trail here is called Bir Mittleren Tili in Google Maps, but I haven’t seen any one else use that term.)
If you jog right at the split, then take a quick left, you’ll follow the switchback route. You’ll pass through a small farm, probably see some cows, and then follow the trail into the meadow. This is the route we took, and the one we think is more fun.
The switchback route does feel a little bit like you’re trespassing, but you are not. This is a public trail and there are official trail markers along the way. Follow the signs here toward Allmendhubel.
This next section is probably the hardest part. As you can see in the photos below (though they don’t really feel like they capture the true height), you scale the mountain quickly. The trail is steep and zigs and zags up the meadow.
At the end of the switchbacks, about here, this path meets back up with the service road trail. There’s another set of trail markers here that points to Allmendhubel. From here, it’s mostly just a flat, straight shot to the Flower Playground.
Hiking to the Flower Playground With Kids — Is it a good idea?
The hike from Mürren to the Flower Playground is “only” one mile, but it’s a hard mile because of the incline. It does come with the promise of a playground and possibly ice cream at the top, though. So how do those things balance out?
Overall, I would say this trail isn’t great for kids. Some kids can definitely do it, but I wouldn’t call it a kid-friendly trail. (At least not in the uphill direction — most kids should have little problem walking it the other direction.)
Hiking this trail requires a lot of physical exertion, and that’s energy that could be spent more effectively elsewhere. Jungfrau has so many epic hikes that are worth tiring your kids out for — the hike from First Cliff Walk to Bort for example — and I’m just not sure this is one of them.
This particular hike is more about the destination than the journey. And in this case, there is an alternate route to the destination. That route is called the funicular, and it will take you from Mürren to the Flower Playground in about 4 minutes. (It will also cost you CHF 16 per adult and CHF 8 per child age 6-15, so that might be reason enough to hike instead.)
If you’re just looking for assurance that this trail is possible, rest assured that it is. If you are keen to give this trail a go, I would say it’s best for children ages five and up. Kids on the younger side should also have some hiking experience. As a reminder, this trail is not stroller friendly. Children will need to hike themselves or be carried in carrier.
For a personal anecdote, we did hike this trail with our child who was almost 5 at the time. It took us 35 minutes.
For context, they’re a very strong walker (we live in NYC and walk everywhere) and a pretty seasoned hiker. We had already done several hikes in Switzerland, so at the time, I didn’t really question their ability to do this one.
In the end, it went well for us and our child somehow did better than we did. Honestly, we got lucky because they found a topic they were really interested in (dinosaur toys) and then just talked about that nonstop the entire time. I’m not even sure they noticed we were going uphill.
Even though it went fine for us, I still didn’t think it was necessarily worth it.
Read more! Looking to combine hiking with playground? We’ve compiled a list of 5 Perfect Hike + Playground Pairings in Jungfrau, Switzerland.
Still trying to decide?
Here’s a fun little flow chart to help you decide if this hike is right for you.
Closing Thoughts
I chose to hike this trail because I didn’t want to spend money on the funicular. I foolishly looked at distance alone and figured we could just walk there. It worked out fine — we survived the hike without meltdown or protest — but it wore us out!
Between the hike up and playing at the playground, we had no energy to hike back down. We decided to take the funicular down. Alas, there was no 1-way down funicular ticket option. So yes, I made us hike and paid a roundtrip funicular fare. #facepalm
My main lesson from this experience is definitely that if there is a funicular option, the hiking alternative is probably not very fun.
I wrote this post to cover a gap in my own research. Nearly every reference I saw about this hike talked about it as a “downhill trail” and about how it’s a lovely way to get back to Mürren. No one was writing about hiking uphill to the Flower Playground. As it turns out, the reason for that is just that it’s probably not worth doing.
We weren’t the only ones doing it though. There were a few other adults on the trail behind us. However, the only other children we saw on the trail were walking downhill. If you want to experience this trail, hiking it downhill is the way to go.
That said, I don’t think you need to go out of your way to hike it downhill either. If you have the time and want to save a few bucks on the funicular, sure, hike it downhill. We didn’t personally do it in that direction, but the same logic applies. I think there are other trails that are more beautiful and more worth your time.
At the end of the day, I probably would not hike this trail again. What about you?
Leave a Reply