We hiked for 6 days in the Jungfrau region of Switzerland, and went on so many beautiful hikes. Out of all of them, though, my favorite was the hike from First Cliff Walk to Bort. This hike was the perfect balance of comfort and challenging, with endlessly beautiful views, and mostly low crowds. It was everything you’d want out of a hike in Switzerland.
If you’re interested in Cliff Walk views with basically no crowds, a pit stop at an Alpine lake and a playground at the finish line, you won’t want to miss this hike. In this post, I’ll explain what the hike is like, why we loved it and some tips you won’t want to miss.
About This Hike
The hike from First to Bort, nicknamed the Flower Trail, isn’t easy, but it’s not all strenuous either. With a bit of work at the start and end, you can enjoy epic views and easy hiking for most of the middle. Overall, the trial is easy to follow and well marked.
This hike begins at the First gondola station, the final stop on the Grindelwald to First gondola line. The first leg of the hike is to Bachalpsee, which about 2 miles (3km.) It starts uphill, but flattens out after the first half mile and is then smooth sailing all the way to the alpine lake.
This is also the most popular and crowded leg, as it’s the only hiking trail easily accessible from the very popular First Cliff Walk. After Bachalpsee, most people turn around and head back to First. If you keep going, you’ll have the rest of the flower trail mostly to yourself.
The next stretch — from Bachalpsee to Waldspitz is epic. You are walking slightly downhill through beautiful meadows, dotted with wildflowers and Brown Swiss cows, and staring down the peaks of Finsteraarhorn and Schreckhorn the whole way. (These are the same two peaks you’ll battle crowds to see from First Cliff Walk.)
The final bit is downhill, but hard. From Waldspitz, you can see Bort way down below. To get there, you have to descend a steep, seemingly endless set of switchbacks. (Technically, it’s about 1 mile and between -21 to -46% grade.) It’s not very exposed, and there are a mix of steep slopes and natural steps. It’s all very well marked.
After that, it’s a straight shot to Bort. There’s a great playground there if you’re hiking with kids who somehow still have energy left. (Ours somehow did!) There’s also a table service restaurant and a walk-up snack stand. Most importantly though, there’s a gondola station, which you can take up to First or down to Grindelwald.
Note: Speaking of kids, we did this hike with our almost-five-year-old. Our kid is a fairly seasoned hiker and walks a lot at home, but this trail was still hard on them. It pushed them, but they were capable. It’s difficult in terms of grade, but not dangerous in terms of exposure.
Hike Details
- Start: First gondola station (here, near First Cliff Walk)
- End: Bort gondola station (here)
- Swiss Hiking Trail Number: #4
- Total Distance: ~5 miles (AllTrails quotes it at 4.8, I logged 5.3)
- Time: ~3 hours (It took us 3.5 hours.)
- Elevation Gain: 500 feet
- Difficulty: Moderate (uphill at the start, then largely easy downhill, ending with a steep decent)
- Facilities: Food & restrooms at start and end, and a cafe near the end in Waldspitz.
- Best time to hike: Summer — this hike is not possible in the winter.
- Good for kids? This trail is probably best for kids 5 and up, but kids 3-4 with hiking experience will fare just fine. Strollers not recommended.
NOTE: The latter half of this trail is not shown on Google Maps. There are trail markers along the way, but you might also want to have a physical hiking trail map with you. They should be available in more tourist offices and transit locations.
How to Get to the Start — First Gondola Station
This hike itself begins at the First gondola station, but getting up to the gondola station can be a journey on it’s own.
The trip begins in Grindelwald. The lower cable car station, Firstbahn, is located on the east side of town.
If you’re staying in Grindelwald, you can probably walk to the cable car station. If your arriving by train from a nearby town, the train station is about a 15 minute walk to the cable car station. (Here’s a link to the route.) If you’re getting to Grindelwald via cable car from Männlichen, that cable car line comes into the Grindelwald Terminal on the opposite side of town. From there, it’s a longer walk (40 minutes) or a short bus ride. We’d suggest the latter, as it’s well marked and runs regularly.
The cable car station, Firstbahn, in Grindelwald is notoriously chaotic. It is always crowded and long queues are common. We got there at 10 AM on a Thursday, and it was starting to get fill up, but honestly wasn’t too bad. Plan to arrive early and/or visit on a weekday to avoid the biggest crowds, and buy your tickets online in advance.
The trip up on the First Cable Car is also very expensive. As of publication, an adult roundtrip ticket costs CHF 72 (almost $90 USD.) You can save on this ticket if you have a Jungfrau Travel Pass (ticket fully covered), Swiss travel Pass (50% discount) or Swiss Half Fare Card (50% discount.)
Note: If you have the Jungfrau Travel Pass, you can ride the cable car too and from any stop as many times as you want. However, if you buy a one-time return ticket, you are typically only allowed to enter/exit each station one time.
Once you’re on the cable car, take it to First (which is actually the last stop.) Once you get off the cable car, exit to your right and follow signs toward Bachalpsee. You will pass the First viewing platform and entrance to the cliff walk on your left, and then follow the trail up and onward.
Note: If the weather is good, you might want to do the Cliff Walk first. It’s free and takes about 15 minutes. If the visibility is poor though, we’d suggest circling back to do it later (if you have the Jungfrau travel pass.) More on this in the Tips section below.
Part 1: Hiking from First to Bachalpsee
The hike from First to Bachalpsee is one of the more popular hikes in the region, and it’s understandable. First Cliff Walk is one of the most popular attractions in the region, and the trail to Bachalpsee is one of the only hiking trails easily accessible from there. Add to that Bachalpsee is stunning at the hike there is pretty short and pretty easy, it’s no surprise that the masses flood to this trail. (And honestly, they should. It’s a great hike!)
It’s not hard to follow the crowds past First Cliff Walk, up the gravel trail and on to Bachalpsee. This portion of the trail is just under 2 miles and took us just under an hour. It starts uphill, but flattens out after about a half mile.
Despite the occasional crowds, it’s a lovely stretch of trail. It cuts through the greenest meadow, lined with wildflowers, small ponds and views for days. When we left the First Cliff Walk area, we were in the middle of the cloud, but after 10 mins on this trail, the clouds started to clear and it was absolutely stunning.
When you approach Bachalpsee, you’ll see that there are actually two lakes. The one to your left (the lower lake) is the most popular. If you visit on a calm day, this is the lake where you can often see the reflection of the peaks in the water. If you want some solitude, follow the path around the lake to your right (the upper lake.) We ventured this way and felt like we had the entire place to ourselves.
Whichever side you chose, it’s easy to find a nice place to sit and take in the views. During our visit, the wispy clouds kept hovering over the peaks. We found ourselves staying “just five more minutes” over and over again, thinking for sure the clouds would clear this time. You can also technically swim in Bachalpsee, but even in the summer, the water is ice cold.
After your done at Bachalpsee, walk back toward the trail you came in on. If you’re walking in the direction back to First, you’ll pass a small warming hut on your left and then get to a trail sign. Turn right and follow the trail sign toward Waldspitz.
Part 2: Hiking from Bachalpsee to Waldspitz
After leaving Bachalpsee, I must admit that I was a little worried. It just seemed a little concerning that so many people were hiking to Bachalpsee, but hardly anyone was on this trail. Switzerland’s landscape can be punishing, and if you pick the wrong trail or go the wrong way, you’re hike can end up being a lot harder than you thought.
I trusted the trail signs, my trail map and my research and it paid off. This portion of the trail is the reason why this hike was my favorite in Switzerland. It was incredible.
This stretch followed a gentle grade down through a meadow. The rugged trail was well marked and cut gently through the sloped country side. We posed with cows, watched the paragliders, and enjoyed the sounds of the babbling Alpine streams along the way way.
We could see First Cliff Walk to our left for most of the trail. We hiked toward the same peaks that you crowd in for up there, but we had them all to ourselves out here. (We encountered exactly 3 other groups on this trail.)
The trail itself is mostly dirt and rock, with some natural steps along the way. It was defined, but not paved or flat. You could argue that the trail to Bachalpsee could possibly allow an all-terrain stroller, but this stretch definitely couldn’t.
Around mile 3.5 (right about here) the trail lead out of the meadow, through a small “town” (about 6 buildings, which had a food icon on my map, but we couldn’t find it) and onto a road.
Don’t worry, this is right. You’ll follow the road for about a half mile. The flat surface is a welcomed break, and there’s even a bench along the way. There are several trail signs around here, which will point toward both Waldspitz and Bort.
The road will take you right to Waldspitz — you can’t miss it, it’s the first and only restaurant on the trail. You can grab a bite to eat or turn left at the trail marker pointing toward Bort.
Part 3: Waldspitz to Bort
From Waldspitz, you’re not that far from Bort as the crow flies. You can see it down below from certain spots, and it looks so close yet so far. The trail marker notes it as 40 minutes, but it took us closer to 1 hour (which included a stop for a pep talk for our little one.)
The hardest part is only about a quarter mile, but it is straight down the mountain. It’s not an exposed or scary drop off though, which is nice. It’s just a very steep series of switchbacks that quickly descends through the woods before flatting out for the final 3/4 mile stretch into Bort.
This particular leg isn’t the main highlight of the hike, but it’s fine. Once you get out of the switchbacks, the meadow leading towards Bort was quite nice. Our toddler was about tapped at this point and had to go to the bathroom, so we were just ready to be done by the time we got here.
A Quick Visit to Bort
Bort is one of the stops on the Gridnelwald to First cable car. It has a restaurant, snack stand and playground. It’s also a stop for some of the adventure activities in the area, which we’ll get to.
After our hike, we were starving. However, by this point, we’d been to enough Swiss restaurants to know that it was going to take at least an hour to eat there. We didn’t want to spend that much time here, so instead, we grabbed some chips and drinks from the snack stand and let our kid play for 30 minutes. We would eat a proper lunch at First afterwards.
Like all alpine playgrounds, the playground at Bort was incredible. It featured a pretty challenging ropes course, a few small trampolines and a stream with a rock dam building area. (Our exhausted 5-year-old pulled an epic flying squirrel move to reach the slide at the top.) It’s a great playground that’s definitely worth stopping at if you have kids. It’s the only playground along this cable car line.
Bort is also one of the stops for the adventure activities in the area. It’s the end station for the Mountain Cart which runs down from Schreckfeld and the starting station for the Trottibike scooters which go down to Grindelwald. We didn’t do any of these because our kid was too little, but they’re very popular. (So popular in fact that the lines looked painfully long, so plan accordingly.)
Where to go from Bort?
From the Bort cable car station, you can ride up to First or back down to Grindelwald. The most obvious thing to do after this hike is to take the cable car down and call it a day. However, there’s a good reason why you might want to go up to First instead.
That reason is crowds.
The First cable car station is the start of the line at the top of the peak. It’s a very popular station and everyone will be leaving in the afternoon. That means most of the gondolas are going to be filled at the first station. Trying to squeeze in at Bort is can be tricky and frustratingly time consuming.
If you have a flexible ticket that allows it, we’d suggest going up to First after the hike. Then you can simply wait in the regular queue, board an open gondola, and head on down to Grindelwald.
In most cases, you’re going to want to spend some time in the First Cliff Walk area anyway. (There’s the Cliff Walk, a restaurant/bar, gift shop and viewing platform.) It will be tempting to do First first. But when you factor in the cable car crowds at Bort, it makes a strong case to do First second.
One final reason to do it this way though is weather. It can often be cloudy at First Cliff Walk in the morning. When we arrived, we literally could not see anything. Instead of waiting it out, we just got right to hiking, knowing that we could circle back for another try in the afternoon. That plan worked out perfectly for us, as we enjoyed clear views and pretty low clouds on our second attempt in the late afternoon (around 4 PM.)
If you do plan to do it this way, just be sure to pay attention to the cable car schedule. During our visit, the cable car only ran until 6 PM. It was a bit of a tight squeeze, but actually worked out perfect for us. (For context, we started our hike at 11:15 AM, got to Bort around 3 PM, got to First at 4 PM, and were back in Grindelwald by 5:30 PM.)
Tips for this hike
- Follow trail markers. This trail is not on Google maps, but there are plenty of trail markers along the way. Follow signs to Bachalpsee, then Waldspitz, then Bort.
- Prioritize good weather. Avoid this hike during rain. The middle, rocky portion can be very slippery and the switchbacks near the end would be very difficult/dangerous in muddy conditions. Also, this hike is only open during the summer season (mid-June through late-September.)
- Don’t hike this trail in reverse. Though we did see a trail runner climbing up the switchbacks, this trail is definitely not worth doing in reverse order. Not only would you be going uphill, but the best views would be behind you the whole way.
- Bring snacks and water. There’s only one food/drink stop along this trail and it’s near the end. Be sure to bring your own water and snacks.
- Avoid taking the cable car down from Bort in the afternoon. Most of the gondolas going down from Bort will be full with people leaving First. It’s often faster (and less stressful) to go up to First, and then come all the way down.
- Visit First Cliff Walk in the late afternoon. This attraction get’s very crowded, but the crowds tend to lessen as closing time approaches. Circle back around to this after your hike for fewer crowds, and often better weather and views.
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