Route: (Bern > Thun >) Spiez > Frutigen > Kandersteg > Goppenstein > Brig
There is also a significantly faster way into the Valais from the Central Plateau: the one through the Lötschberg base tunnel. But, you are on your holidays! So take the time to become acquainted with the more picturesque route! In Berne or Spiez, climb aboard the silver-green „Lötschberger“, the air-conditioned BLS RegioExpress train. This train isn‘t in quite such a hurry, since it also wishes to show you a thing or two en route.
At Frutigen in the Kander valley, it leaves the entrance to the 34.6-kmlong base tunnel behind and passes along extended loops and through several smaller tunnels on its way along the ruggedly romantic route to Kandersteg, which lies 460 metres higher in elevation. The valley becomes narrower, the mountains with their craggy cliffs higher. Kandersteg is the ideal place at which to alight and visit Oeschinen Lake. The train leaves the choice to you. But it now has no other options: It also needs to pass through the tunnel if it wishes to traverse the Bernese Alps into the Valais. Yet only 14.6 km later, you are already in Goppenstein, the gateway to the Lötschen valley. From here on you are spoilt for choice if you want to get out and explore on foot a characteristic part of the Valais with its sun-burnt timber houses, its fragrant forests and pastures. Should I already get off here, in Goppenstein? Or journey on for a while, until I reach the southern ramp of the almost 100-year-old Lötschberg mountain rail line where the entire width of the Rhone valley can be seen? The climate here until well into the autumn is practically as Mediterranean as it is in France‘s Provence, the destination of the Rhone, the river down below in the valley. Whatever your travel intentions, it‘s always a good idea to have your hiking boots and a small rucksack to hand when you board the „Lötschberger“. And when hiking in the fresh air has left you a little weary, you‘ll be pleased to know that trains to take you farther depart hourly.
