The minimum duration

The minimum duration of the tour is 3 days/2 nights, but allow more time if you also want to include a few days in Lucerne and Basel. The hut-to-hut tour is also easily extended with additional accommodations.

Accommodations

Book your accommodations well ahead - mainly Joch Pass is popular. Day 1: Alp Oberfeld. Day 2: Bärghuis Jochpass (comfortable and ideally located).

Gravity

Medium – an average of 4 to 6 hours of walking per day.

Best time

From the end of June until September.

Basel is the perfect starting point for this hut-to-hut tour. After arriving by train (you'll be there in no time), you can enjoy a delightful stroll through the city. Imagine modern art at the Fondation Beyeler, designer shops in the Altstadt (Old Town), and dinner by the Rhine (sit back, order a glass of Swiss wine, and watch the people drifting on a "Wickelfisch"). Even better: let yourself drift on a Wickelfisch. When the weather is good.

Krafft hotel and restaurant has international allure. The beautiful historic building on the nicest part of the quay on the Rhine houses a hotel and restaurant with terrace. If you stay there, try to book a room with a view of the river. Only drop by for lunch or dinner krafft is also a great idea. Definitely on the Basel wish list: the harbor district Holzpark Klybeck – for a bit of organized chaos and a healthy dose of creativity and culture. You'll find old shipping containers, wooden huts, and boats transformed into art studios, bars, and parties. It's also home to GannetAn old lightship transformed into a laid-back restaurant with an Italian vibe. Upstairs, you can sip a drink overlooking the Rhine, while downstairs there's live cooking, and the basement is home to a music room.

We collected the tips for Basel in a separate list

You'll wake up to the sound of goat milking or cow mooing outside. The day starts early, and rightly so, when you're on a hut-to-hut hike. A hearty morning meal (Swiss bread, cheese, milk: you know the drill) and a packed lunch to go. Backpack on and go.

You start on the Walenpfad, a panoramic hiking trail between Melchsee-Frutt and Engelberg. Less well-known than its sibling, the 4 Lakes Hike, but certainly no less beautiful. The trail winds through alpine meadows, past wooden chalets, babbling brooks, and fields of blooming flowers. Every now and then a mountain peak appears in the distance, sometimes everything disappears briefly in the mist. The specific route is: Oberfeld – Walenalp – Brunnihütte. Once you reach the SAC Brunnihütte, you hike downhill to Ristis and on to Oberbord, where you can take the "Buiräbähnli" – a traditional cable car – down to the Engelberg valley. Too far to walk? Then you can also opt for the more comfortable option: the chairlift and cable car from the Brunnihütte directly to Engelberg.

Then take the free shuttle bus to the Titlis valley station. There, board the gondola towards Trübsee and get off at Trübsee. On to the next chapter of your mountain adventure.

The breakfast buffet and packed lunch from Bärghuis Jochpass Is exactly what you need for the last day. Today awaits one of the most beautiful stages of the tour. Total walking time: approximately 4 hours and 20 minutes. The descent first takes you to the deep blue Engstlensee: so still and clear. Then the route climbs a slightly steeper path towards Tannalp. The rugged, rocky terrain gradually gives way to an open landscape of moor and alpine flowers; it looks much more charming.

Along the banks of Tannensee and Melchsee, you'll hike across the high plateau towards Melchsee-Frutt. Aha! We're seeing people again! It's great, because here you see kids playing with families around the gondola. The region offers plenty of entertainment, as we saw several scavenger hunts around the gondolas these days.

From Melchsee-Frutt you can take the cable car down to Stöckalp, but if you don't want to stop yet, you can simply continue along the classic hiking trail into the valley.

Interested? See more hiking trails here.