Hotel Review: Hotel Alpenrose Wengen

Prior to traveling to the Bernese Oberland area, I was torn on whether to stay in Wengen or Lauterbrunnen.  I liked the idea of a car free quiet town (Wengen) but I also liked the idea of an easily assessable transportation hub (Lauterbrunnen).  Hotels in Wengen were also more expensive, but because I had booked quite far in advance, the price difference between what I could (later) find in Lauterbrunnen wasn’t significant. In the end, I figured that it would be worth it to stay in a nicer and quieter town.

Hotel Alpenrose has extensive information on their website about the hotel and they even emailed me a few days prior to arrival, to advise me to contact them once I arrived into Lauterbrunnen or Interlaken.  Although Wengen is a car free town, they do allow service vehicles and Hotel Alpenrose operates a shuttle to and from the train station to make it easier for their guests.  Unfortunately, there isn’t any Wi-Fi at either of the Interlaken or Lauterbrunnen train stations, so I was unable to contact the hotel for a shuttle pick up, which meant I ended up walking down a steep path (in the rain!) for about 10 minutes before arriving at the hotel.  In hindsight, I likely could have asked someone at the tourist info centre to call the hotel for me, but since it wasn’t far, I figured it would be easily walkable.  Just be warned that path is quite steep.  And the only reason it took more than 5 minutes, was because I found the initial sign from the train station very confusing.

This sign was erected right outside the train station, where there were 4 different paths.  Even now, I still find it difficult to the directions from this sign.  After finally figuring out that I needed to head down to the underpass, it didn’t take long to reach the hotel.

I had found out that there would not be anyone at the front desk before 1pm, and fortunately I arrived shortly after 1pm.  However, when I arrived, there was not a single soul to be found.  I walked all around the main floor where the lounge and sitting area was and couldn’t find anyone.  After about 10 minutes, I started hearing a vacuum cleaner and I knew someone must be cleaning on the second floor and I went in search of this person.  Thankfully he was able to locate the front desk person and I was finally able to be checked in. 

I didn’t know it at the time, but apparently it is very common in Switzerland to be given massive key holders.  My room key at the Hotel Alpenrose was a single key that was attached to a key holder that was pretty much the size of my entire hand.  I supposed it is more difficult to lose that way, but it was quite inconvenient to carry around.

My room was extremely clean and reminded me of the chalets of Banff and Canmore.  I even had a small balcony and noticed that the two rooms on either side of mine didn’t.

My room came with a complimentary breakfast buffet.  This consisted of yoghurt, muesli, toast and a couple of hot items such as eggs and bacon.  They also offered a dinner service for 20CHF, which is quite the steal.  I ended up having dinner there both nights and enjoyed it greatly.  The first night was a set menu and the second night was a buffet.  The only negative side to the dinner is that they start serving it at 7pm and you must be at your table before 8pm.  Since Wengen is not the easiest place to get to, the time restriction made it slightly difficult as you always need to incorporate the time it takes to get back to Wengen into your plans.   

Upon check out, the hotel will shuttle you up to the train station.  In fact, they offer their shuttle service on all mornings, but if the hotel is busy, they will (understandably) only shuttle guests that are checking out with luggage.   

I had a wonderful stay at the Hotel Alpenrose and would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a quiet and relaxing stay in Wengen.