There’s not much more I love than summer in the mountains, and Engelberg was no exception. With family-friendly mountain hikes, an alpine coaster, enchanting interactive playgrounds, and alpine lake hikes, Engelberg delivers. Here are our family’s favorite things to do in Engelberg in the summer.

Grotzenwäldi Spielplatz: Enchanting Alpine Lake Playground

I would hesitate to call Grotzenwäldi an actual spielplatz, or playground — yet it is the most idyllic spot for kids and adults: a beautiful alpine lake lined with wooden paddle-rafts and plenty of outdoor grills, tables, and firewood. Grab a stone table in the shade, then take out some paddle rafts and lazily glide around the lake. There are a few towers to climb and plenty of grass to run around. The clear alpine lake is cold and refreshing in the warm sun.

Just before lunch, grab some firewood and start up your grill for a perfect lakeside lunch. There are also bathrooms on site. We loved it here so much we came back a second day.

Make sure to bring: brats to grill, picnic food, paper plates and cups, drinks, sunscreen, lighter, and fire starters. You can pick up everything at the local grocery store in town on your way to the lake! 🙂

Trübsee: Alpine Lake Hike

Take the Titlis lift up to the middle station Trübsee for a beautiful alpine lake hike. In summer it is full of wildflowers and I spent the whole time thinking how lucky I was to be there. If you have kids, make sure to check out the Trübsee Adventure playground first, which was an excellent to explore and wear the kids out before we walked a short way to lunch at Alpstubli am Trübsee.

This stunning restaurant had even more stunning and delicous food. I’m always amazed at the restaurant quality at these somewhat remote locations! The Alpstubli has a small playground next to the perfect climbing rocks to keep the kids entertained while you grab a glass of wine after your meal and soak up the sun.

Continue on around the entire lake after lunch. The lake path is scattered with unique smaller playgrounds to keep kids entertained. Our two year old twins napped for this portion of the walk so it was quite relaxing to enjoy with our four year old!

Brunni-Bahn: Family-Friendly Mountain Hikes and Alpine Coaster

Ride up the Brunni cable car and you can explore a few mountain playgrounds and the alpine coaster, Sommerrodelbahn Brunni. Our young kids did this again and again with a parent and were delighted the to ride right next to cows!

After many rides on the rodelbahn, Take the next chair lift up to the Härzlisee, where you can head to the Kräuterhut for a treasure map (5 CHF) to do Globi’s Treasure Hunt Hike. This treasure map is perfect to entertain the kids while you get to enjoy a mountain hike! You can choose to do either the 3.5km (from 3 years) or 4.5km (from 7 years) downhill hike. We had small kids so the shorter 3.5km hike was perfect for us. Our 4 year old held the treasure map and the kids were practically running from treasure chest to chest!

Fürenalp: Hikes and Mountain Restaurant

Fürenalp deserves much more hype than it seems to get, I thought this was the most stunning mountain area we went to. There are lots of hiking trails at the top of the lift but we were only able to do a short path with all of our kids – we were tired out from the sun and multiple days of mountain hikes! Instead we dined at the excellent Bergrestaurant Fürenalp, complete with a good playground and of course cows grazing just beyond.

There is a bear’s nest you can explore, where it was discovered a brown bear lived there some 1,200 years ago. Bear’s nest or not, these mountains are stunning and I would love more time to explore.

Getting There

Engelberg is a quick 3.5 hour drive from the Stuttgart region, making it an excellent summer holiday destination.

We visited in mid-late June, beginning of the season and had absolutely no waits or reservations required. Perfect time to go!

Make sure to bring: Sun hats, sunscreen, kids change of clothes each day especially with water activities

There are plenty more things to do in Engelberg, I feel like we just scratched the surface! Have you been, or would you consider going?

xx