Top Walk in Spiez
THE circular trail

A tremendously scenic walk in Spiez characterized by four sections: the beach trail, the mountain trail, views of valleys and mountains and finally the vine trail. In other words, a route made of fairy-tale lakeside promenades, pyramid-perfect like mountains and green hilly valleys, countless picnic and selfie spots and the highest vineyard north of the Alps. Let´s get this hike started!

Top walk in Spiez – Bang!

This one-of-a-kind circular tour starts immediately with a “bang”. It gives you a good impression of what level of sights you can expect during the next four hours. When we first arrived in Spiez, we simply did not know where to look first. The castle? The lake? The Alps? The vineyard? Each sight is simply more mesmerising than the other!

City of selfie backgrounds

Spiez is a town, with a population of around 13,000 people, located on the shore of beautiful Lake Thun. The town is located in the even more beautiful area of the “Bernese Oberland” region of the Swiss canton Bern. The exciting history of the city dates way back and we absolutely recommend you to research this subject further.

The gorgeous Spiez Castle set the very first selfie background. The first of many more to come. The castles dates back to the 10th century and is listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significance. It shows the change from a medieval castle to a patrician residence, in which the noble families of Strättligen, Bubenberg and Erlach lived. The charming castle has become a cultural and tourist meeting place. It now hosts unique exhibitions and is the most ideal setting for group tours, seminars or weddings. I quietly made a note in my head, for a potential, most certainly very pricey wedding venue. 

Signages in Switzerland – you cannot get lost!

We left the pretty castle behind us and started looking for “the signage”. This is always the first thing we do at the beginning of our hikes in Switzerland. Or rather I especially like to do: looking for our signage. I simply love the primarily yellow, in winter pink, sometimes white or green signs. During the past year, I have become rather obsessed with the perfectly worked out signage system here in Switzerland. They tell you exactly where you are (white sign in the centre), including height metres, in which direction you have to go in order to reach your destination and how long it will take you to get there. These signages definitely make hiking in Switzerland very easy. You simply cannot get lost!

Lake Thun, a beautiful Alpine lake with a secret

As expected, we found our signage easily and followed the route down to Spiez boat station. The next one-of-a-kind-selfie-background had come up within less than ten minutes. The clarity of the water is unbelievable. From this point of view Lake Thun presents itself in its most glorious state, with the Spiez castle and the Alpes in the background.

The Alpine lake was created after the last glacial period, some 115.000 years ago – what?? All right, it is very very old and very very clear and quite obviously jam-packed with passenger steamships since 1835. Luckily not today, the waters were calm and just one peaceful canoe passed by.

There is only one slightly concerning fact, an unspoken secret, about the lake. In fact, this might be able to throw a tiny shadow on the shining fairy-tale picture: after World War II and up until 1964, the Swiss Government disposed of unused munitions into Lake Thun. The quantity of munitions dumped is reported to be from 3,000 to more than 9,000 tons.

The first part of the trail – the stunning beach trail

Well, we didn´t come to learn disturbing facts about a pretty lake, we came to walk. Therefore, that´s exactly what we did. Off we went on this top walk in Spiez, following the “Spiez Strandweg” signage, direction “Faulensee”, along the stunning promenade of the lake. The promenade was busy on a Sunday morning and we were not surprised, as there were plenty of things to discover.

The Miracle of Bern

We passed by a wooden German soccer player sculpture and found out that this is where the “Spirit of Spiez” came into being.

The “Spirit of Spiez” helped the German national soccer team win the World Cup. During the 1954 FIFA World Cup this spirit helped the team, who stayed in the Hotel Belvedere, win the World Cup sensationally in that year. Oh yeah! One in four – whoop whoop!! All right, I got excited there. The “Miracle of Bern”, however, went down in football history and any soccer lover will know exactly what we are talking about.

It must also be mentioned that the team who lost this World Cup in 1954, was, after all Hungary. The only true chance to win a star. These were Krisztian´s words. Oh no! Luckily, Krisztian is not a big soccer fan. Therefore, he was not personally touched by looking at the proudly and broadly smiling wooden German soccer players.

In addition, further entertainment is provided by more than 50 benches along the way. These benches display wisdom sayings that invite you to philosophize, chat and laugh. There is also a barefoot adventure trail close by. Above all, you can learn all about the local flora and fauna. There are little boxes on poles towards the end of the track that invite you to peek in. You can discover a plant or fish and read some valuable information about it, lovely!

Some truths about Switzerland

During our time here in Switzerland, we have learnt something else. If the Swiss tell you the path will be steep, difficult and you should not suffer from fear of heights, then the path WILL ACTUALLY BE steep, difficult and you should DEFINITELY NOT suffer from fear of heights. So, if the Swiss describe the promenade and surroundings as an adventure trail, it actually WILL BE an adventure trail.  You can expect something interesting in every corner. Unsurprisingly, the beach path attracts countless local and foreign visitors.

After 30 minutes, we sadly reached the end of the beach trail, the first part of our walk in Spiez, already. For those of you, who are a little hungry and are capable to walk with a full belly, Faulensee is the place to stop. Here you can take a moment and try out one of the lovely fish restaurants. After some painful experiences, we have learnt that our first snack stop should happen AFTER the main ascent of the route. Until then, we got used to fuelling ourselves with grapes and nuts. As every body works differently, find out what works best for you.

The second part of the trail – the mountain trail

The second part of the route, the mountain trail, unsurprisingly led us upwards. The moderate ascent via an asphalt road kick-started our circulation after the relaxed start. With a heavier breath, we continued our way up, under passing the train tracks and motorway, direction Seeholzwald. Through the forest, we hiked up towards Hondrich, a mountain village, hosting a training centre for mountain agriculture and housekeeping. The charming, almost alpine-like village, sits at the bottom of one of the most perfectly shaped mountains we have seen so far, the Niesen.

A beauty with a snowy peak – Niesen mountain

Krisztian fell in love instantly. He stopped and admired the 2,362 metres high beauty. With its snowy peak, the mountain looked like it was coated with icing sugar. It comes as no surprise that due to its shape the Niesen is often called the Swiss Pyramid. Originally the mountain was called “Yesen”, after a yellow flower that still grows on the Niesen to this day. The sun in the background of the mountain, however, made it quite difficult to capture the Niesen in its entire loveliness. Therefore, we tried hiding behind a lamp post in order to throw a shadow on the camera. The ultimate plan to create THE most perfect photo. Unfortunately, we failed miserably. Subsequently, a new idea was born in that moment: Firstly, we have to return.  Secondly, we might as well climb up to the peak. Another Swiss hiking adventure was planted in our minds!

In case of low energy levels, one might as well take the Nisenbahn funicular. It starts from “Mülenen”, in an eventful 30-minute ride up to the summit, a superb experience! Alongside the funicular one finds, hold your breath, the LONGEST stairway in the world! Yet another of these “longest-highest-steepest” situations in Switzerland. The longest stairway in the world holds 11,674 steps!! After our “1000er Stägli” experience we feel WELL-CAPABLE now to deal with a few more steps. The staircase, however, is only open to the public once a year for a stair run event. What?? Stair-RUN-event??? Furthermore, one needs to be aware that at any time during your run, a ride of the Niesenbahn might pass by. What? Therefore, staying on the stairs is very dangerous. We took a moment to look up a few pictures of that famous “Niesen-Treppenlauf” run. After that, we decided to happily skip that experience.

Time for a break during this top walk in Spiez

We left the mountain, including its crazy staircase, as well as the highest point on our route behind us. It was time to take a break. We chose a sunny spot overlooking the “Niedersimmertal”. Here we spread out our jackets on the green grass. We criss-crossed our legs, unwrapped our sandwiches and simply enjoyed the wonderful valley views for a while.

The third part of the trail – views of valleys and mountains

Honestly, it was not that easy getting up again from our panoramic seat, with a relatively full belly. However, the path and third part of our route continued effortlessly through gentle meadows and airy forests. Soon we were back in the game, descending towards “Spiezwiler” and then “Spiezmoos” via “Lattingen”.

The fourth part of the trail – breath-taking views on the vine trail

The fourth and last part of our route, the vine trail, finished the same way this entire tour started Remember? With a “bang”!

After the village of Spiezmoos, we crossed the forested “Spiezberg” and found ourselves on the one-of-a-kind vine trail. For me personally, this was the absolute highlight of the entire route! This truly made it a top walk in Spiez. A beautifully set out walking path through the forest with simply breath-taking views over the vineyards, Spiez and Lake Thun. We were thunderstruck! This wasn´t enough however, the way was lined with inviting benches, once again offering little surprises. There were wisdoms, jokes and quotations, all concerning the most dominate topic of this part of the track: wine.

A nature trail, providing you with tons of interesting information, completed this amazing experience. We contently walked along and took what felt a trillion of pictures. Whilst reading and laughing about many of the wisdoms, we simply enjoyed every single moment.

When we caught sight of the stairs leading us through the vineyard back down to the Spiez castle, we could not help ourselves but feeling sadness. The end of this wonderful hiking experience was about to come. Slowly we descended, step by step. And as the castle drew closer, the sadness turned in happiness and thankfulness for having had such an incredible day.

Shortly after, we arrived at our car. Here we looked back over our shoulders at the scenery. We saw the lake, the alpine background, the green lawns and small villages, the Spiez castle and picturesque vineyards. We took a long breath in and a full breath out. What an eventful walk!