Männlichen Royal Walk – A Short But Steep Hike in the Swiss Alps

steep slope up the Männlichen Royal Walk

The Männlichen Royal Walk in the Swiss Alps is a short but steep hike with great views and friendly cows. It’s only about a mile long but your calves will feel it! At the end of the “walk” there is a lookout point shaped like a crown where you can enjoy beautiful views of the mountains and the valley.

Männlichen Royal Walk is steep but offers great views!
Way off in the distance at the top of the hill is the crown shaped lookout point at the end of the walk.

How to get to the Männlichen Royal Walk

You can reach the walk by cable car from Grindelwald or Wengen. From Wengen, it’s a beautiful 10 minute ride up the mountainside. It’s even prettier if you book a “royal ride.” That’s the balcony that sits on top of the cable car. That’s right, you can ride ON TOP of the cable car! It sounds terrifying but is actually very nice.

Take a ride to the Männlichen Royal Walk on top of a cable car from Wengen.
Brian taking the “royal ride” on top of the cable car from Wengen to Männlichen.

On the balcony, you can feel the mountain breeze and the sun on your cheeks as the cable car rises dramatically up the mountain. It’s an extra 5 francs for the “royal” add-on but we were the only ones up top during our ride, so it really did feel more special than staying in the packed interior.

Luckily the royal walk is not nearly as steep as the “royal ride” on the cable car from Wengen to Männlichen.

When you get off at the top it’s immediately clear where the royal walk is because off in the distance at the top of a hill you’ll see a lookout point that looks like a crown.

The top of the Männlichen Royal Walk is a crown shaped lookout point.
The crown lookout point at the top of the royal walk.

The Männlichen Royal Walk is only about a mile but it is very steep and the path is paved with gravel which to me felt pretty slippery. I ended up walking mostly just off to the side on the grassy shoulder. If you walk in the grass though you have to tread carefully to avoid the cow patties!

There are lots of cows along the Männlichen Royal Walk.
Cows galore!

What to expect on the Männlichen Royal Walk

Before I start talking about the view I do want to take a moment to tell you about the cows. There were so many cows up here! There were even more cows than in Gruyères. They didn’t seem bothered by the humans, just stood around chewing their cud and mooing. They were all wearing bells with different sounds to them so there was a lovely cacophony of ringing and mooing to encourage you in your walk.

The cows were all extremely chill and unconcerned with the tourists.
Caught this lady mid cud-chew!

Once you get up to the walk you have plenty of space to enjoy the panoramic views of the mountains around you. On a clear day you can see the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau peaks. When we went it was partially clear but there was some intermittent cloud cover so our views were obstructed for a little bit. We went in the morning which in September was probably not ideal since there was some fog still burning off a little bit.

The views from the summit of the Männlichen Royal Walk are unparalleled.
Majestic!
Views from inside the crown at the summit.
A few scattered clouds but the fog had mostly burned off.

Where to go after conquering the Männlichen Royal Walk?

After you get to the top of the Royal Walk, catch your breath, take photos, and admire the mountains. Then head down (which is more precarious than coming up) and keep walking the other direction if you feel like prolonging your hike.

Signs near the Männlichen cable car show you where else you can hike.

There is signage right outside the cable car station that shows you where else you can go. We carried on toward Kleine Scheidegg along with several other scattered groups. That hike was a beautiful stretch across the mountains. You get a great view of the Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau peaks straight ahead of you the whole way.

There were times the pathway had a pretty steep drop on one side. Brian and I were watching the ground almost as much as the mountains!

You can keep walking from the summit of the Männlichen Royal Walk towards Kleine Scheidegg.
It doesn’t look as steep in a photo as it feels when you’re right there.
We saw paragliders here as well. Can you spot the one in this photo?
It was a nice 1.5 hour walk across the mountain to Kleine Scheidegg where we took a train to Grindelwald.
Made it!

We took the train from Kleine Scheidegg to Grindelwald which was a fun and scenic journey over the mountains. From Grindelwald we took a gondola to First where there was all sorts of fun to be had. Check out my next post to read about our time at the First Cliff Walk!

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13 Replies to “Männlichen Royal Walk – A Short But Steep Hike in the Swiss Alps”

  1. wonderful! 💖 the “majestic” shot.

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    1. Thank you! We photographed someone else doing this shot and then they did the same for us haha. So somewhere out there we have a twin shot with another tourist.

  2. I presume the walks in the Swiss Alps, will always have the word ‘steep’ in it 😉. You certainly had a unique way of getting to the start of the hike – ON TOP of the cable car! Lovely photos (those with the cows are really nice)! And wow, those views are incredible beautiful!

    1. Yes! When I heard about riding on top of a cable car I knew we had to do it. 🙂 It was so unique and the views were unhampered by windows/supports, etc. that are inside the car. Thanks for reading and commenting!

  3. Toller Artikel. Macht Lust auf mehr. Und diese klasse Fotos! 💥🥰

    1. Thanks! And thanks for reading and commenting. 🙂

  4. Fantastic post. Just discovered your site. Following! Cheers, John and Susan

    1. Thank you John and Susan! I’m so glad you enjoyed my post and hope you enjoy the rest of my site. Thanks for the follow and the comment. 🙂

  5. Beautiful scenes💫

    1. Thanks Cherryl! Glad you enjoyed my post – thank you for stopping by and commenting. 🙂

  6. […] gravel/decomposed granite and were totally walkable/hike-able in running shoes. (The slope on the Männlichen Royal Walk was still a bit slippery but not sure different shoes would have helped.) If you have weak ankles […]

  7. Just stumbled across your wonderful travel blog, after we had already booked our upcoming early fall itinerary to beautiful Switzerland. Bizarrely, and by strange coincidence we are going to many of the exact same places as you. Flying into Geneva, staying a few days in Montreux and the Swiss Riviera (yeah maybe we should have booked a hotel in Vevey like you recommended – but too late!), then onto the Jungfrau Region for a few days (basing ourselves in Wengen), before visiting Luzern and area, and finally flying out of Zurich. We intend to do the same lakeside walk to Chateau de Chillon (looks awesome!), followed by nostalgic boat to Vevey (who doesn’t love a bit of La Belle Epoch), as well as day in Gruyeres (cheese and castles a combination that can never fail), and the amazing looking Mannlichen hike (to Kleine Scheidegg), amongst others. Did not originally plan on visiting “First” but maybe you inspired us! Thank you for sharing your travel story and reinforcing we made good choices!! PS who doesn’t love Laderach!?

    1. Wow, this is awesome! I’m so glad you found my blog (and even though you already planned, I hope you still found some of it helpful!) Your plan is uncannily similar to ours – I think you’ve chosen wisely! 🙂 Definitely do the First walk if you can, it was really worth it in my opinion. If you have other questions that I don’t cover in my blog, feel free to comment or message me directly and I’ll be happy to help if I can.

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