Oeschinensee

The Oeschinensee sits at 1,578 m above Kandersteg, in a cirque closed on three sides by walls rising to the Blüemlisalp at 3,660 m, with waterfalls coming off them straight into the water.

It is UNESCO-listed as part of the Jungfrau-Aletsch area, and it is the single best return on effort in Switzerland: a gondola and twenty minutes’ walking put you somewhere that looks like it should take a day to reach.

Getting there

Kandersteg is about two hours from Zurich and 40 minutes from Bern — it is on the Lötschberg line, and the station is in the village.

From the village, a gondola climbs in eight minutes. From the top station it is about twenty minutes on a broad, gentle path to the lake, mostly level. Anyone can do it, including with a pushchair for most of the way.

The alternative is to walk up from Kandersteg in about an hour and a half — pleasant, and it saves the gondola fare.

What to do there

Walk round the lake — about two hours, and the far side is where the crowds thin. The path is a mountain path in places, marked white-red-white; see hiking.

Go higher. The Heuberg and Fründenhütte routes climb steeply from the lake and give the view down onto that colour from above, which is the photograph everyone wants.

Swim. People do. The water is glacial and does not exceed about 20 °C at the surface even in August, and usually much less. There is a small area with boats for hire.

The toboggan run — a 750 m alpine coaster beside the gondola station, which is the reason a lot of families come, and rather good.

There is a restaurant at the lake and a mountain inn.

The colour

The turquoise is glacial flour — rock ground to powder by ice, suspended in the meltwater, scattering the light. It is strongest in June and July, when the melt is at its peak, and fades a little through late summer as the water clears.

When to go

June to October. The lake usually stays frozen into May and the gondola runs a summer season.

Go early. This is a very well known place among Swiss and German visitors, and the path from the gondola fills from mid-morning. Before nine it is nearly empty, and the light on the water is better.

In winter the frozen lake is a walking and ice-skating surface, and the village runs a winter path up. The gondola operates on a reduced timetable.

Nearby

• Kandersteg — the village, and the northern portal of the Lötschberg car-shuttle tunnel; see driving in Switzerland
• Blausee — a small forest lake of the same improbable colour, ten minutes down the valley
• Thun and its lake — half an hour north
• Interlaken — an hour, and the rest of the Bernese Oberland