We spent a day and a night in Engelberg, Switzerland as the final leg of our Europe road trip.

Welcome! If you’re new here and have stumbled on this blog through the magical and mythical powers of the Internet, my name is Ashley. This blog post is about a journey and road trip I took throughout Europe, but usually I write posts about travel, books, movies, and the television shows I’m watching throughout the years. It’s a bit of a digital diary and archive of sorts.

Some context for this blog post: in 2024 I won a Fulbright, then I lost it when the country I was selected for refused to give me a visa after a four month wait. It was a confusing time for me, as I had quit my job for this opportunity, and suddenly I was left unemployed and without any prospects ahead of me.

I did end up taking a year off in order to focus on my goals, as I was in the right financial situation and had enough savings, and in December I decided to take a leap of faith and book a five country Europe tour through EF Ultimate Break.

I’ll be writing a review of the company and tour on my blog, but I paid about $4,300 with all the excursions and whatnot to roam around Europe. I needed to unplug and not think, and I could afford the tour that would give me that.

As I mentioned before, I’m going to be writing blog posts for each of the countries and cities I visited during this trip, except for Liechtenstein, as we only went to that country for only thirty minutes as a bathroom break on the way to Switzerland.

This blog post is dedicated to our final location of this trip: Engelberg. Engelberg is a mountain resort town that the train runs through, but we were able to access it through one of the few roads that winds up the mountain and into the town. Good luck trying to get a taxi at night out of here—one of our road trip members through EF accidentally booked her flight out of Zurich at 7 AM the next morning, so she had to get the last train out of town at 10 PM the night before to catch her flight.

Never in my wildest dreams would I imagine that at 24, I would end up at a mountain resort in Switzerland. Our accommodations were at Ski Lodge Engelberg, and because we had four in one room, they literally gave us the attic room. There were no windows (only a skylight) or an elevator to that floor (classic Europe in that sense), so it was quite the adventure hauling all of our stuff up.

Let’s get into what we did in town!

Full of scenic views, Engelberg is the place to be if you want to relax.

We arrived from Lucerne at 7 PM at night, and checked into our rooms immediately at Ski Lodge Engelberg. Our tour guide had set something up for our group if we wanted: a fondue experience at a nearby bar for only 22 francs. I signed up for it because it felt like a must-do in Switzerland, especially if I was never coming back here in the near future.

I thought the fondue was delicious, but a lot of other people in my tour group despised it. I had a lot of fun dipping the potatoes and bread into the cheese, and thought it was quite tasty. Other people also ordered a handful of drinks here and there, but I stuck to water for this round. There was no way I was paying Switzerland prices for alcohol. It was really expensive in this country, and most of my budget was blown here.

We were in Engelberg in May 2025, so you could see the snow covered mountains looming around the town, but I don’t believe there were many ski slopes open. Don’t quote me on that, though.

Once fondue time was over, a group of us gathered outside and decided to venture throughout the town. Quiet hours are after 9 PM here, so you have to be quiet, but at sunset this town was absolutely stunning with the mountains, dull glow of lamps inside buildings, and the ringing bells of cows echoing throughout the valley.

Something to note about this town, though, is that everything shuts down early. The grocery stores close at 6 PM, while most of the restaurants are closed by 8 or 9 PM. Our tour guide informed us of this as soon as we got into town, as there’s not much to do in Engelberg in general. It’s very much a relaxing kind of town.

After walking around I went into my room, where my roommates had not come back yet, and plopped into bed. I took a shower, read some of my book, and then passed out. I only woke up when they came home, but went right back to bed because we had to get up early the next day.

Mount Titlis is worth going to if you’re around the area—but go earlier.

The next morning, we had to be downstairs by 8:30, so my roommates and I woke up at 7:20 AM, got ready, and headed down for breakfast at our hotel. It was the best tasting breakfast of this trip—the eggs and bread in this city were absolutely divine despite being so simple. Italy was my favorite spread of food, but Switzerland was definitely the best tasting meals.

We all gathered to head up the mountain, and were on some of the first lifts heading up the mountain. I have to make it very clear upfront: for this mountain specifically, you’re going to want to go early to beat the crowds. By the time we left the peak of Titlis, it was wall to wall people, especially Indian tour groups that clogged up the entry points.

No shade to the Desis. I had no idea the Shah Rukh Khan movie was filmed here and was delighted to see that. But some people have never been on top of a mountain or seen snow, nor do they follow the traffic flows because they’re so excited to be up here. I was happy for them, but people had to push and shove to get through to where they needed to be because of the lack of spatial awareness.

We went all the way to the top first, where we entered the ice cave. The ice cave is natural, so it was cool to see and touch the ice. We then ventured outside to the top of the mountain. There’s like a suspension bridge and lookout, other lookouts scattered about, and an area where, after taking a lift, you can go inner tubing as much as you want.

We spent about three hours at the top of the mountain in general. I went tubing for the first time, which was terrifying and scary, but also a lot of fun. The weather was great this day, so we were able to see the bottom of the mountain and the lush greenery that was below us. By the time we left, it was windy and somewhat snowy, so you could not see anything beyond in front of you and at the peak.

At one point we ventured inside to grab some hot chocolate, as the coldness can get to you. It’s a lot colder at the peak, and despite having layers, my hands and face were freezing. Definitely come prepared, especially in the colder months.

The hikes around here are something I am going to remember forever.

After finishing at the top of the mountain, we took the lift down two locations, as there’s a massive lake you can hike around. There’s also a cafeteria our entire group ate at. I got the alpine macaroni and a sparkling apple juice for $30, which was an interesting time. The macaroni and cheese had applesauce in it, which I definitely was not used to in the beginning of my meal.

Once we ate, we went on the massive circle hike around the lake. It was literally the most beautiful hike of my life. We kept stopping to sit, absorb the views, or skip stones on the lake while talking about how incredible our trip around Europe was in general.

100% go on the hike if you’re in the area at least, or try to find a similar trail. I don’t think I’ll remember the mountain as much as the hike around it—this was truly burned into my brain at how beautiful it was. The lake itself was too cold in May to go into, but it was stunning to look at.

After this, we went and took naps back at the hotel. Two of my roommates and I then went to Migros and Coop to stock up on chocolate before we left, then we rested before the final dinner with our tour group. It was in our hotel, and they made us a three course meal with salad, two drinks of our choice (I ended up just getting a Sprite), chicken thighs with fresh roasted vegetables, and a whipped cream with fresh berries situation for dessert.

That meal was fantastic, and I went upstairs after telling people goodbye in order to have time to pack my belongings, shower, and get some sleep. I somehow managed to sleep through my roommates leaving at 4 AM, then got up at 6 to grab breakfast before we left.

Soon after, we loaded up onto the bus, said goodbye to each other, and I basically wandered the Zurich Airport for five hours because EF dropped me off so early compared to when my flight was. I managed to find the Lindt pear chocolate in the Migros attached to the airport, and had a great time wandering around and seeing what was in the shops. Then I boarded my flight to London, and that was it!

This was such a fantastic trip, and I loved Engelberg. I don’t know if I’ll be back because of how many other places I need to go in the mean time, but I’m going to remember it fondly.

Follow me below on Instagram and Goodreads for more.