I am interested in visiting southern or central switzerland on a short trip with my wife. I am not opposed to camping but would prefer a chalet on this trip. Any suggestions would be very welcome with the following hopes:
1. Central or southern Switzerland
2. Near to nice walking and possibly via ferrata
3. Chalets are good - camping recomendations are fine too
4. Cheap as possible (perfectly happy to rent a room in a larger house).

Thanks very much!

how about Berner Oberland, near Grindelwald or Pennine Alps based near Zermatt?

Hi,

I just got back from a week in Ritzingen, in the Rhône valley between Fiesch and Furkapass. Finding a campsite in the Rhône valley shouldn't be too hard. We stayed here. Don't know about chalets. There's plenty around, but of course august is high season.

There's many walking possibilities around. An easy one is to take the gondola up from Betten to Bettmeralp and the next one to Bettmerhorn. Then there's a track that follows the ridge between 2.700 and 2.900m to a saddle south of Eggishorn. You can then continue to Eggishorn, there's an easy and short via ferrata there. You can also take a gondola directly to the ferrata from Fiesch. Pictures from our trip here (the first part is the walk I described + ferrata).

We also planned on doing the new via ferrata underneath the Tierbergli Hutte in the Urner Alps, but didn't get to it. This is a new ferrata that is accessible from the Sustenpass. According to the huttenwirt from the mentioned hut, it takes about 4hrs to do it.

I'm sure there's more ferrata's around. Enjoy the Alps!
Koen

BTW: you'll probably know this, but in German a via ferrata is called 'klettersteig'...

Saas Fee / Saas Grund have a couple of Via Ferrata routes nearby. Mittaghorn NW Ridge(described on ths site) and on the Jegihorn. I'm planning on doing both next month to aid acclimatization. Regarding accomodation, camping is available at Saas Grund. I'm not sure about anything else. Hope that helps.

charles wrote:how about Berner Oberland, near Grindelwald

I also recommend the area.
A couple years ago I stayed in the town of Lauterbrunnen:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lauterbrunnen

A short train ride to Interlaken (for city excitement), a short train ride up to the Eiger and the Jungfraujoch (highest train station in Europe), a short walk to Trummelbach falls (10 waterfalls inside a cave), and plenty of things to do...

We stayed at the "Camping Jungfrau", which had tentsites, cabins and rooms. From inside our tent we could see the gorgeous Staubbach Falls
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Laut ... ay2007.jpg

Gorgeous country... plenty to do.[/url]