Roger P.
Yelp
If you're ever in Grindelwald, you have to visit Grindelwald First. There's just so much to do including a beautiful gondola ride, some fun activities for thrill-seekers, beautiful picture spots, and nice hikes to stroll through. You can buy your tickets ahead of time online, with discounts for Half Fare and Swiss Pass. We visited in the summer and I thought it would be cold because of the high altitude, but that was not the case. It was hot and barely any shade in the area so dress accordingly.
But being in the mountain means that the weather can be very unpredictable. Because tickets aren't refundable, I highly recommend just monitoring the weather a couple of days before and leaving your plans very flexible. You want to aim for a clear, sunny day because if it's foggy or raining, the views obviously won't be as impressive and some of the attractions will close.
If you plan on partaking in the high adrenaline activities, you can purchase package tickets that cover the gondola and either 1 or 2 activities. You can't pick which one you want and there aren't time slots so plan accordingly and get there as early as you can. Popular attractions like First Flyer and Glider can have up to 3 hour waits and if it's too busy, they'll turn you away. We arrived at the gondola right when it opened at 8AM and began our ascent to First Glider.
The views going up the mountain were amazing and every now and then, you can hear the cow bells. You can fit up to 6 people in one gondola and I'd imagine during peak hours, the workers will try to fill it up as best as possible but since the line wasn't long, our group of 4 took one car. From Grindelwald to First, the journey should take about 20 minutes but we got off at Schreckfeld first to line up an hour before First Glider opened.
After the First Glider, we took the Mountain Carts down to the Bort station. Between the two activities, I thought the Mountain Carts were way more fun. It's a little dangerous because you could spin off the road but everyone wears a helmet and if you follow the rules, you should be fine. The views on the carts were a bit better than the Glider because you get to see more but make sure you don't stop in the middle of the road and block all the other carters.
From Bort, we had to split up and just fill any gondola cart to get to the First station. We walked through the First Cliff Walk, which is a free metal walkway that wraps around a cliff. It seems pretty daunting but it's very easy to go through and just offers a different perspective of the mountains. It ends at the restaurant and an observation point but the line for pictures were too long so we skipped it.
I would actually love to come back and just stroll through the area and thoroughly enjoy the place. Because we had so much planned for the day, we had to rush through a couple of things. It would've been nice to grab a beer, some food, and just sat and picnicked on the grass. Alternatively, if you're an avid hiker and want to save money, you can also hike all the way up but that'll probably take a couple of hours.