A Dream Realized: Hiking Through Switzerland’s Bernese Oberland with Macs Adventure 

Meet Janice, a lifelong dreamer, passionate hiker, and travel writer who waited nearly five decades to see Switzerland - and found far more than just mountains. 

For years, the image of alpine peaks and flower-strewn valleys lived only in Janice's imagination. But a Macs Adventure hiking tour to the Bernese Oberland changed everything. What unfolded was not just a journey through some of the world’s most enchanting landscapes, but a powerful reminder of what it means to feel fully alive. 

This is the story of how one unforgettable week in the Swiss Alps reignited a love for hiking, inspired deep gratitude, and delivered wellness, creativity, and joy in the most unexpected and awe-inspiring ways. 

When our train departed Lauterbrunnen station on a flawless, blue-sky morning en route to Interlaken and Zurich, my eyes began to well. I felt unexpectedly emotional as the alpine scenery slipped past. Over the previous seven days, my husband and I had been on a Macs Adventure trip to the Bernese Oberland. It had been the best week of my travel life. 

From a young age, I dreamed of visiting Switzerland. The pull of its snowy peaks, verdant valleys, and pastoral scenes seized me as a child reading Heidi. Then, at the age of nine, on a trip to Colorado from our home in the US Midwest, I saw the mountains for the first time and was hooked. Though, it would not be until I was nearly 50, after half a lifetime of travels and hiking, that I finally had a chance to visit. Would reality meet my expectations? On this trip, it would be exceeded one hundredfold.  

During our July visit, unreal alpine views of iconic peaks greeted us around every bend. Storybook villages, rich with chalets draped in cascading blooms and restaurants serving rösti and fondues, served as our base. From each town, train and cable car lines and trails radiated out, giving us unlimited options to sightsee, stroll, or engage more strenuously. For an outdoor lover, it was paradise; for me, it was a dream come true. 

Each morning, with our Macs notes or guidance from our knowledgeable and helpful innkeepers, we explored routes above Mürren, Wengen, and Grindelwald. Each trail granted us new, unbelievable, and heart-soaring views.  

Despite having traveled widely to over 50 countries, the landscape beguiled us. My husband, a natural storyteller, and I, a travel writer and blogger, found ourselves at a rare loss for words. We resorted to calling what we saw "stupid-beautiful" - an admittedly inadequate term but one that conveyed our disbelief at the perfection around us. How else do you describe stepping off the first cable car up to the Schilthorn on a cloudless summer morning into the blindingly bright mountaintop sun surrounded by the majesty of 360-degree views of the Alps? Or walking the Männlichen-Kleine Schiedegg trail with the sun on your skin, the perfume of alpine flowers in the air, the clanging of cowbells, and the exclamation of Eiger in the distance? 

For a mountain lover like me, words became less relevant than the moment. In it, I was awarded with a deep sense of wellness of mind and body that could only be earned through the exhilaration and joy of exploration.  

One of my primary goals as I get older, now that I am firmly in my early 50s and as much as it is within my control, is to stay physically fit. I do this not only for the general health benefits it brings but also so I can continue hiking and walking in beautiful locations around the world.  

When surrounded by nature on a trail, it gives a rare chance for a constantly planning-the-next-thing brain like mine to be utterly and comprehensively in the moment, granting me a deep sense of presence and wellness of mind like few other activities can. Plus, it serves up perspective, helping minimize whatever ill weighing on me by making it feel less consequential and more fleeting. Further, it reminds me of how much beauty there is in the world, in a place like Switzerland and so many others, and how phenomenally fortunate I am to experience it. The feeling I get is a sense of grateful joy mixed with exhilarated awe. And it is one of the primary reasons I keep returning to self-guided walking vacations as my favorite form of travel. 

Happily, this sense of presence also serves as a fortuitously effective form of creative reset. As a writer, this means gaining inspiration to harness all five senses better and instilling it in my words to encourage others to get outdoors and explore. As an entrepreneur and business owner, this clean sweep opens up ideas for new ventures, connections, and improvements. I have done some of my best inadvertent brainstorming while walking a gorgeous trail in a spectacular spot.     

And for this, I thank you, Macs, for helping to bring my passion and dream to a life-changing reality. 

To read more about Janice’s journeys and to follow her walking adventures around the world, visit her blog at gatherandgotravel.com and check out her social media @gatherandgotravel