Hills covered of Daffodils as far as the eyes can see. What more are there to say?

I am always in search of hikes around wild flower meadows in Switzerland and how happy wasn’t I when I found a blog post, about Daffodils growing wildly around Vue des alpes and Tête de Ran a few km above Neuchâtel. I was happy when I found the very little information about this place but I was even happier when we got finally to hike around the sea of Daffodils!

When to go?

Like all the spring wild flowers, one need to come on the perfect moment to view them. Either they are still under the snow, still not in fully bloom, or you come just a few days too late and they have already wilted! Normally the Daffodils around Vue des alpes and Tête de Ran grow late April to mid May. 

Do not get disappointed, please write to Nechâtel tourism office AND call the Vue des alpes restaurant.

How to get there

It ‘s 60 km/ 50 min away from Bern but it is totally worth driving there! I was afraid we would be driving on winding mountain road but it was actually “semi-autoroute” all the way up! To put on GPS, Tête de Ran, Les Hauts-Geneveys. ( Direction Chaux de Fonds)

Please note, if you want to do the round hike from Vue des alpes (more about it below), you can park your car at the Toboggan run across the Vue des alpes restaurant.

Already a few km away from Vue des alpes there were hills covered of wild Daffodils!

By public transportation:

From Neuchâtel railway station, you will need to take a train up to Le Chaux de Fonds and from there a bus nr 370 to Vue des alps. It should take altogether 1 hour!

If you come with the public transportation I would do the round walk of 6 km, 2 hours with about 100 m of elevation gain from Vue des alpes to Tête de Ran and back. This was our plan A!

The hike

Our initial plan was to do the round hike from Vue des alpes to Tête de Ran of 6 km, 2 hours with about 100 m of elevation gain. Unfortunately, the weather was supposedly to be bad for the upcoming weekend and the week after so we decided at the very last-minute to drive on a late Friday afternoon directly to Tête de Ran.

Instead we free-styled our own little hike around Tête de Ran of about 2 km with very little of elevation gain for about 1 hours at a slow pace.

We parked our car by the end of the road the Hotel and Restaurant at Tête de Ran.

The first steps into the sea of daffodils…and croucuses! The closer we got to the wild daffodils the more we realised how amazing this place is..and big. There are several hills and areas covered with thousands of wild daffodils!

We had dinner under the trees in the middle of a sea of daffodils. We wish though that we were more prepared for the heavy and cold wind. Not to be surprised, because like in french we say ” En Avril, ne te découvre pas d’un fil ! “, which basically means that in April, don’t get undress quite yet…lol.

Good to know

Daffodil is a common name for a family of plants called Narcissus and these beautiful flowers are toxic! When swallowed, it can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain. Eating the bulb can cause severe irritation of the mouth and stomach upset. These symptoms are usually not life threatening and resolve within a few hours.

Source : Here

For me, laying down there with my legs crossed and watching Mirabelle running around with a backdrop of a huge sea of yellow flowers, green grass and blue sky! At that very moment, I couldn’t feel happier!

Something extra for the kids

At the Vue des alpes there is a toboggan run of 700 m long! For more information Here.

Photos credit: Here

Both Tête de Ran restaurant and hotel, and the restaurant Les Gümmenen (look at the map above) have  play grounds for the kids! Depending of your hike, they can be a great stops for the kids.

As you should already know by now, I love hikes with something extraordinary, and hiking on a sea of daffodils at Tête de Ran, I would call it extraordinary! 

If you are interested of other wild flowers walks, how about a Sea of Narcissus at Les Pléiades above Montreux?

A sea of Narcissus at Les Pleiades, Switzerland.

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