Hiking near Tour d’Aï to Leysin

Getting there

Hikes around Leysin are a great day trip from Geneva, as it takes little more than 2 h by train to reach this destination. The area around Leysin has plenty to offer, with beautiful landscapes all around.

Starting point: La Berneuse

Finishing point: Leysin

Distance: 9.3 km

Total time: 2:30 h

Elevation gain: 220 m of elevation gain and 677 m of descent

Fitness difficulty: Easy going down, moderate if done in reserve

Technical difficulty: Moderate

Facilities: The hike starts at the gondola station La Berneuse, where there are bathrooms. There’s a few benches to enjoy the landscape on the way, and the next facilities are in Leysin.

Notes:

As per September 2026, there were military exercises happening on the other side of the montain. Check in SwissTopo which are the regions where one is not allowed to go to, and especially when the trainings take place.
Tour d’Aï is more famous for its via ferrata than for the hike. I don’t do via ferratas, so cannot tell more about the path, but a friend commented that this one was relatively hard since all of it was over metallic posts.

The hike

Starting in La Berneuse

Once you reach the top, you can already have beautiful views of the Tour d’Aï, with its characteristic shape. There are several options on what to do around – there are bike routes, and the path to the via ferrata, but I chose to do the hike to Leysin (route 141) to have nice views of the mountains. The path at the beginning is quite scenic, and you get views of the tour d’Aï from different perspectives.

Pass by Tour d’Aï

One of the most scenic moments of the hike quickly emerges. It’s the Lac d’Aï, a small lake in front of the Tour d’Aï, in which you can see the mountain’s reflection on it. While swimming is prohibited, it’s a great area for a short break or to have lunch if taking a longer route. After the lake, there is a short area where you can ascent and then you reach an area with very interesting rock formations. The hike continues over these rocks, and it’s quite fun to walk over them. In the meantime, one can enjoy the beautiful landscape that opens up with great views of the mountains.

Descence towards Leysin

After some km walking on a more or less flat path, I started the descent to Leysin. That’s the part I enjoyed the least from the hike, as quite some distance goes through an asphalted road. In some places I think I missed the official trail that was going through the forest, but it was passing by so close to the road, that I could see the people walking on it.