No one expects you to exhaust yourself, either with planning your trip or what you do while you're on your trip, but you should nonetheless try to understand this one psychological concept in order to maximize your enjoyment of the Alps. As I hinted at earlier, the whole idea of a vacation is to be relaxed. For some people, spending an active day outdoors contradicts that, but it shouldn't. The main thrust of this booklet is hiking because it's probably the easiest, cheapest and most accessible of all alpine sports. It's also very relaxing, and after a good day of it, you'll sleep like a rock.

More to the point, any able-bodied person under--I used to say forty, but as I'm now approaching forty, I'll extend it--fifty years of age can hike for six hours. But, in the words of comedian George Carlin, "ya gotta wanna." Remember, it's not pain we're after, here; it's pleasure. Within a half an hour of setting out, you should start releasing endorphins, the brain hormones responsible for what's known as "runner's high." But these only serve to enhance the greater experience of walking under a waterfall or wading in waist-high wildflowers. Yeah, you can get a great view right from Grindelwald, with millions of other people to share it with, or you can walk further and further, knowing that your experience will get better and better.

I'm not fit by any stretch of reality, but I can walk for six hours. Once I went up to Grindelwald with some people who were younger and in better shape than I was, and our intention was to do the Faulhorn hike. Or I should say my intention was to do the Faulhorn hike. When the ticket seller at the bottom of the cable car to First told us that there was too much snow up top, I noticed a barely perceptible surge of relief being shared by the others. Since I didn't have any good hiking ideas that were below the snow line, we decided to just walk from Grindelwald back to Interlaken, a mere three and a half hours, downhill. These friends I was with were basically in the prime of life, but I guess they must just have been at their desk jobs too long or something because after two hours--get this--they wanted to get on the train! Though the snow at the Faulhorn wasn't their fault, I still felt that a potentially great day had been turned into a so-so day, just by attitude.

On the flip side, I once met a couple in their forties, and they told me they wanted to hike up the Schilthorn. Apprehensive, I asked them if they were good hikers and how long they were used to hiking for. The woman answered quite sincerely that they were used to hiking twelve or fourteen hours with full packs on. They ended up taking the train to Mürren and going up one side of the Schilthorn, down the other. Only eight hours. I don't think I have to tell you that they had a better day than the one we had "hiking" down from Grindelwald.

Lots of people I've recommended hikes to have come back saying it was the best day of their trip; one guy even said it was the best day of his whole life. (That guy was on the Gimmelwald-Mürren hike.) All I'm suggesting is, just because you've never walked more than three hours at one time, it doesn't mean that you can't. Please don't miss out on your potential "best day" because of a pre-supposed but non-existent limitation.