5 Days in Interlaken

The Höheweg is the avenue that made Interlaken. It runs for about a kilometer between the two stations, past the grand hotels of the nineteenth century, the Kursaal (the spa that opened in 1859) and a huge meadow, the Höhematte, the town's front lawn. Tourism took off here around 1800, when Swiss landscape painters sold the view of the Jungfrau to the rest of Europe,

Today the paragliders land on the Höhematte, with the Jungfrau behind them if the sky is clear. Walk it once, look at the facade of the Victoria-Jungfrau hotel and stop for coffee and cake at Grand Café Schuh, which has been serving the town since 1818 by its own account (open until 23:00 Monday to Saturday). It's priced for visitors; for a cheaper lunch, buy a sandwich at a bakery and eat it on the lawn.

Ten minutes east of the meadow is the oldest layer of the town. The Augustinian monastery that gave Interlaken its name was first mentioned in 1133 and grew into the largest landowner in the region, with about two dozen churches under its authority. In 1528 the Reformation ended it, and Bern took over its lands and ran them through a bailiff.

What's left is the church and a castle built in 1746-50 on the site of the monastery's west wing, in a small park. The castle has long housed the district administration, so you look at it from outside. Allow ten minutes.

Cross the Aare and you are in Unterseen, on the other bank, where the old center is a few lanes, the Spielmatte lawn and the Touristik-Museum of the Jungfrau Region, which covers the history of tourism in the valley. The name Interlaken itself only became official in 1891, after the village by the railway station had already been using it for years.

The river is the real draw: green and fast, and a short stroll along the bank brings you to the quay where the Lake Thun boats leave from Interlaken West.

The Harderbahn opened in 1908 and still climbs the mountain behind Interlaken, in a long curve through a tunnel, about 10 minutes from a valley station a short walk from Interlaken Ost. It rises from 567 m to 1,322 m, to a castle-style restaurant and a viewing platform, the Two Lakes lookout. From there Lake Thun is on your left, Lake Brienz on your right and the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau straight ahead.

Walk the circular route through the forest (about an hour) or just sit on the platform. The Hardergrat ridge hike starts here too, for sure-footed hikers only.

Stay for sunset. The operator runs daily evening trips timed for it. There are alphorn concerts daily from 18:30 at the Panorama Restaurant, with the three big peaks behind the player, which is touristy and also rather lovely when the light goes pink on the snow.

The Hardermandli viewpoint, a short walk from the top, usually has fewer people. A table at the restaurant is not needed: a bench and a bar of chocolate do the job.

The easy answer to dinner is fondue, melted cheese in a pot, eaten with long forks and bread, and you will find it on every menu. It's more Swiss than Bernese, and a bit of a tourist order in July, but it's a perfectly good dinner after a day outside. It's built for two or more.

For a more local meal, look for the Berner Platte (smoked pork and sausages on sauerkraut) or Rösti, the crisp potato cake.

Take the train from Interlaken Ost to Lauterbrunnen (22 minutes) and the bus up the valley to the last stop, Stechelberg (about 12 minutes). Here the Schilthorn cable car starts, with a direct cable car to Mürren that the operator says is the steepest in the world, at a gradient of 159.4%. It takes about five minutes, and you change at Mürren for Birg and the Schilthorn.

The first car leaves early (the summer timetable has a first departure at 5:53), so you can be up for the best light. The Mürrenbach waterfall, which falls about 750 m in several stages, ends beside the valley station.

At 2,970 m, the Schilthorn is the highest point of the day and one of the best seats in the Alps. The cable car goes via Birg, and the top station holds Piz Gloria, a revolving restaurant that was the lair in the 1969 James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service. The film's producer paid to finish the revolving platform in exchange for the right to use the building. On a clear day the view runs from the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau as far as the Black Forest. Walk the Thrill Walk, a catwalk on the cliff face, then stand outside and look.

Prices are high: CHF 91.40 return from Mürren, CHF 115 from Stechelberg and CHF 135.20 from Interlaken (2026 fares). A Half Fare Card halves them, the Swiss Travel Pass gives the CHF 45.70 price from Mürren, and the Berner Oberland Pass makes the ride free.

Mürren is a traditional Walser mountain village at 1,638 m on a terrace above the valley, with no public road: you arrive by cable car or train. About 430 people live here year-round and there are around 2,000 hotel beds, so it is mostly a village of guests. Across the valley stand the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau, so close in the afternoon that the scale is hard to believe.

Eat on a terrace with the view. Rösti topped with an egg and bacon, or the Alpine macaroni, is the right order: it's farm food, and it's what the view deserves. The Allmendhubel funicular, up to a quiet viewpoint with lounge chairs, is closed from mid-October to December and again in April and May.

Walk down from Mürren to Gimmelwald, a short downhill stroll through meadows. The village sits on a ledge at 1,364 m and appears in a bill of sale as early as 1346. It is car-free like Mürren, small (about 130 people in 2003), and still a working farm village, with hay grown on tiny plots to feed small herds of cows.

It's known as the quiet alternative to the resorts, and that's deserved but no secret: you will meet others on the path. Say Grüezi and don't wander into farmyards. A cable car links it to Mürren and down to Stechelberg.

Ten waterfalls, inside the mountain. The Trümmelbach carries the meltwater of the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau glaciers, up to 20,000 liters a second at its peak, down about 140 m through a narrow rock gorge that visitors walk through by tunnels, galleries and stairs after a ride on a tunnel lift. The noise inside is huge, the spray is constant and the light is dim, which is the whole point.

It's the wettest stop of the trip. The falls are open every day from early April to early November, normally 9:00 to 17:00 and 8:30 to 18:00 in July and August. A bus runs from Lauterbrunnen station in about 7 minutes.

Finish in the village that gave the valley its name. Lauterbrunnen has, by the operator's count, 72 waterfalls in its valley, and the best known is the Staubbach, which drops 297 m from a hanging valley and is mostly lost in spray before it hits the ground. Goethe visited in 1779, and the fall inspired his poem Gesang der Geister über den Wassern, "song of the spirits over the waters". It flows strongest after rain and in early summer when the snow melts, and is much thinner in a dry late summer.

The fall is less than a kilometer from the station, an easy flat walk, and the village has a handful of inns for dinner. Eat, watch the light leave the cliffs and take a train back to Interlaken Ost.

From Interlaken Ost take the train to Grindelwald Terminal (about 30 minutes). From there the Eiger Express, the tricable gondola that the operator calls the most modern in the world, climbs to the Eiger Glacier station in 15 minutes, right under the north face. With it the trip from the Terminal to the Jungfraujoch takes 45 minutes, or 1 hour 30 from Interlaken Ost.

You don't need to do anything on the ride but look out of the window. At the top you change to the Jungfrau Railway, with your seat reservation.

The Jungfrau Railway is a piece of stubbornness. Adolf Guyer-Zeller won a concession in 1894, construction began in 1896, and the line crept through the Eiger and the Mönch until the tunnelers broke through at the Jungfraujoch in February 1912; the station opened on 1 August. At 3,454 m it is the highest railway station in Europe. On the way up the train stops for five minutes at around 3,160 m, so you can look out at the ice.

At the top: the Sphinx Terrace (3,571 m) with the view of the Aletsch Glacier, 22 km long and the longest in the Alps; the Glacier Plateau, with snow all year; and the Ice Palace, a tunnel of ice sculptures. Each takes about 15 minutes. Plan two hours.

The honest verdict: it's one of the most expensive excursions in Switzerland, and on a grey day you see fog. On a clear day it's one of the best. The Joch is open every day of the year, and the webcam tells you what you'll get.

On the way down, get off at Eigergletscher, the station at the foot of the north face, about 2,320 m up. There is a bistro for coffee and snacks, and a terrace with the face right overhead.

The Eiger is 3,967 m high, and its north face rises more than 3,000 m above the valleys. It was first climbed in 1938 by an Austrian-German expedition, and since 1935 at least 64 climbers have died on it, which earned it the German nickname Mordwand, "murder wall", a pun on Nordwand, north wall. It's a face for specialists, but from the terrace you can see how steep it is.

From Eigergletscher the Eiger Trail follows the foot of the north face downhill to Alpiglen, about two hours and a drop from roughly 2,350 m to 1,616 m. It is a mountain path with long views, not a stroll, but it is downhill on a marked trail, and it's the best way to feel the scale of the wall above you.

At Alpiglen a small station sits on the Wengernalp railway, and a train takes you down to Grindelwald. Allow time for the last train.

Grindelwald is a long village at 1,034 m under the Eiger, first mentioned in 1146 and a farming community until the age of the alpinists in the nineteenth century. Today the main street is hotels, outdoor shops and gift stores, busy and a bit commercial, but the north face is right above the roofs. Walk the street and look at the bottom station of the First gondola, which you will ride on day four.

You've earned a proper meal, and this is the place for Älplermagronen, "alpine macaroni": pasta, potatoes, cream, cheese and onions. The name means the herder's macaroni, and it is better than it sounds. For another meat-free mountain dinner there's Rösti with cheese.

Grindelwald has a lot of restaurants at tourist prices: look for one where locals sit, usually off the main street. Order a Rugenbräu beer, brewed in Interlaken.

Start at Wilderswil, one stop from Interlaken Ost. The Schynige Platte Railway opened with steam in May 1893 and was electrified in 1914, and it still climbs through forest and alp meadows in about an hour. The views of the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau open up near the top. An early train (the breakfast trips leave Wilderswil at 7:25) gives you more time for the hike.

It is a summer-only railway. In 2026 it ran from 13 June to 25 October; the spring opening depends on snow, so check it before you plan around May or early June.

At 1,967 m, the top station sits beside a botanical alpine garden with around 800 alpine plants, which takes about an hour to walk through. The meadows are the reason people come in early summer, and between the flowers the views of the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau keep coming.

There's also a skywalk platform at the mountain hotel, with a view down to Lake Thun, and a daily alphorn concert. Don't spend more than an hour: the day is long.

From the Schynige Platte the trail runs along the Loucherhorn and over the summit of the Faulhorn at 2,681 m, a hike the operator calls one of the most beautiful high-altitude walks in Switzerland. The whole route to First is about six hours. The summit is the high point of the day. A hotel has stood on it since 1830 and has changed very little, which makes it a good place to rest, although it is open in summer only (from mid-June), so don't count on lunch outside that season.

The route is long and exposed to weather. Start early, and turn back if the sky turns dark: July and August are the wettest months of the year here.

The last big stop before First is the Bachalpsee at 2,265 m, a lake split in two by a natural dam, with the mountains mirrored in it on calm days. It is one of the most photographed spots in the region, so the path from First is busy. If you've walked from the Schynige Platte, you arrive from the quiet side.

From here First is about an hour downhill. From First the operator gives less than an hour up to the lake and about two hours for the round trip.

First is the mountain above Grindelwald at 2,166 m, reached by a six-seater gondola that takes 25 minutes via Bort and Schreckfeld. The First Cliff Walk is a 45 m footbridge along the rock face, and the First Flyer, a zip line, covers 800 m at up to 84 km/h. There's also the First View platform and a mountain cart and scooter run down to Grindelwald.

It's loud and commercial after the quiet ridge, and it is a lot of fun. Ride the gondola down when you're done, or take the Trottibike scooter from Bort to the village (about half an hour) if you still have legs.

Back in Interlaken, you will want a big meal and a bed. The local beer is Rugenbräu, brewed in the town, and the brewery also makes a Swiss Mountain Whisky. A pint with a plate of Rösti or a sausage is the right order after six hours of walking.

Take bus 103 from Interlaken Ost (about 15 minutes, roughly hourly) to Iseltwald on the south shore of Lake Brienz. It's a small village on a headland, with a peninsula that carries the Seeburg, a villa of 1907 that is now a seminar center, and a lakeside path under the trees. A South Korean TV drama, Crash Landing on You, used Iseltwald for scenes, and fans of the show now come to see it.

Come early and it feels quiet. Walk to the end of the peninsula and have a coffee. With the 8:05 bus you have about an hour and a half before the boat to Giessbach.

Lake Brienz is 14 km long and up to 260 m deep, and too poor in nutrients to support much fishing. Passenger ships have been sailing on it since 1839. The BLS boats call at Iseltwald and Giessbach on the way to Brienz, and the ride from Iseltwald to Giessbach takes about 17 minutes.

From 23 May to 27 September, Wednesday to Sunday, the midday sailings are done by the paddle steamer Lötschberg, and it's the nicest way to see the lake. A full ride from Interlaken Ost to Brienz takes about 1 hour 15 minutes.

The Giessbach stream drops down the forested slope on the south shore of the lake, and a funicular opened on 21 July 1879 takes you up from the boat landing to the Grand Hotel above the falls. It is the oldest funicular still in service in Switzerland and the first one built only for tourism. It was first driven by water ballast, electrified in 1948 and, since 1983, is run by a preservation foundation. The hotel complex is listed as a heritage site of national significance.

Walk up the paths beside the falls and enjoy the view over the lake from the hotel above. Allow two hours, or three with lunch.

Brienz is the end of the lake and the center of Swiss woodcarving. The cantonal carving school has taught the craft here since 1862, a violin-making school is nearby, and there is a Swiss woodcarving museum. Shops in the village sell carvings. Pick up lunch (a Zopf braid loaf with cheese from a bakery is an easy picnic) and take it to the lakefront.

The Brienz Rothorn Railway starts here, a steam cog train to 2,244 m, but it needs a half day (see more time).

Ballenberg is where Switzerland keeps its old houses. Founded in 1978, the museum has moved more than 100 original buildings from all over the country onto a 660,000 square meter site above Brienz, with craft demonstrations, cheesemaking and farm animals. A small train runs round the site, and the ride is included in the ticket.

It is huge, and three hours covers a fraction. Pick two or three regions on the map from the ticket desk and skip the rest. Take bus 151 from Brienz station to Ballenberg West (about 12 minutes). The museum is open daily from 10:00 to 17:00, from 9 April to 1 November 2026 and from 15 April to 7 November 2027.