Interlaken Travel Guide

Updated October 2026

Overview and Things to Consider

Interlaken is a town of about 5,700 people that exists to send you somewhere else. It sits at 566 meters on the Bödeli, a flat strip of river silt between Lake Thun and Lake Brienz, and its name is just Latin for between the lakes. The Höheweg runs between its two stations, Interlaken West and Interlaken Ost, past grand hotels, watch shops and a big lawn called the Höhematte, with the Jungfrau framed behind it, and tandem paragliders drop into the town center all day. From Ost, narrow-gauge trains climb to Lauterbrunnen, Grindelwald and, eventually, Europe's highest railway station.

You'll love Interlaken if you want one bed for a week of mountain days, if you like hostels with a social scene, or if you'd rather swim in a glacier lake than ski. You'll hate it if you expect an Alpine village. The town is flat, busy and lined with souvenir shops, and from most streets the big peaks are hidden behind the foothills. People who come for a postcard view tend to feel cheated until they ride a train out of town.

The 2026 moment is quieter than the last few years. The Jungfrau Railway group, which runs most of the lifts here, reported 17.6% fewer visitors to the Jungfraujoch in the first half of 2026, as the war in Iran hit travel and groups from India and Southeast Asia stayed away, and July and August were still down slightly more than 10%. Individual travelers filled some of the gap. Prices did not fall, though. A summit day still costs more than a night's sleep, and for 2026 the Jungfraujoch's mandatory CHF 10 seat reservation was stretched from May through October, up from May through August in 2025.

Our view is that Interlaken is the right base for most first-timers and the wrong base for anyone who wants mountain silence. It is the cheapest, best-connected place to sleep in the region, and that is a perfectly good reason to stay here. Just don't spend your days on the Höheweg.

How Interlaken Got Here

For most of its history this was monastery land. An Augustinian house was first mentioned in 1133, when Emperor Lothair III took it under his protection, and it grew into the largest religious landholder in the region before Bern secularized it in 1528 during the Reformation. Bern's bailiffs then ran the district from the old buildings, and the so-called New Castle of 1746 to 1750 is still the district's administrative seat. The town itself was called Aarmühle, after a mill on the Aare, until 1891, when it formally took the name its post office and station had already made famous.

Tourism started with paintings. Around 1800, landscapes by Franz Niklaus König and other Swiss artists made the area fashionable, and the Unspunnenfest, a festival of Swiss culture held in 1805 and 1808, brought crowds. Steamers arrived on Lake Thun in 1835 and Lake Brienz in 1839, the Kursaal opened in 1859, and luxury hotels went up in waves from 1860 to 1875 and 1890 to 1914. The Unspunnenfest returns in 2029.

The railways decided what Interlaken became. The Bödelibahn opened in 1872 and linked the steamers on both lakes by 1874, the Bernese Oberland Railway reached Lauterbrunnen and Grindelwald in 1890, a direct line to Thun and Bern opened in 1893, and the Jungfrau Railway reached the Jungfraujoch in 1912. That network, not the town, is still the attraction.

Getting There and Around

Most travelers arrive by train from Bern, and it's an easy hop. Trains run every half hour, taking 52 to 55 minutes to Interlaken Ost via Thun and Spiez, and stopping at Interlaken West a few minutes earlier. Some are BLS regional trains with a change in Spiez, others are direct InterCity or even German ICE services. A second-class one-way ticket is CHF 31.20 (about $38) at full fare and CHF 15.60 with a Half Fare Card, and Supersaver fares can undercut both if you commit to a specific train. Through October 9, 2026, late-evening trains between Spiez and Interlaken Ost are replaced by buses from 10:20 pm, Sunday to Thursday, for track work.

There's no airport worth the name. Zurich (ZRH) is the usual international gateway, about 2 hours 10 to 15 minutes by train, with a direct train every hour and changes in Bern on the others, for CHF 26.80 to 38.50 with a Half Fare Card depending on the train, or roughly double without one. Geneva (GVA) and Basel also have trains every half hour, and Basel is 1 hour 58 minutes direct, and Paris connects via TGV-Lyria to Basel. A few trains run straight through to Interlaken from Germany, and Interlaken Tourism points out rail links from Berlin and from Frankfurt airport. From London, seat61's Eurostar, TGV and Swiss InterCity combination gets you here in about 10 hours.

Switzerland isn't in the EU, but it is in Schengen. US, UK, Canadian and Australian passport holders can stay 90 days in any 180-day period without a visa, counted across all Schengen countries, and EU citizens just need an ID card. The UK government's advice is that your passport must be less than 10 years old on arrival and valid three months after you leave Schengen. The EU's Entry/Exit System, which Switzerland uses, started on October 12, 2025 and became fully operational on April 10, 2026, so expect fingerprints and a photo at your first Schengen border. ETIAS, the €20 online authorization, isn't running yet, and the EU says it will give several months' notice before it does.

Once you're here, walk. The Höheweg links West and Ost on foot, and Unterseen's old town is just across the Aare from West. If you sleep in Interlaken, Matten, Unterseen, Wilderswil, Bönigen, Iseltwald, Ringgenberg or a few neighboring villages, your visitor's tax buys an Interlaken guest card with free local public transport, 15% off the Harder funicular and 20% off the Schynige Platte railway and a BLS lake day pass. Taxis wait at both stations, but you'll rarely need one.

Up the valleys, the Bernese Oberland Railway leaves Ost every 30 minutes and splits at Zweilütschinen. One half reaches Lauterbrunnen in 22 minutes, the other Grindelwald in 36, and an Interlaken to Lauterbrunnen ticket is CHF 3.90 with a Half Fare Card. Swiss Travel Pass and Interrail holders ride these lines free, but not the climb beyond Lauterbrunnen and Grindelwald to Kleine Scheidegg and the Jungfraujoch, where those passes only get 25% off.

What's Changed Since 2016

The Jungfraujoch trip got 47 minutes shorter in December 2020, when the Eiger Express opened. The tricable gondola runs from the new Grindelwald Terminal station to Eigergletscher in 15 minutes, passing within 1,800 meters of the Eiger north face, and you change there onto the Jungfrau Railway. From Interlaken Ost the whole trip now takes about 1 hour 40 minutes. The old route via Lauterbrunnen, Wengen and Kleine Scheidegg still runs, and it's the better ride in one direction.

Since December 2022, the GoldenPass Express has run between Interlaken Ost and Montreux on Lake Geneva without a change of train. Its cars switch gauge at Zweisimmen, a fix the railways had been chasing since the 1930s. After a few months of wheel-wear problems in 2023, it settled into four daily round trips, and the full run takes a little over three hours.

Overtourism became a local policy issue. In spring 2023, Iseltwald started charging CHF 5 to walk onto the lakeside jetty made famous by the Korean drama Crash Landing on You. In May 2024, Lauterbrunnen set up a working group on visitor pressure and floated a CHF 5 to 10 charge on day visitors arriving by car. For 2026 the Jungfrau Railways stretched the mandatory CHF 10 seat reservation for Jungfraujoch trips, which ran from May through August in 2025, to cover May 1 to October 31.

The Schilthorn side of the Lauterbrunnen valley was rebuilt. In December 2024 a new direct cable car opened between Stechelberg and Mürren, rising 775 meters in about four minutes at a maximum gradient of 159.4%, which the operator bills as the steepest in the world. Separately, the Lauterbrunnen to Mürren cable car at the north end of the valley closed from April 12 to July 10, 2026 for an overhaul.

The crowd mix changed in 2026. After a record 2025, Jungfraujoch visits fell 17.6% in the first half of 2026 and slightly more than 10% in July and August, as group tours from India and Southeast Asia dropped off. Meanwhile, the group's gentler Experience Mountains, First and Harder Kulm among them, drew about 5% more visitors than in July and August 2025, partly people escaping heat in the lowlands.

What the Usual Advice Gets Wrong

"Stay in Interlaken to be in the Alps." Interlaken is on a flat valley floor at 566 meters, and you can see the Jungfrau from the Höhematte and not much else. Every big view means a train. If waking up inside the mountains matters most, stay in Lauterbrunnen, Wengen, Mürren or Grindelwald. Interlaken wins on price, connections and the free Interlaken guest card, which doesn't cover villages up the valley.

"Buy a Swiss Travel Pass and the mountains are covered." A three-day Swiss Travel Pass costs CHF 254 in 2026 and gets you to Lauterbrunnen and Grindelwald free, but seat61 notes you still buy a ticket, at 25% off, for the climb from there to the Jungfraujoch. If most of your trip is in this region, price the Jungfrau Travel Pass first: CHF 210 for three days, including First, Harder Kulm, Schynige Platte and both lakes, plus a connecting Jungfraujoch ticket from CHF 63 (CHF 89 from May to October).

"The Jungfraujoch is the one thing you can't skip." It costs around CHF 224 return at the regular fare, takes three hours of travel, and sits at 3,454 meters, so in cloud you pay all that to stand in fog. Check the webcams in the morning and keep it flexible. On a doubtful day, Harder Kulm (from CHF 22) or Schynige Platte (from CHF 34) face the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau for a fraction of the price, and you lose less if the cloud wins.

"Stop at the Iseltwald jetty for a free photo." The pier from Crash Landing on You has charged CHF 5 for entry since spring 2023, so that selfie is now a paid attraction. Take the Lake Brienz boat instead and see Iseltwald from the water, where the village looks better anyway and nobody charges admission.

"Shop for chocolate on the Höheweg." Wikivoyage counts Interlaken as having the highest concentration of souvenir shops in Switzerland, and they price accordingly. The Coop opposite Interlaken Ost and the Coop and Migros near West sell the same Lindt and Cailler bars for much less. Spend your chocolate money at Schuh, a café and confiserie on the Höhematte since 1818, where you're paying for something made in town.

Ideas to Consider for Your Visit

Have you thought about Harder Kulm at the end of the day instead of the start? The Harder funicular, running since May 1908, climbs from a station a five-minute walk from Ost to 1,322 meters in 10 minutes, and its Two-Lake Bridge hangs out over both lakes with the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau lined up to the south. There's an alphorn concert at 6:30 pm daily in season, and a pagoda-style restaurant at the top. The line normally runs from mid-April to late October, and the guest card knocks 15% off.

Schynige Platte is the slow way up, and the better one. A cog railway climbs for about an hour from Wilderswil, one stop out of Ost, to 1,967 meters, where an alpine garden grows around 800 alpine plants. Strong hikers walk from there to First over the Faulhorn and past the Bachalpsee, about six hours, and ride the gondola down to Grindelwald. If that's too long, the Bachalpsee alone is under an hour each way from First.

For the Eiger close up, take the Eiger Express to Eigergletscher and walk the Eiger Trail down to Alpiglen, 6.1 kilometers and about two hours, mostly downhill, right under the north face. It's one of the best value days in the region if you already hold a pass.

Get on the water. BLS boats leave Interlaken Ost for Lake Brienz and Interlaken West for Lake Thun, and the Swiss Travel Pass and Half Fare Card both work. Lake Brienz is the turquoise one, colored by glacial silt, with Giessbach Falls dropping in 14 steps into the lake and Brienz, the woodcarving town, at the far end. Brienz boats run until December 6, while Lake Thun runs all year. The Ballenberg open-air museum near Brienz, a park of historic farm buildings and more than 200 farm animals, is open April 9 to November 1, 2026.

On a wet day, go underground. The St. Beatus Caves on Lake Thun's north shore are open all year for CHF 20, with about a kilometer of a 14-kilometer system lit for visitors and a story about an Irish monk who drove out a dragon. Reach them by bus or boat. Then back in town, try the Spicy Bier-Bratwurst at Hüsi Bierhaus, whose Thursday deal of a burger, fries and a beer for CHF 25 is about as cheap as a sit-down dinner gets here.

If you're going to splurge once, make it a tandem paraglide. Paragliding Interlaken, flying since 1990, drives you 20 minutes up to Beatenberg Amisbühl, and you fly for 10 to 20 minutes before landing in the middle of town, from CHF 190. The whole outing takes about an hour and a half, and it's weather-dependent, so book early in your stay and leave room to reschedule.

The Part Most Guides Miss

Most guides send you up. The best free thing here is to go in. Lake Thun is the warmer of the two lakes, around 20°C (68°F) in July and August, according to Wikivoyage's contributors. Walk two hours from Interlaken West along the Aare and through the small Neuhaus nature reserve to the lido at Neuhaus on Lake Thun, which has showers and changing rooms, then take the bus or boat back. Or ride out to the Burgseeli, a nature reserve pond at Ringgenberg-Goldswil on Lake Brienz, where the water can reach 27°C (81°F) and you swim among water lilies. Neither costs anything like a summit ticket.

Where to Base Yourself

Around Interlaken Ost. Best if mountains are the point. The youth hostel is right beside the station, the Harder funicular is a five-minute walk away, and every Jungfrau train starts here. The catch is that it's the least charming part of town, busy with day-trippers and coach groups, and most restaurants are a long walk away around West.

Höheweg and Interlaken West. The center, between the stations, with the Höhematte, Schuh, the Kursaal casino and most restaurants. Lake Thun boats leave from West, and there are Coop and Migros supermarkets nearby. It suits a first visit or a short one. The catch is souvenir shops and price tags aimed at people on a four-hour stop.

Matten. The backpacker quarter on the south side, home to Balmers, Interlaken's best-known hostel, with its underground Metro Bar, and the Backpackers Villa Sonnenhof, open since 1998 on Alpenstrasse with a big garden. Easy to meet people and book activities. The catch is noise if you're not there for the bar, though the town enforces a noise curfew.

Up the valley: Lauterbrunnen or Grindelwald. For people who want to wake up under cliffs and glaciers. Lauterbrunnen is about 20 minutes from Ost, Grindelwald 36, and both put car-free Wengen, Mürren and the trails at your door. The catch is cost, fewer cheap beds, and no Interlaken guest card, and Lauterbrunnen itself is crowded enough with day-trippers that it has debated charging them.

Realities to Be Aware Of

Budget carefully, because Interlaken is expensive even by Swiss standards. A backpacker can scrape by on roughly CHF 80 to 110 a day before mountain tickets: a dorm bed for US$44 to $60 (about CHF 36 to 50), supermarket picnics, a cheap pub meal and free buses on the guest card. Mid-range travelers should plan on CHF 120 to 200 a day on top of a hotel, with a mountain trip, two sit-down meals at CHF 22 to 29 a main and a drink. A comfortable trip with a Jungfraujoch day can top CHF 300 a day per person before the room. The single biggest line is always the mountains, so choose your pass first.

Crime is low. The UK government reports a low rate of serious crime and flags petty theft mainly in larger cities and around Geneva, so ordinary care with bags at Ost on busy mornings is enough. The real danger is the terrain. Weather changes fast, rockfall and avalanches are real, and the UK advice is to carry insurance that covers mountain rescue and helicopters. Lauterbrunnen's cliffs draw BASE jumpers, and the valley averages three BASE-jumping deaths a year. The emergency number is 112.

A service charge is included in Swiss restaurant bills by law, so tipping is just rounding up or a few francs for good service. Shops close on Sundays, except in railway stations, which matters if you planned a picnic. Tap water is excellent and free from fountains. LGBTQ+ travelers will find Switzerland easygoing, though visible scenes are a city thing, not a small-town Bernese Oberland one.

Crowds are tied to weather and the calendar. July and August are the busiest and also the wettest months, so start early and keep the summit day flexible. The first two trains to the Jungfraujoch carry a Good Morning Ticket discount from May to October, and they beat the coach groups. November and April are the dead zones, when many lifts and the Harder close for maintenance.

If Interlaken Is Part of a Longer Trip

Interlaken is a natural stop on a rail loop through Switzerland. The Luzern-Interlaken Express runs over the Brünig Pass to Lucerne hourly with no change, Basel is just under two hours direct, and Zurich is reached via Bern. Heading southwest, the GoldenPass Express runs to Montreux through Gstaad in a little over three hours, and from there Geneva is an hour along Lake Geneva. Start in Zurich and you get Lucerne, the Brünig, Interlaken, the GoldenPass and Geneva without backtracking.

South is a wall. There's no road across the Jungfrau massif into the Valais, so for Zermatt you go around by rail via Spiez, and the timetable shows about 2 hours 10 minutes with two changes. The same detour applies to anything in the Valais or beyond, so check the SBB planner for track work before you commit to a tight connection.

If Switzerland is one stop in a bigger trip, the cheapest way in is usually a long-haul flight to Zurich or Geneva and the train from there, or an open-jaw ticket that lands you in Zurich and flies you home from somewhere else in Europe. AirTreks builds that kind of multi-stop routing, and Interlaken's two-hour rail link to Zurich airport makes it easy to slot in.

Yearly Things to Consider

Two calendars run Interlaken, the lift maintenance calendar and the weather. Summer runs roughly from June to September, when every railway and trail is open and the lakes are swimmable, but July and August are also the wettest months. Lake Brienz boats run from April 3 to December 6 in 2026, and Lake Thun boats run all year. Winter brings skiing up the valleys from December, with the town as the cheap base. April, November and early December are the in-between months, when lifts close for revision and some hotels shut.

The counterintuitive pick is September. The rain eases to 3.7 inches from 5.7 in August, highs are still around 67°F (19°C), the trails are snow-free, and the Jungfrau Marathon in September is the last big crowd. Early October still works for hiking, as long as you check which lifts are running. For events, the Harder Potschete masked parade falls on January 2, the Greenfield rock and metal festival comes in June, and the Unspunnenfest returns in 2029.

Ideas for Itineraries

3 Days in Interlaken

Day one, arrive from Bern, drop your bags, walk the Höheweg to Unterseen's old town, and ride the Harder funicular for sunset. Day two is your summit day. Watch the morning webcams, then either go for the Jungfraujoch on an early Good Morning train via the Eiger Express, or, if clouds sit on the peaks, take the cog railway up Schynige Platte instead. Day three, take the train to Lauterbrunnen, walk the valley floor past Staubbach Falls, and ride the new cable car from Stechelberg to Mürren before heading back for a lake swim at Neuhaus.

5 Days in Interlaken

Add two days to the three-day plan and buy a Jungfrau Travel Pass. Day four, take the gondola from Grindelwald to First, walk to the Bachalpsee, and try the First Glider if you've got the nerve. Day five belongs to the lakes: a boat on Lake Brienz to Giessbach Falls and Brienz, the woodcarving village, with Ballenberg's open-air museum nearby in season, then back by train. If the weather turns, swap in the St. Beatus Caves and dinner at Hüsi Bierhaus.

1 Week in Interlaken

With a week, split it, with four nights in Interlaken and three up the valley in Wengen or Mürren, where the cars stop and the evenings go quiet. From the town base, cover Harder Kulm, the lakes and a paraglide. From the valley, hike the Eiger Trail from Eigergletscher down to Alpiglen, cross to Kleine Scheidegg, and do the Jungfraujoch on the clearest morning of the week rather than the day you'd planned. Finish with the GoldenPass Express to Montreux and on to Geneva.

2 Weeks or More in Interlaken

Two weeks here suits hikers and people working remotely. Settle into Unterseen or Matten, where apartments and hostels with kitchens let you shop at Coop and Migros, and use the free guest card buses for errands. Weekdays, work in the mornings and catch the afternoon light on the Harder or the lake paths. Weekends, go long with Schynige Platte to First over the Faulhorn, a GoldenPass day to Gstaad, Lucerne over the Brünig Pass, or a run to Thun for its castle. Spread mountain days across a 6- or 8-day Jungfrau Travel Pass.

Sources

What this guide is built on. Every page below was read for this guide; prices and rules were checked in October 2026.

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