Interlaken, Switzerland

This summer my wife and I took a trip to Interlaken in Switzerland for the first time. Given it's one of the most heavily marketed regions of Switzerland right now, I thought I'd write up our experience for anyone researching it for their holiday plans.

I'm not a travel blogger, so let's skip the life story and get on with it.

Travel and transport

We flew into Zurich and took a train from Zurich HB, this was just the most direct route for us. There's a direct train from Zurich Airport to Zurich HB train station. There's then a direct train to Interlaken Ost which was the closest station for where we had booked to stay.

Once you get into Interlaken Ost, the fantastic Swiss public transport becomes very clear. There are busses out to anywhere you need and if you can't figure out which bus you want then the Tourist Information is right outside the station.

If you're a tourist, you should get a free Interlaken travel pass. This gets you free travel on any busses or trains around the Interlaken area. Of course when you first get in you won't have this yet as it's given to you by your hotel / hostel. For your first trip to your accomodation your best bet is to pay by cash on the bus. You can buy tickets from the rail ticket office but there was a big queue when we got there and ATMs are fairly easy to find.

Once you've got your Interlaken Pass, have a good read of the website / leaflet for it. It gets you a discount on a number of things in and around Interlaken so it's well worth taking the time to understand.

Junfrau Pass

If you plan to venture into the mountains at all you'll probably want to pick up the Junfrau Pass. It's expensive but if you're going to be spending a few days going into the mountains it'll quickly pay for itself. If you're only going up for one day it may not be worth it for you but chances are you'll be there a lot.

The Junfrau Pass gets you usage of all trains in the Junfrau region, but it does not get you access to Jungfraujoch. This requires an extra pass which is yet again more money. I'll talk more about Jungfraujoch further down and you can decide if it's worth it for you.

The Junfra Pass also gets you access to the boats around lake Brienze and Lake Thune which can pick you up and drop you off at a few interesting areas around the lakes.

Harder Kulm

On the day we arrived we decided to go up the funicular to Harder Kulm. We only had the later afternoon free by the time we'd travelled and checked-in so figured it would be an easy sight to see.

In reality, it didn't feel worth it. The funicular cost 20 franks for a one way trip and 40 for a return. It was also extremely busy, presumably because it's such an easy and accessible place with a viewing platform. We went in the mid afternoon and ended up in the queue for about 45 minutes to 1 hour before we could board the funicular. Because it was so busy they squashed us in tight which made it hard to see anything on the way up.

When you get to the top there's a restaurant with plenty of tables but as you might expect the prices are quite high. The food and drink was good but the prices were a bit of a tourist trap.

We opted for a one way ticket and walked down afterwards. The walk was around 1h30m in mostly thick woods with a moderately steep descent the entire time. This was probably the least enjoyable walk of our tripe purely because there wasn't much to see. That said it was more enjoyable than the funicular ride up as it seemed not a single other person decided to do the same as us and so it was a very secluded walk.

All in all, we wouldn't recommend Harder Kulm. It felt far too expensive and was too busy to really enjoy. That said, if you manage to find it with no queue and you're not all that into hiking, it's an easy way to get some good pictures of Interlaken.

Jungfraujoch

On a more positive note, Jungfraujoch was a fantastic experience!

If you've not come across the marketing material yet, let me give you the run down. Once you make your way to Eigergletscher Station via one of the many routes, you can get another train up to the Sphinx Observatory which sits on the saddle between the Jungfrau and the Mönch mountains. This saddle is called Junfraujoch.

It's worth noting that this train from Eigergletscher Station to Jungfraujoch is not included with the Junfrau Pass, and requires a separate ticket. This is really unfortunate as neither are cheap but it is worth it.

This really is the biggest attraction in the Jungfrau region and because it's so accessible it can get incredibly busy. The train only runs between the two points every half hour so if you don't manage to get on one train you'll have quite a while of waiting. There's an option to "book a seat" for an extra fee. This can be done after you've booked your ticket or at the same time. When it says "book a seat" though it really just means book a gauranteed space for a given train time. When the train arrives they then allow all those who've booked a space to get on first and fill the remaining space with people who haven't booked. This means there are two queues and it becomes hard to predict whether or not you'll get on if you don't book a seat.

We already felt like we'd paid enough money and didn't mind waiting so we opted not to book a seat but it did mean we had to miss a train and wait for the next one to arrive before we could get on. The real kicker is that many group tours have paid to book in bulk as well and they get the same priority as those who've booked a seat. It can be quite frustrating watching a huge 50+ group turn up just before the train departs and skip past you in the queue.

If like us you choose not to book a seat, bring a snack and set your expectations that you could be waiting for some time. In the end we got on the second train that arrived, although it was a last minute dash as the station staff realised there were a few extra seats a minute before the departure time.

From Jungfraujoch there are a number of things to see and do. Most of them are very accessible no matter your level of fitness or sense of adventure but some do require a bit more of both.

Almost everything is centered around or under the Sphinx and you probably don't need any special footwear for any of this. Even some of the activities outside in the snow will be fine with some reasonable trainers and warm clothes.

We chose to do everything around the Sphinx first, then grab something to eat, and then we ventured out to the Mönchsjoch Hut. In hindsight this was probably a mistake. Once we got off the train the entire Sphinx was packed and everyone was walking around pretty much at the same pace. Once we'd had lunch and walked back through a few areas it was much quieter! I would suggest either going straight to the Mönchsjoch Hut or for something to eat/drink and letting the crowd move on a bit first.

For us the big highlight was the walk to Mönchsjoch Hut. This is a wonderful mountain hut about a 45 minute walk across the snow from the Sphinx Observatory. Once we got there we enjoyed a beer, the mountain scenery, and that we'd left the majority of the tourists behind!

I will caution and say that I found the walk harder than I'd anticipated as I suffered from some very mild altitude sickness, but on the whole it was fine. I would suggest allowing closer to an hour if you're not much of a walker, or get to the Sphinx Observatory and feel a little light headed.

For this portion I'd say walking/snow boots are a must, for the obvious reason that you're walking uphill on the way there through the snow.

If we were to do it again, we would probably head straight to Mönchsjoch Hut and have lunch there as we later found out the food is meant to be excellent! We'd then come back to the Sphinx and look around the other attractions.

Over all we loved Jungfraujoch, but it was exceptionally busy and you really felt like you'd paid a lot for the day. We thought it was worth it though and we'd likely do it again if we were with friends who'd not done it before.

Lauberhorn Trail

On our second full day in the area we decided to hike the Lauberhorn Trail! This takes you straight up or down a large section of the Lauberhorn downhill ski run which is the longest in the world at 4.4km. The hike itself is around 6-9km depending on where you start and finish.

The week we were there it was unseasonably warm at around 30ºC, given we'd read there were no places to fill up water along the route we decided to walk down rather than up. We got a train to Kleine Scheidegg, went up the hill from there to the top of the Lauberhorn trail, and walked down from there.

The trail was extremely well marked and so we had no need for a map at any point. It takes you from the very top to about the 3/4 mark and then the trail officially ends. We think this is because it then goes through what is farm land in the summer and so some of it is fenced off. Instead after the end there's a sign to continue down towards Allen and eventually Wengen. Once we passed Allen we saw a sign for the finish line of the Lauberhorn so diverted to go and find that, and then followed the signs towards Wengen afterwards.

This totalled about 9km on the dot for us and was a lot of fun! It wasn't too steep walking down as the train traverses a lot more than the ski run naturally would, but if you have trekking poles it would likely make everything easier for you. If you've got bad knees or hips, this might be a little more challenging for you as it's non-stop down the whole time.

Fortunately on this day because we were doing more hiking we saw far fewer large tourist groups and families. We still passed plenty of people who were there on holiday, but it didn't feel in the least bit crowded and there were sections where it was just us for quite a time.

Lake Brienz and Giessbach Falls

On our final full day in Interlaken we decied to spend it near the water as much as possible. A very popular thing to do is to get on one of the boat tours around Lake Brienz and hop off at one of the stops along the way. In particular, Giessbach.

When you step off at Giessbach you've got the option of walking up to the hotel, or getting one of the oldest funiculars in Europe. We opted to get the funicular for only 7CHF ecah and walk back down. You'd be totally fine walking it though as it's actually very short!

The funicular ends just outside the Grandhotel Giessbach which is a gorgeous hotel right next to the Giessbach waterfall. We then hiked up the waterfall, stopping every so often to admire the view, take a few pictures, and then continue up. On the journey up there are several bridges which take you close to the water and one which takes you behind so you can stick your hand in it.

As we went up, there were fewer and fewer people as the path gets less friendly for children and push chairs but each level of the waterfall was well worth seeing if you're able.

We only went up around 2km but it's all traversing up so it still feels like a bit of exercise. From there it looked like you could walk all the way to Iseltwald if you like. Given our hike the day before we were looking for a more relaxed day though so we turned around, stopped for a drink, and then got the boat back.

Final thoughts

I'm writing this final section in 2025, and with that perspective in mind I can honestly say this was one of the best trips I've ever taken. The whole place was stunning, and while the tourist crowds were mildly frustrating, we quickly lost them when we did anything even mildly adventerous.

We totally fell in love with Interlaken, and we really hope to go back and hike some of the trails we couldn't get to. The only thing holding us back is the time it takes for our bank account to recover!