Gateway to the Alps
Interlaken means 'between the lakes' — and that is exactly what it is: a green plain between the turquoise Lake Thun and the deep-blue Lake Brienz, with the white wall of the Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau closing the horizon. It is the adventure capital of the Alps.
A 12th-century monastery gave Interlaken its name and its first buildings; the meadow the monks kept open — the Höhematte — is still the town's centrepiece, a rare thing: thirty-five acres of protected lawn in the middle of a resort, so that the view of the Jungfrau can never be built out.
Tourism arrived in the early 1800s, when Romantic-era travellers — Goethe, Mendelssohn, later Mark Twain — came for the mountain air. The grand hotels of the Höheweg promenade date from that golden age, and when the rack railway to the Jungfraujoch opened in 1912, Interlaken's role was fixed forever: the base camp for the most spectacular corner of the Alps.
Interlaken itself is a pleasant promenade town — the drama is what it gives access to. Trains climb from Interlaken Ost through Lauterbrunnen's cliff-and-waterfall valley or chalet-perfect Grindelwald up to Kleine Scheidegg, beneath the mile-high north face of the Eiger, and on through the mountain itself to the Jungfraujoch — at 3,454 m the highest railway station in Europe, with its ice palace and glacier views.
The villages en route are destinations in their own right: car-free Wengen and Mürren on their sunny shelves, Lauterbrunnen with its 72 waterfalls including the famous Staubbach, and Grindelwald with its cliff walk and gondolas. Many visitors sleep in Interlaken and spend every day in a different valley.
No town in Europe packs more adrenaline per square metre. Paragliders spiral down onto the Höhematte all day; canyoning, river rafting, skydiving, and bungee operators line the main street. The gentler thrills are just as good: a ride up Harder Kulm, Interlaken's own viewpoint, for the two-lakes panorama; a cruise on Lake Brienz to the Giessbach falls; or a swim in Lake Thun beneath castle turrets.
St. Beatus caves, the open-air museum of Ballenberg — where historic houses from all over Switzerland were rebuilt village-style — and the lakeside towns of Thun, Spiez, and Brienz all make easy half-days.
Interlaken has two stations: trains from Bern and Zurich stop first at Interlaken West (closer to most hotels), while all mountain trains leave from Interlaken Ost. Summer is peak adventure season; autumn brings golden larches; winter turns the Jungfrau region into a vast ski area with Interlaken as its mellow valley base. Zurich is two hours away by direct train, Bern under one — and the GoldenPass line to Montreux, one of Switzerland's most beautiful rides, starts right here.
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