Interlaken, Switzerland itinerary: long weekend/4 days
Looking for a long weekend itinerary for Interlaken to plan your trip? Unsure about how to get there? Where to stay and what to do? Heard it’s expensive but want to make it work anyway? Then see how we spent 4 days in this beautiful place.
1. How to get to Interlaken
2. About the train journey to Interlaken
3. How to plan Interlaken on a budget
4. Where to stay in Interlaken
5. Example itinerary – 2 full days/a long weekend
· Day 2 – Paragliding, St Beatus caves
How do you get to Interlaken?
You can fly to either Geneva or Zurich airport. We chose Zurich. From either airport, it’s then about two hours of trains until you get to Interlaken. The quickest journey from Zurich to Interlaken goes via Bern. There’s often a very quick changeover at Bern, so be prepared to run. But don’t worry – if you miss the change because your first train is late, you’re allowed on the next one – your ticket covers you when it’s not your fault.
How to plan and save money when booking trains in Switzerland
It’s no secret that Switzerland is an expensive country. But we wanted to do it on a budget, and that required some forward planning. So a week or so before we left, we booked our train tickets from Zurich airport (Zurich Flughafen) to Interlaken East (Interlaken Ost) train station from SBB.ch. Because we bought ‘super saver’ tickets, we got our tickets for better than half price. If you wait to buy tickets at the station, they’re always available, but you’re looking at 74CHF per ticket. Supersavers can be up to 70% cheaper. After some research online, I also found that if we missed our booked train time, our ticket would no longer be eligible, however we could still go to the information desk at the station and just pay the difference between your ticket and the regular ticket, plus 10CHF. You can see this here on chapter 8, page 42. So, in a lot of cases, it definitely works out better to get the super saver ticket. Especially if you trust your airline to get you to your destination on time!
BTW – you can also buy the Swiss travel pass (a 3-day pass which gives you unlimited travel day or night in Switzerland for 232CHF). So if you’re looking to use Interlaken as a base to explore more around Switzerland, for example heading up to Jungfrau (the highest train station in Europe), this could be a good bet.
Is it possible to do interlaken on a budget?
Of course! In addition to booking your train tickets ahead of time, the other way to save money is to prioritise cheaper activities (or ones that you can do for free – like hiking) and check menu prices before entering restaurants (there’s a lot of variation!). You can also buy food from the local coop and cater from home.
Plan your weekend in Interlaken
Day 1, Arrive, explore Interlaken and settle in
We landed in Zurich at 9am and enjoyed an iced coffee at the airport café. We’d pre-booked our super saver tickets and despite problems at UK airports, our flight was on time, and we made our train without any problems. The trains were a great experience for us. They’re double-decker, and very clean (much cleaner than most of London’s trains!). We found this cleanliness to be consistent across most places we visited during our trip, with little rubbish, and sparkling toilets wherever we went. Anyway, the train to Bern was quite long and boring, but from Bern to Interlaken the journey became more scenic as we started to see the bright blue river Aare, Lake Brienz and Lake Thun.
When we arrived in Interlaken, we took a short stroll to Asslani’s corner restaurant. The food was delicious – I had a crispy chicken salad and my boyfriend had a burger. Everything was reasonably priced.
Interlaken is known as the adventure capital of Switzerland, and when you arrive, you’ll see why. When you look up, paragliders and hang gliders are everywhere. In fact, they’re quite relaxing to watch, apart from when they start flipping backwards and forwards, doing somersaults and other tricks!
Where to stay in Interlaken
There’s plenty of hotels in the town. For example Hotel Interlaken and Hotel du Lac Interlaken are affordable and highly recommended. But we’d chosen to get somewhere a bit more out in the sticks, nestled in farmland with a beautiful view: Hotel Burgseeli. As part of staying in this hotel (and many other hotels in the area), you get a free ‘guest pass’ which gives you discounts on attractions and free bus tickets. So we could get a free 3-minute bus to and from our hotel whenever we needed. Or, we could take a 30-minute walk. Hotel Burgseeli was mainly a restaurant, but our room was beautiful too. We had splashed out a little bit on this accommodation, there’s definitely cheaper options available in town. When we arrived, we went for a hike to explore the local area. There were lots of trails with beautiful views of the lakes.
We ate dinner at Restaurant Q at Hotel Burgseeli which was delicious, but probably our most expensive meal in Interlaken. This was the first time we tried the local beer – Rugenbrau, which we loved and stuck to all weekend. Alchohol is actually reasonably affordable in Switzerland compared to the UK, because it isn’t so heavily taxed. We paid on average about 5CHF per stein.
Day 2, Paragliding and St Beatus Caves
The one expensive activity we’d decided to buy in Interlaken was paragliding. It’s something we’d always wanted to do, and Interlaken is one of the best and most beautiful locations in the world to try it. After some research, we found a lot of local companies offering trips for the same sort of price – about 170CHF per 20 minute flight, per person. We chose to fly with Alpinair, a company we’d seen recommended a few times. The instructors were friendly and professional; we felt very safe in their hands.
There was a little bit of a weather worry that morning, so we weren’t sure if we were going to fly or not. This is why i’d recommend booking paragliding for one of the first days of your trip, so that if the weather calls it off you can always postpone for another time before heading home. Luckily, our instructors got us to a nearby take off point and we managed to fly just before a storm hit! Take off was straight forward. You’re strapped in with your instructor, start walking together, gradually increase this to a run and then as the parachute lifts up you take off and up you go. It wasn’t how I’d imagined (jumping off the edge of a sharp drop), we just ran along a gentle slope until we started flying. As someone who is quite scared of heights, I was pretty relieved about this!
We flew for about 20 – 30 minutes and it was an incredible experience. The views over the town and the two lakes were spectacular, but they almost didn’t feel real! My mind couldn’t really process how high up I was and I think I told myself I was watching TV to squash any anxiety. My instructor told me he’d paraglided for 8 hours before, all the way to Italy. They don’t require any fuel, just thermal wind currents, so once you’re up you can glide like a bird for as long as the wind supports you. For an extra 40CHF I got GoPro photos and footage too – definitely worth it in my opinion, there was no way I’d take pictures myself up there! Although I must admit, it was slightly terrifying when my instructor asked me to hold the selfie stick and keep smiling while he somersaulted the paraglider! I mean, lots of fun, but wow I was glad that was at the end of the trip. Btw, I’m sure you can ask them at the beginning not to do this part, but for the adrenaline junkies, you’ll love it.
st Beatus caves
After paragliding, the rain came. So we decided to get the bus (bus 21 to Beautusholen) to visit St Beautus caves – one of the most famous and popular destinations in Switzerland. The caves are said to have inspired Rivendell (where the Elves live) in J.R.R Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings. The bus journey was free with our guest pass, and entry (without a guide) was 18CHF per person. The walk up the hill is beautiful with excellent views over Lake Thun. Once inside, we explored 1km (each way) of well-lit caves. Although the weather cleared up while we were inside, this was definitely a good rainy day activity!
One thing we messed up on was getting home from St Beatus. We didn’t check the bus times and missed one by 10 minutes. We then had to wait for an hour and a half before the next bus back to Interlaken. So definitely check the times before you leave! There’s a restaurant outside the caves so you can always kill some time there while waiting.
We got off at Interlaken West and got lured into Bebbi’s restaurant by their very charismatic owner. The food was great, and affordable. We had alplermagronen (Swiss Alpine macaroni and cheese) followed by chocolate fondue. The owner was hilarious. He dances, jokes, waves flags, even plays the Alphorn (both inside the restaurant and on the roundabout outside!). What an evening.
day 3, Lauterbrunnen and Harder Kulm
We had to choose between visiting Lauterbrunnen or Grindelwald, two nearby villages. If we’d stayed an extra day we’d have visited both, but Lauterbrunnen seemed more up our street – apparently Grindelwald has become quite commercial whereas Lauterbrunnen maintains that small village feel and is more scenic and quieter. Plus, it’s described as one of the most beautiful towns in the world!
We got the train which was about half an hour. If we’d pre-booked our tickets they would have cost about 3CHF but unfortunately, we waited until we were at the station so it was about double that each way. Not bad though. The station and Lauterbrunnen were heaving with crowds when we arrived, but these dissipated as we started to explore the area.
Lauterbrunnen is incredibly beautiful – we’d never seen anything like it before. Soaring cliff faces, meadows, farmland and 72 waterfalls! You can even climb up and behind one of the waterfalls: Sataubbach waterfall. It was a hot day, so the wet mist was very welcome. We walked the Lauterbrunnen valley hike, along the ravine for about an hour, and then turned and headed back along the river.
Harder Kulm
After a quick pitstop at the hotel to change our clothes and shoes, we headed back into town to get the funicular up to the top of Harder Kulm. With our guest pass, our tickets were 26CHF each. You can hike to the top for free, and we would have if we’d had more time and my feet weren’t ruined from the morning’s walk. But the funicular takes just ten minutes, and you can see a bit more than the hike, which is devoid of pretty views due to thick tree cover. There’s also a wildlife park near to the starting point, with Ibex and Ground squirrels. It’s free entry so you can just wander off for a few minutes to see the animals.
At the top of Harder Kulm, the views are incredible. You can see both Brienz and Thun Lake, and the town of Interlaken between them. We stopped for a beer at Harder Kulm panoramic restaurant, and watched on as the viewpoint filled with tourists (very much an Instagram vs. reality moment!). I was a bit scared of standing on it, so the beer helped provide some dutch courage!
We could have stayed for dinner, but the menu was quite expensive, so we got the funicular down and ate at El Azteca, a delicious mexican restaurant. We decided to walk home again, via the souvenir shops, which always work out cheaper than waiting to get them at the airport.
Day 4, Return home to the UK
To be honest, this was a long day of travelling. I would allow for a day because you have 2.5 hours of trains to complete, and then need to be at the airport 2.5 hours before your flight too. But we got through it, made our cheaper super-saver ticketed trains, and were home in the UK in time for dinner.
Thanks for reading, and just add a comment below if you have any questions. I’ll get back to you as soon as I can 🙂
Sounds like a great trip, you packed a lot into a short time, definitely worth your pre-planning. The colour of the lakes is amazing, the turquoise blue is almost too beautiful to be real! There’s some history to the alphorn isn’t there, you don’t happen to know how they came about? Thanks!