Best Things to Do in Interlaken (2026 Guide)

Few mountains carry as much symbolic weight as the Matterhorn. Its pyramidal silhouette — four near-perfect triangular faces converging at 4,478 meters — has appeared on chocolate wrappers and postcards for so long that seeing the real thing still manages to surprise. Standing above Zermatt on a clear morning, when alpenglow tints the summit pink before the valley below has woken up, is an experience that resists easy description.

The peak sits on the border between Switzerland and Italy, and its ascent remains one of the most sought-after objectives in the Alps — though far from the easiest. The Hörnli Ridge is the standard route to the top, first climbed in 1865 by Edward Whymper’s party in one of mountaineering’s most storied and tragic ascents. For those not climbing, the Gornergrat rack railway rises to 3,089 meters for a close-up view of the Matterhorn alongside the Monte Rosa massif. The Schwarzsee area, accessible by cable car, offers the closest approach for non-climbers and sits just below the Hörnli Hut.

Zermatt itself is car-free, reached only by train from Täsch. The village fills quickly in both summer and winter, so accommodation booked well in advance is advisable. Clear days for Matterhorn views are more common in the morning; afternoon cloud often builds around the summit. Late June through September offers the best conditions for hiking the surrounding trails. Winter draws skiers to one of Switzerland’s largest ski areas, which connects with Cervinia on the Italian side.

The Matterhorn is the defining landmark of the Swiss Alps in the public imagination, and rightly so — its geometry is genuinely unusual, and no other peak in the region combines visual drama with historical narrative in quite the same way. It anchors Zermatt’s identity completely, visible from dozens of points around the valley in all seasons.

At 2,168 meters, the First plateau above Grindelwald opens onto one of the most expansive views in the Bernese Oberland — the Eiger’s north face looming close enough to study its detail, the Wetterhorn and Schreckhorn filling the southern skyline, and the green patchwork of the Grindelwald valley floor far below. The gondola ride from the village takes around 25 minutes and deposits visitors into a landscape that functions as a genuine year-round mountain destination rather than a simple viewpoint.

Grindelwald First has developed an ambitious set of activities built around its elevated terrain. The First Cliff Walk is a steel walkway bolted into the rock face above the gondola station, leading to a viewing platform that extends over the void. The First Flyer is a zipline that drops riders at speed back toward the valley. Trottibike — a kind of oversized scooter — lets visitors roll down a designated mountain track without pedaling. In summer, well-marked hiking trails fan out across the plateau, including the popular route to Bachalpsee, a high lake that reflects the surrounding peaks on calm days.

The gondola from Grindelwald runs throughout most of the year, with brief closures for maintenance in spring and autumn. Summer mornings offer the clearest skies and fewest crowds; by midday the cable cars can have queues. Winter transforms the area into ski terrain connecting with the broader Jungfrau ski region. Warm clothing is advisable regardless of season — the plateau sits well above the valley and temperatures drop accordingly.

What distinguishes First from other Oberland summits is its combination of accessibility and genuine alpine character. Unlike the Jungfraujoch, which sits above any trace of vegetation, First occupies the middle-Alpine zone where wildflowers, marmots, and open trails give the place a living quality that purely glacial environments cannot offer.

Lake Brienz occupies the eastern arm of the Bernese Oberland lake system, its water an intense turquoise-green fed by glacial meltwater from the surrounding mountains. Where Lake Thun to the west has a gentle, pastoral quality, Brienz is wilder in character — the mountains rise more steeply from the shoreline and the landscape feels less domesticated. The color of the water, shifting between blue and green depending on light and season, is among the most striking of any lake in Switzerland.

The town of Brienz on the northern shore is known for its wood carving tradition, with workshops and a carving school whose work is sold throughout the region. A steam rack railway climbs from the town to the summit of the Brienzer Rothorn, offering views over the lake and across the Bernese Alps. On the southern shore, the Giessbach Falls cascade into the lake, accessible by a historic funicular. The open-air museum at Ballenberg, nearby, preserves historic Swiss farm buildings from across the country on a large rural site.

Boat services run the length of the lake between Brienz and Interlaken, making a one-way crossing by boat followed by a return by train a pleasant way to experience the shoreline. Summer is the most visited season, with boat services at full frequency and the Rothorn railway running daily. The surrounding trails are accessible from late spring through autumn. Arriving by train from Interlaken takes under thirty minutes.

Lake Brienz sits in the shadow of its more famous neighbors — Lake Thun and Lake Lucerne draw larger numbers and more international attention — but this relative obscurity is part of its appeal. The combination of glacial water, forested slopes, and traditional lakeshore villages gives it a character that feels closer to the working Swiss countryside than to a curated scenic attraction.

The deep turquoise water of Lake Thun stretches between forested slopes and snow-capped peaks, reflecting the kind of Alpine scenery that feels almost theatrical in its perfection. On calm mornings, the Bernese Alps — including the distant Eiger and Jungfrau — mirror on its surface, while small wooden boats drift past medieval lakeside villages that have changed little over centuries.

At 18 kilometers long and nearly 3 kilometers wide, Thunersee is one of the largest lakes in the Bernese Oberland. The town of Thun anchors its northwestern shore, with a well-preserved old town and a castle dating to the twelfth century. Ferries connect the lakeside villages of Spiez, Oberhofen, and Merligen, making a boat journey one of the best ways to appreciate the scale and variety of the landscape. Oberhofen Castle, sitting directly at the water’s edge, is among the region’s most photographed historic buildings.

Summer brings the most activity, with swimming, windsurfing, and paddle boarding popular along the warmer southern shores. The lake’s depth keeps temperatures cool even in July and August, which serious swimmers appreciate. Autumn strips some of the tourist pressure away and gives the surrounding hillsides warm amber tones. A circuit by boat, foot, and regional train can fill a full day comfortably, though many visitors base themselves here for several days.

Unlike Brienzersee just to the east, Lake Thun has a softer, more cultivated character — vineyards terraced above its shores, manicured promenades in the lakeside towns, and a sense that this is a place people have settled and loved for a very long time. It sits at the gateway to the higher Bernese Oberland, making it both a destination in itself and a departure point for the mountains above.

The Aletsch Glacier moves so slowly that standing at its edge, you cannot perceive the motion — yet it flows steadily downvalley at roughly 200 meters per year, carrying within its ice the compressed snowfall of centuries. Stretching 23 kilometers from its accumulation zone below the Jungfrau massif down into the Rhone valley, it is the largest glacier in the Alps, and the view from the ridge above its upper section is one of those landscapes that recalibrates a sense of scale.

The best elevated viewpoints are reached from Bettmerhorn or Eggishorn, both accessible by cable car from the valley stations near Fiesch. From these ridges the full length of the glacier’s central section is visible — three glacier tributaries merging into a single ice stream, the medial moraines forming dark longitudinal stripes that mark where the flows joined. The ice surface is deeply crevassed in places and smooth in others, and the contrast of white ice against dark rock walls is striking in any light. The surrounding area is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, part of the Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch designation.

Summer is the primary visiting season, with cable cars running from late spring through autumn. The trails along the glacier’s edge are accessible on foot from Riederalp and Bettmeralp, both car-free villages on the southern ridge. Early morning offers the clearest air and best photographic light. The glacier has retreated significantly over recent decades, and information panels along the ridge paths document the changes with historical photographs.

The Aletsch Glacier holds a position in the Alps that no other ice body quite replicates — its sheer volume and length give it a monumental presence that even heavily glaciated areas elsewhere in Switzerland cannot match. For anyone traveling through Valais, it provides a direct encounter with the geological forces that shaped the entire Alpine landscape.

The cable car to Schilthorn climbs through four stages from the Lauterbrunnen valley floor to a summit at 2,970 meters, where a revolving restaurant completes a full rotation every 45 minutes above a panorama that takes in more than 200 Alpine peaks. On clear days the view extends from Mont Blanc in the west to as far as the Black Forest in Germany. The Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau fill the eastern skyline in a wall of rock and ice that seems improbably close.

Schilthorn is perhaps best known internationally as the location used for the Piz Gloria sequences in the 1969 James Bond film, and a small exhibition at the summit documents the filming. But the mountain’s draw runs deeper than cinema history. The Thrill Walk — a steel pathway bolted into the cliff face below the main station at Birg — offers exposed traversing above sheer drops, with mesh sections underfoot that reveal the void below. The intermediate stations of Stechelberg, Gimmelwald, and Mürren each offer their own hiking access and views.

The cable car operates year-round, with the exception of maintenance periods. Winter brings skiers to the off-piste terrain and the annual Inferno race, one of the world’s longest downhill ski competitions. Summer mornings offer the clearest visibility — clouds frequently build around the summit by early afternoon. The village of Mürren, car-free and perched on a terrace above the valley, is worth at least a few hours before or after the summit ascent.

Among the Bernese Oberland’s major summit destinations, Schilthorn stands out for its western orientation — it faces the Jungfrau massif directly, which means the view of Switzerland’s most famous peaks from here is arguably the most complete available from any single high point in the region.

Water has carved the Aare Gorge over thousands of years, cutting a passage through limestone so narrow that in places the walls close to barely a meter apart while rising twenty meters overhead. The river still runs through it, loud and forceful, a glacial green-blue that contrasts sharply with the pale grey rock. Walking the wooden galleries and bridges bolted into the cliff face, with the roar of the current below and the cool damp air rising from the stone, engages the senses completely.

The gorge stretches for about 1.4 kilometers between Meiringen and Innertkirchen in the Bernese Oberland. A well-maintained path runs its full length, with sections tunneled directly through the rock and others suspended on walkways above the river. The passage takes around 45 minutes to walk one way at a relaxed pace. Most visitors walk through and return by the small train that runs along the valley, though the walk back along the gorge path is also possible. The formations along the route include natural arches, undercut walls, and smoothed potholes left by ancient river action.

The gorge is open from spring through autumn, typically April to November, and closes during winter when ice makes the walkways unsafe. Late spring, when snowmelt swells the river to its most dramatic volume, is particularly striking. Early morning visits in summer avoid the main crowds, which peak around midday. The total excursion from Meiringen and back rarely takes more than two hours.

The Aare Gorge occupies an unusual niche in the Bernese Oberland — it is a geological spectacle rather than an Alpine panorama, offering a completely different kind of drama than the open mountain landscapes nearby. Meiringen itself is also the base for the Reichenbach Falls, giving the area a density of natural attractions that rewards a longer stop.

Spread across a hillside above the village of Hofstetten bei Brienz, the Ballenberg Swiss Open-Air Museum assembles more than a hundred historic rural buildings relocated from across Switzerland into a landscape that functions as both preservation site and living document of how Swiss country people built, farmed, and organized daily life across several centuries. Walking between farmhouses, granaries, sawmills, and craft workshops from different cantons and periods, it becomes possible to read the regional variation in Swiss vernacular architecture as clearly as in any scholarly text.

The buildings are not reproductions — each was dismantled at its original location, transported, and reconstructed here with its original materials. Interiors are furnished to period, and seasonal demonstrations show traditional crafts including cheese-making, spinning, wood carving, and bread baking. The site covers around 66 hectares, meaning a thorough visit involves several kilometers of walking between the different zones, each organized by region of origin. Farm animals — including cattle breeds historically associated with specific Swiss valleys — are kept on the grounds.

The museum is open from April through October. A full visit takes four to six hours; many visitors spend an entire day. The site is large enough that it never feels crowded even on busy summer weekends. Comfortable walking shoes are essential given the terrain and distances involved. The town of Brienz, known for its wood-carving tradition, is a short distance away and pairs naturally with a Ballenberg visit.

Ballenberg occupies a unique position in the Swiss cultural landscape — there are larger open-air museums elsewhere in Europe, but few that document the breadth of a single country’s rural building traditions with this level of authenticity and geographic range. For anyone interested in how landscape, climate, and local materials shaped the built environment, it is one of the most instructive sites in the Alps.

The rack railway to Schynige Platte has been climbing the steep flank above Wilderswil since 1893, and the journey itself — grinding upward through forest, then breaking into open alpine meadow — functions as a kind of slow reveal. At 1,967 meters, the plateau opens onto a direct view of the Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau across the valley, with Lake Brienz and Lake Thun visible simultaneously in the other direction, laid out like a map of the Bernese Oberland below.

The summit plateau hosts one of Switzerland’s most carefully curated alpine gardens, the Alpengarten Schynige Platte, where hundreds of native plant species are grown in conditions that replicate their natural habitats across different elevation zones. In July, the meadows surrounding the garden fill with wild alpine flowers — gentians, edelweiss, and alpine asters among them. A network of hiking trails crosses the plateau and continues along the ridge, including a classic route that connects to First above Grindelwald, taking experienced walkers across high terrain with continuous views.

The railway operates from late May or early June through late October, with the schedule dependent on seasonal snowpack. Mornings offer clearer skies and quieter trains; the afternoon service can be busier during peak summer weeks. The round trip takes about two hours of travel alone, so most visitors spend at least half a day on the plateau. A hotel and restaurant at the top allow for longer stays.

Schynige Platte occupies a particular niche among Bernese Oberland destinations — it is neither the highest nor the most dramatic point in the region, but its combination of a working historic railway, genuine alpine meadow character, and a botanical garden of serious horticultural depth makes it one of the most layered and rewarding places in the area to spend time.

The St. Beatus Caves open into the limestone cliffs above Lake Thun with a rush of cold air and the sound of underground water. According to local legend, the Irish monk Beatus drove a dragon from these depths in the sixth century and made his hermitage here — a story that says something about the power this place has exerted on human imagination across the centuries. The caves themselves predate any legend, shaped by water and time into a sequence of chambers and galleries that extend deep into the Niederhorn massif.

The show caves stretch for around one kilometer of accessible passage, guided tours leading visitors through illuminated formations — stalactites, stalagmites, flowstone curtains, and underground lakes fed by the same water system that carved the rock. Several waterfalls drop through the cave interior, audible before they become visible. Above the cave entrance, a small outdoor area includes a reconstruction of how Beatus may have lived, set into the cliffside terrace with views directly out over the lake below.

The caves are open from April through October, with guided tours running regularly throughout the day. The interior temperature stays around eight degrees Celsius year-round, so a jacket is advisable regardless of the warmth outside. The site sits on a hillside path between Interlaken and Thun that can be reached by boat, bus, or on foot along the lakeside trail from Beatenbucht. Combining the caves with a lake ferry journey makes for a satisfying half-day excursion.

What sets the St. Beatus Caves apart in the Lake Thun area is the layering of natural spectacle and early Christian history in a single location. The cave system is genuine and impressive on its own geological merits, and the lakeside setting — the cliffs dropping almost directly to the water — gives the approach an atmospheric quality that few cave sites in the Alps can match.

Suspended between two of Switzerland’s most dramatic mountain backdrops, Adventure Park Interlaken offers a different kind of encounter with the Alpine landscape — not passive observation from a viewpoint, but active engagement with the forest and elevation through rope courses, zip lines, and climbing structures set into the trees. The park sits within woodland near the town center, with the Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau visible above the canopy on clear days.

The park is organized around courses at different height and difficulty levels, ranging from routes close to the ground suitable for younger children to high-level circuits that demand confidence, balance, and a reasonable head for heights. Each participant is fitted with a harness and safety system before starting, and trained staff are present throughout the site. Zip lines connect several of the higher platforms, offering brief moments of genuine aerial speed above the forest floor. The total range of circuits means families with children of different ages can find appropriate challenges for each person.

The park operates from spring through autumn, typically April to October, with weather-dependent closures during storms. Booking in advance is strongly recommended during July and August, when capacity fills quickly. A session usually lasts two to three hours depending on how many circuits a visitor attempts. Comfortable clothing that can get dirty and closed-toe shoes are required; the park provides all safety equipment.

Among Interlaken’s activity offerings — which include paragliding, canyon swinging, and white-water rafting — the adventure park provides one of the more accessible entry points into outdoor adventure, suitable for a wider age range than most other options. Its position within the town rather than high in the mountains also means it functions as a practical half-day activity that does not require transport to a cable car station.