Interlaken, before you book
Interlaken sits low for this region, at around 567 metres, in the flat gap between Lake Thun and Lake Brienz. You arrive by train into one of two stations at opposite ends of town, and the first thing you notice is not a peak but a meadow: paragliders drift down onto the Höhematte in the centre, more than 35 000 landings a year. With trains fanning out from here toward Lauterbrunnen, Grindelwald and the rest of Switzerland, it works as the base you pass through as much as the one you settle into.
Two stations decide where you sleep. Interlaken Ost sends trains up to Lauterbrunnen and Grindelwald and is where the Harder Kulm funicular starts, close to the Aare river, the practical base for day trips into the mountains. Interlaken West is where the Lake Thun boats leave and the road to Bern begins, with the old town of Unterseen just across the river. Between the two runs the Höheweg, past shops, restaurants and the grand hotels of the belle époque, with the Höhematte in the middle.
The hotels range from grand to family run. The Victoria-Jungfrau has stood on the Höheweg since 1856, with 216 rooms and a spa of 5500 square metres, while the Carlton-Europe, welcoming guests since 1898, takes adults only, and Hotel Du Lac by Interlaken Ost dates to 1888. Hotel Krebs, in the same family for more than 150 years near Interlaken West, is the least expensive address in our dated samples. Where we hold prices for both seasons, they run higher in summer than in winter, the reverse of what you would find in a ski resort.
Trains to Lauterbrunnen and Grindelwald run all year, so Interlaken works as a base in any season, but its own attractions keep a calendar: the Harder Kulm funicular runs from 3 April to 29 November, with evening rides and alphorn concerts from 18 April to 25 October, and Lake Brienz boats stop for the winter on 7 December while Lake Thun keeps sailing. By road, the town is reached via Bern or Lucerne, or from the south over the seasonal Grimsel or Simplon passes.
