Hotels near Interlaken West to the St. Beatus Caves

The easy option, and the only route here that needs no lift ticket and no mountain season. It runs 8.5 km from Interlaken West station along the north shore of Lake Thun to the St. Beatus Caves in about 2 hours 20 minutes, with 260 m of ascent and 200 m of descent. The operator publishes no difficulty grade, so easy is an inference from the profile rather than an official rating, but the path is flat shoreline for most of its length with the climbing saved for the approach to the caves.

Its real advantage is the calendar. The shore path stays open year-round, which makes it the answer in April, in mid-November when the Firstbahn is shut, or on any day the cloud base sits at 1,500 m and the mountain hikes would show you nothing. The walk finishes at the cave mouth above Sundlauenen, where the system runs a kilometre back into the Beatenberg hillside past lit chambers and an underground waterfall.

Cave admission is CHF 20 for an adult. The 2026 summer season runs 28 March to 8 November 2026, and a separate winter season runs 21 November 2026 to 27 March 2027, so the caves are shut for a fortnight in between even though the path is not. An SBB RailAway combination ticket takes 20% off admission and the BLS boat combination takes 50% off. For the return leg you have a choice: the STI bus on line 21 between Thun and Interlaken stops at the entrance, or the BLS boat pier at Beatushohlen-Sundlauenen, which is 20 to 25 minutes downhill from the caves.

Pro Tip: Buy the BLS boat combination rather than walking both directions. It halves cave admission from CHF 20 to CHF 10 and puts you on Lake Thun for the way back, but the pier at Beatushohlen-Sundlauenen is a 20 to 25 minute descent from the entrance, so leave the caves with a good margin before your sailing.