5 Best Hikes in Interlaken

This is the gentlest of the three high-mountain routes here. First to Bachalpsee and back, waymarked as route No. 1, is 5.8 km round trip with 202 m of ascent and 202 m of descent, signposted at 1 hour 40 minutes (jungfrau.ch quotes 1 h 50, so allow the longer figure). Graded T1 and almost entirely a broad gravel path between 2,164 m and 2,280 m, it is the one hike on this list a moderately fit ten-year-old will finish without complaint.

From an Interlaken base this is a full day, not a morning. Take the Bernese Oberland Railway from Interlaken Ost to Grindelwald, walk 8 to 10 minutes to the Talstation Firstbahn, then ride the gondola 25 minutes through the Bort and Schreckfeld intermediate stations to First at 2,167 m. The lake itself sits at 2,265 m and holds the Schreckhorn and Wetterhorn in its surface on a still morning, which is the reason it appears on every Swiss postcard rack. The path is normally snow-free from roughly mid-June to late October.

The Firstbahn adult return is roughly CHF 76; the "from CHF 38" shown on jungfrau.ch is the reduced rate, not the walk-up price, so budget for the higher figure. Here is the pass arithmetic if you are staying in Interlaken: one Firstbahn return at about CHF 76 plus a Harderbahn return at about CHF 44 already eats more than half of a 3-day Jungfrau Travel Pass at CHF 210, and the pass throws in every BOB train from Interlaken Ost as well. Swiss Travel Pass, Half-Fare Card and Berner Oberland Pass holders get 50% instead.

Harder than Bachalpsee, well short of the Faulhornweg. Trail No. 36 covers 6.1 km from Eigergletscher to Alpiglen in a signposted 2 hours, with just 78 m of ascent against 779 m of descent as it drops from 2,346 m to 1,615 m. The grade is T2 and there are rope-secured sections where the path crosses scree, so this is a downhill walk that still wants proper boots and a head for uneven ground. The season is July to October.

What makes it worth the travel time is that the entire route runs along the base of the north face of the Eiger, close enough that you hear rockfall and meltwater coming off the wall all afternoon. Most people photograph the face from Kleine Scheidegg; this puts you underneath it for two solid hours.

Coming from Interlaken, take the BOB to Grindelwald Terminal at Grundstrasse 54 (it has its own station, so you do not need Grindelwald village) and switch to the Eiger Express. The tricable gondola runs 6,483 m of cable in 15 minutes with 44 cabins of 26 seats and a capacity of 2,200 people per hour, so queues move even in August. Jungfrau Travel Pass holders ride free; Swiss Travel Pass, Half-Fare Card and Berner Oberland Pass holders pay half. The "from CHF 40.60" quoted on jungfrau.ch is the reduced fare, with the full adult single closer to CHF 81, so treat that as an estimate rather than a quote. At the bottom, the Wengernalpbahn runs from Alpiglen down to Grindelwald Grund, and the BOB takes you back to Interlaken Ost.

This is the hard one, and nothing else on the list is close. The Faulhornweg runs 16.19 km from Schynige Platte to First in a signposted 6 hours, climbing 825 m and losing 639 m across a range of 1,910 m to 2,681 m, with the Faulhorn summit at the top of that spread. Schynige Platte starts you at 1,967 m and First finishes you at 2,167 m, but the line between them is a long undulating ridge rather than a steady climb.

Difficulty is best described as medium to hard. No operator publishes an official Swiss T-grade for it, so judge it on the terrain instead: natural mountain footpath, long stretches of rock and scree, entirely above the tree line, and no realistic bail-out once you are past the Faulhorn. The reward is that you walk the full length of the ridge with the Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau on your right the whole way and both lakes below on your left.

Access from Interlaken is the easiest part: the BOB drops you at Wilderswil, one stop out, and the Schynige Platte Railway leaves from the same building at Hauptstrasse 2. The rack railway climbs 7.3 km and 1,420 m in 52 to 53 minutes with departures every 40 minutes, and its 2026 season is 13 June to 25 October. That railway season, more than the snow, is what decides whether you can walk this; the path itself is realistically clear from July to early October. Return fare is roughly CHF 68 adult, the "from CHF 34" on jungfrau.ch being the reduced rate. You exit by taking the Firstbahn down from First to Grindelwald and the BOB back to Interlaken Ost, and the Jungfrau Travel Pass covers both railways plus the gondola.

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.