Interlaken: Land of a Thousand Wallpapers (Switzerland, 2023)

Somehow, I had lived in Switzerland for two months without ever visiting Interlaken! Sean, a friend from high school, was doing his classic “gap semester backpacking through Europe,” and his decision to visit me was the perfect catalyst to explore the Interlaken region.

After exploring Zürich on Monday like proper tourists, we head out to Interlaken Ost from the Zürich main station on Tuesday and grabbed lunch at Bäckerei Conditorei Stocker (pretty solid!). My German class for the day had been canceled, so we decided to take an earlier train out to maximize Interlaken time. This proved to be a grave mistake. We fell asleep to the gentle rumble of the high-speed train, and I awoke a couple hours later to check how far we were. Upon opening Google Maps, we were in Laussane—the other side of the country! As we would figure out, this earlier train involved transferring at Bern, which we did not take and were traveling toward Geneva. No worries, though, as we found a return route back to Interlaken. On the contrary, we were treated to gorgeous sunset views of Lake Geneva and the Swiss landscape.

One cross-country trek later, we landed in Interlaken and walked toward our hostel, Balmers Hostel. Balmers has been around for 100+ years and had some amazing facilities for a cheap hostel, complete with a guitar-playing snowboarder as the receptionist. I had to show Sean a traditional Swiss meal, so we headed to Laterne to grab fondue (was decent, nothing special). Stuffed to the brim with cheese and bread, we had the great idea to watch Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (DDLJ), a classic Indian movie that is famously shot all over Switzerland. Balmers had a TV in the downstairs lounge, so we found a pirate site to watch DDLJ (FBI if you’re reading this, no you’re not). It was our first time watching, so we enjoyed 3 hours of watching Shah Rukh Khan. After the movie ended around 1AM, we turned in to sleep. This was supposed to be a super lively hostel, but given it was a random Tuesday in the offseason, it was nice and calm (which was good and bad).

The next day was one full of adventure. To jumpstart the day, we grabbed a quick vending machine snack (didn’t want to get too full, as you’ll see) and joined Birdman Bernie and Raptor Rick to go hang-gliding! They had lots of friendly banter and the classic tour guide jokes (“this is my first time too!” type of stuff). Sean won rock-paper-scissors and went first, giving me time to walk around the beautiful Thunersee as he prepped and then got to see him in the air. It was a tandem flight and Bernie did some cool in-flight tricks. I was super excited to get up there, and I felt almost no nerves at all. After Birdman Bernie (and Soaring Sean) touched down, I headed up the mountain. The views were great, and after setting up the hang glider and doing some practice runs, we were off! Rotating from a standing position to a prone position by putting your feet into a strap was harder than expected, but once I got that, it was a great experience. It felt like a rollercoaster with more freedom, and the views of the alps and lakes in the background felt like a green screen. Bernie did a couple tricks with me, which really amplified the experience. Before I knew it, we were approaching the ground and had a nice, smooth landing. It was quite short, but definitely worth doing once, especially in one of the most beautiful places in the world. With the intermediate photo package, it cost us 280CHF each (only took cash), which was a little steep, but worth it for a once-in-a-lifetime experience. It wasn’t too terribly exhilarating though, and I’m excited to try skydiving.

Next, we were recommended by the hang gliders to grab lunch at the nearby Steininger Cafe, which had some great quiche. The afternoon had some great hikes in store for us. Sean and I tried to access the Daube viewpoint via Schynige Platte station, but the funicular was closed until July and the route up was very difficult (the real scenic hike started after getting to the viewpoint, so there was no point hiking up and straight down). Instead, we took a train across town to Interlaken Ost and asked about accessing Harder Kulm. Again, the funicular was closed, and the lady at the train station said the trail is not suitable without hiking boots. When we said we’d go up anyway, she said it would take an hour but it is impossible given our current footwear. Now, we were determined. We started up the trail, which mostly consisted of a gentle incline with interjections of steep, wooded trails. There were also shortcut options of more steep, wooded trails, and we took some of them to cut our walking time. The signs on the trail said it would take 2 hours and 20 minutes to reach the top, and with all of our rest stops, it ended up being almost exactly that time. So, the train lady was wrong on both fronts: definitely doable in regular shoes and definitely not a 1-hour hike. The views at the top were magnificent, with views of Thunersee, Brienzersee, Interlaken proper, and the surrounding mountains, including Jungfraujoch, the “top of Europe.” We spent a solid 30 minutes relaxing, taking pictures, and enjoying the views. At the start of the trail, we met two French girls who we quickly lost but reunited with at the very top. This hike easily broke my top two and arguably my favorite (it was Sean’s favorite) simply because of all the views along the way and at the top. Before we knew it, it was almost sunset, so we used the bathroom (nature’s bathroom) and headed back down.

By this point, Sean and I were pros at hiking, so the journey down took about 1 hour and 15 minutes (EXACTLY as the sign said!), and were absolutely starving. Luckily, there was Truly Asia nearby, a place for Thai and Vietnamese food. The curries were spicy and the vegetables were fresh—definitely hit the spot after a long 4+ hour hike. Drained from our adventures, we grabbed protein bars and ice cream from a nearby Coop store and headed back to Balmer’s Hostel.

After a full 8 hours of sleep, we woke up early, checked out, stored our baggage in the hostel luggage room (for free!), and grabbed breakfast at Steininger again, this time with some pastries and coffee. Being the Indians we are, we had to stop by the Yash Chopra statue next to the Interlaken Casino and snag some flicks (for those readers who may be unfamiliar with Bollywood, Yash Chopra is a legendary director and producer who was involved with some of the biggest Bollywood movies from the 1980s to the 2010s and was known for shooting scenes in Switzerland, including DDLJ). After relaxing in the park and directing some Indians to the statue, we headed to the train station to go to Grindelwald terminal.

On the way, we met some fellow Americans (discovered by their accent), and we bonded over our shared cultural heritage of fast food and guns. At Grindelwald terminal, we got a ski pass to go up the gondola to the middle station of the Jungfrau region (via snow25—an absolute cheat code if you’re under 25 because you can get trains and ski lift tickets for 45CHF combined!). The views from the gondola and at Eigergletscher station were absolutely gorgeous. As is common with Swiss ski resorts, there was EDM music blasting and we had to pair the vibe with a local beer. We wanted to go to the top, but it cost 120CHF, so we quickly said “thanks but no thanks” and took a train to Kleine Scheidegg, the next station down. We were going to sled, but the routes looked quite steep, and we were all adventured-out from the previous day. So, instead, we grabbed lunch at the ski restaurant and relaxed before taking a train to Grindelwald. The views from the train were magnificent (which seems to be a theme in this country) as we arrived in Grindelwald. Given it was a random Thursday, the city was super quiet and we walked around for about an hour. The village reminded me of a winterized version of Sedona, Arizona: a small touristy town in the valley of a grand mountain range. It was a cool experience strolling next to these giant mountains, but unless you have some hikes planned (lots of cool hikes, check out Banchalpsee in warmer months), it is definitely doable in one afternoon.

We wrapped up our trip by heading back to Interlaken to pick up our baggage, which we were a little worried about because the free tier of storage didn’t come with any locks, but everything worked out. Sean and I returned back to Zürich (on the right train this time thankfully) and unwinded before Sean caught his flight the next morning.

Takeaways

• Make sure you know when to transfer trains or be prepared to wake up on the French border. There are worse places to be lost, though
• Interlaken and Jungfrau Region are gorgeous. The winter months feature snowy mountains and glaciers and the summer months feature lush green landscapes, so the spring combines the best of both worlds (except for some hikes and funiculars, which are summer-only)
• Hang gliding (or some form of sky sports) is a must when in the area
• If you want to visit the top of a mountain, opt for Engelberg for half the cost of Jungfrau. If you have the snow25, Eigergletscher is great, but if not, there are better opportunities in the area
• Traveling with an old friend is always a vibe. Shoutout to Sean for visiting and being the catalyst I needed to see the Interlaken region

Rose-Bud-Thorn

Rose (what went well): The hike up to Harder Klum was amazing. It was much more rewarding than taking the funicular up, and we were treated to some of the best views on Earth
Bud (what was good but could be improved on): Hang gliding was so much fun, but it was super expensive, and not sure if the photo package was necessary. No complaints though! Once in a lifetime experience for sure
Thorn (what did not go well): While the tourist off-season meant all the attractions were empty and could be enjoyed to the fullest, it’s hard to get the classic hostel experience of meeting people from all over the world. The hostel was great, but I met exactly zero people!