Swiss Alps (Interlaken & Jungfrau), Switzerland

Cogwheel trains to the Top of Europe, paragliding over two lakes, and the Lauterbrunnen valley's 72 waterfalls.

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Best time to visit

Month	High	Low	Rain	Season
Jan	4°	-3°	130 mm	prime
Feb	6°	-3°	113 mm	prime
Mar	9°	0°	125 mm
Apr	12°	4°	136 mm
May	17°	7°	204 mm
Jun	21°	12°	216 mm	prime
Jul	23°	14°	239 mm	prime
Aug	23°	14°	233 mm	prime
Sep	19°	11°	160 mm	prime
Oct	16°	7°	132 mm
Nov	9°	2°	140 mm
Dec	5°	-1°	139 mm

30-year averages (1995–2024) from ERA5 reanalysis via Open-Meteo. Rain is the monthly total.

Serves travellers at Backpacker→Ultra-luxury level. Typically around $280 a day on the ground.

Ranges are typical costs, not quotes. Check the real price before you book.

Trains, cable cars and postbuses reach everything. A car is a liability here: Wengen and Mürren are car-free and reachable only by rail or cable car.
getting around · editorial
Zurich or Geneva, then two to three hours by train. The whole journey in, including up the Lauterbrunnen valley, is rail and needs no car at any point.
getting there · editorial
Weather decides the itinerary. The Jungfraujoch is a long trip to spend inside a cloud, so keep the day flexible and go when the mountain webcams are clear.
know before · editorial
Cards everywhere, francs for the rest. Tipping is not expected beyond rounding up.
money · editorial
The two shoulder gaps, late autumn and late spring, when lifts shut for maintenance and the high trails are neither walkable nor skiable. Cloud can also sit on the Jungfrau for days at a time.
when not to go · editorial
Interlaken for access and noise, Lauterbrunnen on the valley floor among the waterfalls, Wengen and Mürren on the terraces above it, car-free and quieter, Grindelwald for the north face and the lift network.
where to stay · editorial

Harder Kulm
1,322 metres and the platform that juts out over the two lakes.
Staubbachfall, Lauterbrunnen
Three hundred metres of free fall. The valley has seventy-two waterfalls.
Jungfraujoch
3,454 metres, the highest railway station in Europe, inside the mountain.
Mürren
No cars, hung on a cliff, reached only by cable car or train.
Schynige Platte
A narrow-gauge railway from 1893 and an alpine garden at the top.
Iseltwald, Lake Brienz
The stone jetty and the turquoise water coming off the glaciers.

Eat raclette scraped off in front of you
Rösti with an egg on top
Grated potato, butter, patience. It is the dish, not the side.
Fondue moitié-moitié
Two cheeses in equal parts, a little kirsch, and no cold water afterwards.
Chocolate bought in a village, not at an airport
The difference is big enough to be worth the detour.

Take the first train to Schynige Platte and walk to First
A train that climbs more than you think possible
Rack and pinion, forty-five degrees, and a cow at the window.
Paragliding over Interlaken
Ten minutes in the air between two lakes. It is not an extreme sport here; it is visitor transport.

Walk up to the Schilthorn
From Mürren to 2,970 metres on foot, when the cable car is everybody else's route.