THE TOWN BETWEEN THE LAKES
Interlaken’s name is almost a complete explanation: the town sits on the strip of land between Lake Thun and Lake Brienz, joined by the Aare. The setting makes the place feel much larger than its compact centre. Water appears at either end, the Harder ridge rises immediately to the north, and the valley to the south frames the pale summit of the Jungfrau.
The old settlement was known as Aarmühle, while the Augustinian monastery founded in the twelfth century carried the name Interlaken. Tourism eventually made the monastery’s name the more useful identity, and the municipality officially adopted it in 1891. The change captured what visitors were coming to see: not a single monument, but a landscape and the routes radiating into it.
WHY THE GRAND HOTELS FACE SOUTH
Höheweg is the ceremonial axis of resort-era Interlaken. Hotels, gardens and terraces line one side; the broad Höhematte meadow preserves the view on the other. That open ground is not an accidental gap in development. It keeps the town’s defining sightline toward the Jungfrau intact and gives modern Interlaken its unusual centre: a field where paragliders land in front of nineteenth-century hotel façades.
British travellers, mountaineers and railway passengers helped turn the settlement into an international resort during the nineteenth century. The Kursaal, promenades and large hotels belong to that period of confidence, when reaching the Alps was becoming easier but still felt like an event. The Victoria-Jungfrau began as two neighbouring hotels before they were joined, and its long façade remains part of the view it was built to admire.
TWO STATIONS · TWO DIRECTIONS
Interlaken developed around movement. Interlaken West connects naturally with Lake Thun, Bern and the older streets of Unterseen. Interlaken Ost is the operational gateway to Lake Brienz and the mountain valleys. From there, trains divide toward Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen, turning the station into the hinge of most Jungfrau-region itineraries.
This split explains why a five-day stay works so well. The town itself is gentle and walkable, but each morning can open in a different direction: up to the Jungfraujoch, into the Lauterbrunnen valley, across Lake Brienz, or west to the castle and old town of Thun. Interlaken is less a destination to exhaust than a base that keeps rearranging the map.
THE RAILWAY INTO THE HIGH ALPS
The journey to Jungfraujoch is a sequence of engineered transitions. Valley trains climb to the mountain settlements, newer services reach Eigergletscher, and the Jungfrau Railway enters the Eiger before emerging near the saddle between the Mönch and Jungfrau. The railway’s opening in 1912 transformed a place once reserved for alpinists into an extraordinary public viewpoint.
At the top, the Sphinx observatory stands above the railway complex, while the Ice Palace turns glacial material into an interior experience. Yet the most memorable part is often scale itself: the Aletsch Glacier flowing away from the saddle and the surrounding peaks appearing close enough to touch. Weather decides everything. A clear valley morning does not guarantee a clear summit, which is why the live cameras matter more than a rigid schedule.
WATERFALL VALLEYS AND CAR-FREE LEDGES
South of Interlaken, the Lauterbrunnen valley is a deep glacial trough lined by cliffs and waterfalls. Staubbach drops visibly beside the village; Trümmelbach cuts through the mountain behind it, carrying meltwater from the great peaks. Above the valley floor, Mürren occupies a sunny terrace with no ordinary road traffic, reached by cableway and mountain railway.
The contrast between valley and terrace is central to the region’s appeal. Lauterbrunnen feels vertical and enclosed; Mürren feels suspended and open. Allmendhubel adds a gentler high meadow above the village, while the longer ridges beyond Harder Kulm show the more serious side of the landscape. Trails here are not decorations around the railway system. The railways and cable cars are what make many trailheads practical.
LAKES AS TRANSPORT
Lake Brienz has a striking turquoise colour created by fine mineral particles carried down from the surrounding glaciers. Passenger boats make the lake a route rather than a backdrop. At Giessbach, travellers can step from the landing stage onto a historic funicular and climb toward the waterfall and the Grandhotel. Farther east, Brienz preserves a strong woodcarving tradition beside the water.
Lake Thun points toward a different landscape of vineyards, castles and larger settlements. Thun’s castle rises above a lively old town where raised pavements create an unusual second level along the central streets. Together, the two lakes explain Interlaken’s character: the town is the quiet middle of a region whose drama lies in every direction.
READING THE LANDSCAPE
The best way to understand Interlaken is to alternate altitude and water. A summit day reveals the immense alpine system; a lake day shows how villages, hotels and transport grew along its edges. The old towns of Unterseen and Thun supply the human scale, and the waterfalls make visible the constant movement of snow and ice through the mountains.
That rhythm also makes the visit resilient. Clouds at Jungfraujoch can become a boat ride, a museum, or the sheltered streets of Thun. When the weather clears, the mountains are never far away. Interlaken’s lasting advantage is not simply that it is central. It is that almost every route from the centre tells a different part of the same story.