5 Days in the Swiss Alps: Interlaken & the Jungfrau

A day-by-day itinerary for Interlaken, Switzerland: real activities, restaurants and hotels with prices and booking links. Copy it and make it yours.

Interlaken, Switzerland · 5 days · 20 activities · free to copy and customize

Day 1 — Between the lakes

14:00 Train to Interlaken Ost (40 CHF). From Zurich ≈CHF 40 with a Half Fare Card — buy the card (CHF 120/month) FIRST; in the Jungfrau region it pays for itself by tomorrow lunchtime.
15:30 Interlaken hotel, 4 nights (1,120 CHF). ≈CHF 280/night. One base, no repacking: every valley and summit here is a day trip by rail.
17:00 Höhematte & the paraglider landing lawn. Free. The Jungfrau fills the gap between the rooftops; paragliders drop out of the sky onto the grass all afternoon.
19:30 Rösti and a local dunkel (35 CHF). ≈CHF 35. Swiss prices are the altitude training for this trip.

08:30 Train into the Lauterbrunnen valley (12 CHF). ≈CHF 12 with Half Fare, 20 min into the valley of 72 waterfalls — the one that made Tolkien draw Rivendell.
09:30 Staubbach Falls & valley-floor walk. Free. Flat 45-minute stroll under a 300 m ribbon of falling water.
11:00 Trümmelbach Falls (14 CHF). CHF 14. Ten glacier waterfalls INSIDE the mountain, reached by tunnel-lift — the Eiger's meltwater thundering through the rock.
14:00 Cogwheel up to car-free Wengen (8 CHF). ≈CHF 8 with Half Fare. Coffee on a terrace hanging over the valley you walked this morning.
19:00 Dinner in Interlaken (40 CHF).

07:30 Jungfraujoch, booked as the Good Morning ticket (145 CHF). ≈CHF 145 with Half Fare on the first trains (full fare CHF 210+). Europe's highest station, 3,454 m, through a tunnel drilled in 1912. The HONEST alternative: Grindelwald First (CHF 34 with Half Fare) delivers 80% of the drama at a sixth of the price — pick by weather, not FOMO; check the summit webcams at 06:30.
11:00 Aletsch Glacier viewpoint & Ice Palace. Included. The longest glacier in the Alps flowing away beneath the Sphinx terrace; altitude is real here — move slowly.
14:00 Eiger Trail leg down. Free. Kleine Scheidegg → Alpiglen under the North Face: 2h downhill with the wall hanging overhead. Trainers fine, knees complaining.
19:30 Fondue night (45 CHF). ≈CHF 45. You are legally and morally obliged at least once.

10:00 Lake Brienz cruise to Giessbach (32 CHF). ≈CHF 32 return with Half Fare. The lake is unreasonably turquoise; the Giessbach falls drop straight past a Belle Époque hotel.
13:00 Lunch at Giessbach or back in town (35 CHF).
15:30 Harder Kulm funicular (22 CHF). ≈CHF 22 with Half Fare. Interlaken's own balcony — both lakes, one triangle of decking, all the Oberland behind.
18:00 Paragliding (the optional splurge) (180 CHF). ≈CHF 180 tandem from Beatenberg. If you were ever going to run off a mountain, this lawn is the world's softest landing.

09:00 Grindelwald & the First cliff walk (34 CHF). ≈CHF 34 with Half Fare for the gondola; the cliff walk itself is free and bolted straight onto the rock face.
12:30 Lunch in Grindelwald (35 CHF).
15:00 Trains onward (40 CHF). Interlaken sits on the Golden Pass line — Lucerne, Bern and Zurich airport are all one scenic ride away.

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