Hello there. I am planning to go to Interlaken from Zurich for few days with my dear wife. I am using this link as a kind of rough guide but still feel a bit lost as I am not sure about distances between the various places on that link. We have halb tax rail card so public transport it will be. We just want to get fresh air, relax and walk in beautiful romantic scenery. Not interested in any of the sports activities.
Is it convenient to make our base in Interlaken and then visit places 360° around it? Like Jungfrau, Lake Thun+Brienz and other nearby places that you guys might recommend? I remember hearing about a place which is like a museum of houses from all over Switzerland. Do you know what that place is called? Is it near Interlaken?

Which area should we book our hotel in to be nicely located? There seems to be more than one train station in Interlaken. Any cheap clean 3*** type of hotel you could recommend? Not interested in bells and whistles as we will be out most of the time. The cheaper the hotel the longer our stay. 2-3 day trip enough for the 360° thing that I was talking about? Thanks for any advice.

Everything looks near by.

Hotel

This is one I have used several times but dont know about public transport. Lady was American.

DC

That would be the Ballenberg museum which is close to Brienz.

"I remember hearing about a place which is like a museum of houses from all over Switzerland. "

This is referring to Freilichtmuseum Ballenberg:
http://www.ballenberg.ch/

DC looks too family type for my taste and seems bit out. Will keep in mind still incase I don't find anything better. Thanks.

Thanks MissBehaving that is the place.

what about Balmer's Herberge - Interlaken, Switzurland <sic>

They have rooms that you can have just 2 people as well as dorms and are reasonable.

I cannot believe the spelling though - click to the site and look at the Title bar of your browser window (at the top near the X)

Looks very cheap. Which I guess is not a bad thing

funny farm is the other cheap hostel accommodation i know of. you can take private rooms and its not too expensive + 10-15 min walk to interlaken ost station.

interlaken is a good base as you are pretty much in the middle of everthing. a trip up the schilthorn/jungfrau is lovely on a clear day. you can check on the internet for web cam views i think to make sure you don't arrive up the top to clouds (it is quite expensive)!

the trummelbach falls in lauterbrunnen are supposed to be lovely also. there are stacks or walking opportunities near to interlaken. the harder is a solid 2 hour walk to top from interlaken ost but has beautiful views of both lakes. the beaternburg is beatuiful also for walking.

you will definately want more time than 2-3 days- its just beatiful here!

don't forget some of the fairly unique railways in the area.



Narrow-gog Brienz-Rothorn for example

Should I assume that Jungfrau + Interlaken would be colder than Zurich? I am leaving in an hour for a week and not sure if I need to drag a warm jacket along. Weather seems to be on the hot side currently? Any advice from expert travelers ASAP?

I would certainly be taking a warm jacket. I was up at Thun the other day, which was nice & balmy, 800m above it was perishing.

Thanks mate in that case I will take atleast a medium warmth jacket. I will combine it with layerign up technique depending on the conditions. Bye bye Zurich.

I would definitely go along with the suggestion of the Brienz Railway.

If you take a cruise from Interlaken to Brienz, try to go on the DS Lotschberg. This is a restored steamer. http://www.bls.ch/e/schifffahrt/char...oetschberg.php

Most of the tourist locations are served from Interlaken Ost station. The Lake Brienz jetty right next to the station.

I would also recommend the Lauterbrunnen valley including Murren and Wengen, especially the Trummelbach Falls. http://www.waterfall.ch/index.php?N1...48&Language=en

If you have the time you could also go up the Schilthorn (Piz Gloria from James Bond's On Her Majesty's Secret Service)to the revolving restaurant. Cheaper than the Jungfrau but stunning views. http://www.schilthorn.ch/index.php?set[page][language]=4

I will put a few pictures in the Landscapes section shortly.

Have a good time.

On this weekend (may 10,11), jungfrau bahn has a special offer. It is pay only one way , other way return is free.. !!

info here : http://www.jungfraubahn.ch/en/deskto...383_read-6750/

Hi chesse hole, well i live in Meiringen and work in Interlaken, so i may be able to be of some help. Don't know how old you are, but thought i better warn you, Balmers Herberge is very much known around Interlaken as all the young tourists go there, it's a party place with it's own bar and disco, and it's usually very loud. (one of my mates worked there) There are a lot of great bed and breakfasts in Interlaken, which is cheaper than a hotel and you could come and go as you please.
The 2 Railway stations are Interlaken west and Interlaken Ost. The west is more in the center and has a lot of shops and things, but the ost is where all the connecting Trains go from, i would stay near the west, as it's not a far walk if u need to go to Ost, and there are busses and trains that go quite often.
The train to brienz takes about 20min, to meiringen just over half an hour. It's about 35 km between Interlaken and Meiringen.
The Ballenberg Freilichtmuseum is great, but you need a day there to see everything. You can take the train to brienz or brienzwiler and then a bus can take you directly there. Ask at the railwaystation, then u can get ur trainticket and busticket at the same time.
If you have any more questions let me know. Hope this information helps you

Thanks for all your posts. We just got back and had the most amazing holiday. We visited all the places in the 5 days that we were there. Lauterbrunnen what an amazing place! Jungfrau speechless! We walked everyday for almost 8 hours. We were based in the old part of Interlaken. It was CHF 130 in a wooden hotel with nice balcony view of Jungfrau. The new part of Interlaken with all the cheesy hotels looked too touristy and kitsch to me.

After having an awesome holiday I ended up with fever of 40°C plus. I fainted few times and had delirium. Just got back from Hospital after spending 4 hours there. Had all tests done on me and luckily I am ok. Boy Swiss hospitals are so clean and stylish compared to UK NHS ones. Poor wife had a hard time. She thought I was dying.

Glad you had a great time and hope you are fully recovered. I think that the Jungfrau region encapsulates Switzerland in a small area. From lush valleys to stunning mountain tops in a couple of hours. I guess that your trip to the Jungfrau was typical of many responses.

I found it difficult to get my head round the fact that I was half way up the North Face of the Eiger, looking at the same view that seasoned mountaineers would see, when the train made its first stop at Eigerwand. Such an amazing feat of engineering for its day.

Memorable moments for me included: Standing on the viewing platform at the top with the view through down through the grille for 100s of metres. The walk across the glacier. Even the complete contrast of the commercialism, though I am not quite sure how The Bollywood Restaurant fits into a Swiss montain top scene.

Glad you guys had a good time and did not waste your time at the Mystery Park , as we did ( Not sure if it is still around ) .

From what I understand Mystery park closed down some time ago. You can still see the tacky completely foreign looking buildings there. Yes the cheap commercialism really irritated me as well. I guess money is king.

My original roots are in the Himalayas and I personally feel at home in Switzerland as far as nature is concerned. What I find most amazing is that mountains back home were in the 7000-8000+ meters region compared to Jungfrau which is only 3500-4158 meters high Jungfrau does not even feature in the top 100 highest mountain peaks of the world

As far as access is concerned Jungfrau probably wins hands down. Definitely an amazing engineering feat! Once we got on the actual glacier the typical tourist crowd disappeared. We walked for hours on the ice away from all the Bollywood and Japanese/Chinese/Korean crowd. Bless them all but we wanted peace and quiet with mother nature.

I am still very ill and stuck to bed. Fever is not in the 40°C region anymore but still constantly around 38.5°C. Feel like a wreck and dizzy all the time