Grindelwald sits at 1,034 m in an open bowl of a valley below the Eiger north face, 36 minutes from Interlaken Ost. It is a junction more than a destination: railways and buses lead up from here in several directions, and that is why most people come. The village itself costs nothing. What lies above it does — and this page puts those nine trips side by side.
Quick Facts
- Elevation
- 1,034 m
- Getting There
- 36 min from Interlaken Ost, no change
- Duration
- Half to full day
- Price
- Free
- Season
- All year, timetable included
- Best for
- A base for mountain railways and walks
Journey time checked
Thirty-six minutes, on every train
36 minutes from Interlaken Ost, half-hourly, with no change. The remarkable part is not the number but how still it is: measured at eight departure times between 06:00 and 20:00 on a Wednesday in the summer timetable, every connection takes the same 36 minutes. For most mountain destinations in this region it pays to check the specific connection, because the early and late ones cost ten minutes. Here it does not.
In practice that means planning the day around the last train down rather than the first one up. It is the only departure time worth memorising.
What lies above
Nine destinations on this site are reached from Grindelwald — by the First gondola, the Männlichen cable car, the train towards Kleine Scheidegg, the mountain bus to Bussalp and the postbus over the Grosse Scheidegg. Here they are with their checked figures beside each other, which is the one thing nobody else does: the operator sells all of them and the tourist board promotes all of them, so only someone selling none of them can line them up.
| Destination | From Interlaken Ost | Price What is a pass day?One pass day is CHF 80 — the Berner Oberland Pass for 3 days (CHF 240), divided by 3. One-way fares are counted as return trips for this comparison. What else costs what here | Time needed | Season | Swiss Travel Pass | With kids |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grindelwald First | 72 min Train + bus + gondola | from CHF 38 one way · up to 1 pass day | Half to full day | Year-round | Reduced | Yes |
| Bachalpsee | 132 min Train + bus + gondola | from CHF 38 one way · up to 1 pass day | Half day | June–October | Reduced | Yes |
| Faulhorn | 48 min Train + bus | Not verified | Full day | June–October | Not verified | No |
| Grosse Scheidegg | 94 min Train + bus | CHF 27.00 one way · up to 1 pass day | Half day | May–October | Not verified | No |
| Bussalp | 73 min Train + bus | CHF 54.00 return · up to 1 pass day | Half day | Year-round except November | Not verified | Yes |
| Männlichen | 54 min Train + cableway | CHF 68.00 return · up to 1 pass day | Half day | Winter and summer | Reduced | Yes |
| Kleine Scheidegg | 64 min Train | Not verified | Half day | Year-round | Not verified | Yes |
| Grindelwald Glacier Gorge | 53 min Train + bus | CHF 21.00 Admission · up to ½ pass day | 1–2 hrs | April–November | Not verified | Yes |
| Jungfraujoch — Top of Europe | 97 min Train | from CHF 129.60 return · over 1 pass day | 5–6 hrs | Year-round | Reduced | Yes |
Travel times: fastest public connection from Interlaken Ost to the destination itself — for mountain destinations that means the top station, not the valley station. Where a summit can only be reached on foot, the figure ends at the last station, and the destination page says which. Places in town are walking times.
Adult prices, as of the date at the foot of this page. Cableway and boat fares vary by route, travelcard and guest card.
One pass day is CHF 80 — the Berner Oberland Pass for 3 days (CHF 240), divided by 3. One-way fares are counted as return trips for this comparison. What else costs what here
Two notes on the journey-time column. It measures from Interlaken Ost, not from Grindelwald — if you are standing in the village, those 36 minutes are already behind you, and nearly all of these connections run through here anyway. And it measures to the point each entry describes: for the Faulhorn that is the valley station of the First gondola, because the summit is reachable only on foot, and for the Bachalpsee it is the First top station plus roughly an hour's walk. So the figures are not in order of altitude, and that is not a mistake.
What your Swiss Travel Pass covers here
Most readers arrive in Grindelwald already holding a Swiss Travel Pass, so this is the useful question rather than the price of a single ticket. The train up from Interlaken Ost is ordinary rail and fully covered. Above the village the picture changes, and the pass column in the table above says so per destination: 0 of the nine fully included, 4 at a reduction, and 5 where we could not verify the coverage and say so rather than guess.
That is the regional pattern rather than an accident — high mountain railways almost always discount instead of including. From roughly the third ascent onwards, a regional pass usually beats paying half price each time.
Which travel pass is worth it around Interlaken
What the village costs
Nothing. No admission, no ticket, no barrier — Grindelwald is a lived-in village, not an attraction with a gate. Every railway and every bus above it is paid for separately, and the spread in the table is wide: from the Grindelwald Glacier Gorge (CHF 21.00) to the Jungfraujoch — Top of Europe (from CHF 129.60).
In winter
The train runs unchanged: half-hourly, the same 36 minutes, cross-checked against the timetable for 20 January 2027. Grindelwald is a winter resort and the village is no less served in winter than in summer. The real question is what closes above it, and the season column of the table answers that per destination instead of lumping them together.
The other Grindelwald
Worth one paragraph, because the search results confuse the two: the village has carried this name for centuries and has nothing to do with the wizard who borrowed it. Nothing was filmed here and there is nothing on the subject to see. In the United States the fandom page for the character currently outranks the village itself — which says something about the internet and nothing at all about the Bernese Oberland.
On foot
The walks around Grindelwald are not on this page but on their own — with distance, ascent and descent given separately, and the question of which routes are descents from a railway and which are not. The climb from the village to the Grosse Scheidegg starts at the station, which is exactly where this page stops.
The walks around Grindelwald, with checked figures for each
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does it take to get to Grindelwald from Interlaken?
36 minutes, no change, every half hour. What is worth knowing is that the figure does not move: measured at eight departure times between 06:00 and 20:00 on a Wednesday in the summer timetable, every single connection takes the same 36 minutes and none of them requires a change. There is no bad hour here to plan around.
Does the Swiss Travel Pass cover Grindelwald?
The train up to the village is ordinary rail, which the pass covers in full. Above the village it thins out fast: of the nine destinations on this page, 0 are fully included, 4 carry a reduction, and for 5 the coverage is not verified in our data. That is the pattern across the whole region — high mountain railways discount rather than include. The passes page works through which pass pays off.
Is Grindelwald named after the Harry Potter character?
The other way round, and only loosely. The village in the Bernese Oberland has carried the name for centuries and has nothing to do with the books or the films — nothing was filmed here, and there is nothing on the subject to visit. It comes up because the search results mix the two: in the United States the fandom page for the character outranks the village itself.
What does Grindelwald cost?
The village itself nothing — no admission, no ticket, no barrier. Everything above it is paid for separately, and the spread is wide: from the Grindelwald Glacier Gorge (CHF 21.00) to the Jungfraujoch — Top of Europe (from CHF 129.60). If you only want the village and the Eiger north face, a train ticket covers it.
Is one day enough for Grindelwald?
For the village yes, for the village and one mountain railway just about. Note that the travel times in the table are measured from Interlaken Ost, not from Grindelwald — if you are already up here, those 36 minutes are behind you. Two railways in a day works, three does not, and the last train down is the real limit.
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