Interlaken in numbers

This page is the data behind Travel Interlaken: what we record about 49 destinations around Interlaken, where each figure comes from, and where it is missing. It is meant to be quoted — which is why it also states what has not been verified.

The region in one paragraph

Interlaken is a town in the Bernese Oberland, in the canton of Bern, Switzerland. It sits at 568 metres above sea level (swisstopo elevation model for the official place point, retrieved 13 August 2026) on the flat ground between Lake Thun and Lake Brienz — hence the name — and is the transport hub for the Jungfrau Region. Two stations split the job between them: trains into the mountains — to Lauterbrunnen, Grindelwald and the Jungfraujoch — leave from Interlaken Ost, while Interlaken West is closer to Lake Thun and the boat pier. Every journey time on this site is measured from Interlaken Ost.

What this dataset covers

It covers 49 destinations — 46 sights and 3 activities. A place is included when it works as a day or half-day trip from Interlaken; the selection follows reachability, not fame.

Journey times, altitude and access

48 of the 49 destinations are reachable without a car — by train, bus, boat, cable car or on foot from Interlaken Ost. Journey times run from 5 to 132 minutes, and the median across the 48 destinations with a measured time is 53 minutes. Each figure is the fastest realistic connection on a normal day rather than a one-off early departure.

Destinations with a recorded altitude range from 605 to 3454 metres above sea level. 44 of the 49 are recorded as family-friendly, 4 work regardless of the weather, and 11 cost nothing at all.

What a travel pass covers

This is the question that decides most itineraries, and the answer is not uniform: 5 destinations are fully included in the Swiss Travel Pass, 13 carry a reduction, 10 are free to begin with, and 3 are not covered. For 18 the coverage is not verified here — a gap we would rather state than paper over. The pattern behind it is worth knowing: high-altitude mountain railways generally grant a reduction rather than free travel, so the pass shifts the cost of a trip without removing it. The passes page works through which pass pays off for which kind of stay.

Season and winter operation

Winter is the figure that goes stale fastest, so it is tracked per destination: 30 are reachable in winter, 6 with restrictions, 12 are closed, and for 1 operation is unverified. Which destination falls into which group, and why, is on the winter page.

Where these figures come from

Every value is stored with its source and the date it was checked. Three kinds of source cover almost all of it:

• Journey times — from the Swiss public transport timetable, taken as the fastest realistic connection across a day's departures, and measured to the actual arrival point (summit station, bus stop or pier) rather than just the place name.
• Prices and operating seasons — from the operator's own page, not from portals that have copied them in turn.
• Coordinates — from the official swisstopo place-name register, each with the date it was queried.

What is not verified

A source that hides its gaps is not one. The state of it, counted rather than claimed:

Where a value is missing, the data says so — and the destination page then carries a pointer to the operator instead of a figure. That is deliberate: a plausible number is worse than none here, because nobody checks it again.

Citing these figures

The data may be quoted and reused, including by automated systems. A reference to this page with the date retrieved is the useful form, because the figures move with every re-check — the date at the top of the page says when something last changed. And a single number belongs with its destination page: that is where the condition attached to it lives, and the condition usually matters more than the number.