A Whirlwind 1-hour Walking Tour of Interlaken, Switzerland

Interlaken West to Ost

For nearly 200 years, Interlaken, the gateway to the Jungfrau, smack in the middle of Switzerland’s Berner Oberland, has been the beating heart and soul of Swiss tourism. Chances are, if you are planning a trip to Switzerland, or even just on your way to enjoy some of Switzerland’s best landscapes and hiking, you are going to find yourself passing through the gates of this tourist mecca.

While we have shared quite a few walks around the periphery of Interlaken in our Discovering Bern Series (check out the link for lots of walking ideas!), we have mostly avoided the town itself. Part of that is for obvious reasons. This is a blog about the lesser-known in Switzerland and Interlaken, with its crowds of visitors and budget-blowing paragliding and sky diving, is pretty much the antithesis of what we are about. That being said, I don’t think we have really given Interlaken a fair shot.

This past week, I made a point to explore the town of Interlaken itself properly, and the wealth of incredible history and architecture I found between Interlaken West and Ost train stations honestly blew me out of the water. I think it's likely to surprise you as well.

Join us this week, as we take a brief curated 3 km (2-mile) walk from my explorations to see the absolute best of Interlaken. The walk can be done in just about an hour and provides an excellent overview and lay of the land in Interlaken. Perfect for fighting off jet lag or killing some time before your next train or boat connection.

Thanks for joining us!

You can follow along with our walk using the interactive map above

From the train to Unterseen

The end of the Interlaken Ship Canal on our walk to Neuhaus a few week back

I will leave you to find out more about the Canal and shipping on Lake Thun in the Neuhaus post but what I will say here is that the end of the Canal is as far into Interlaken as boats from Lake Thun can make it. Bridges and other obstacles along the Aare River, which connects Lake Brienz with Lake Thun, make it impossible for ships to transit between the two lakes.

Continuing up Bahnhofstrasse, just past the ship canal, we pass several of the larger Victorian-era hotels that can be found all over Interlaken (more on that in just a bit). We cross three strands of the Aare River divided by a series of locks just upstream of here and, soon, the Victorian and modern architecture gives way to traditional Chalets and, eventually the medieval town center of Unterseen.

Our walk starts at Interlaken West Train Station and weaves through the heart of Interlaken eventually ending up on the other side of town at Interlaken Ost Train Station. To start, we head from Interlaken West across the tracks to the end of the Interlaken Ship Canal where our excellent boat cruise from Thun on Steamship Blümlisalp ended. If you followed along with our easy walk to Neuhaus a couple of months back, this was also the same starting point for that walk.

Chalets on the edge of Unterseen

If you are familiar with the rest of Interlaken (most of which tends to mimic the tourist vibe found around Interlaken West train station), five minutes into Unterseen is like being transported to a whole different town. And, historically, that was actually the case. Unterseen was its own town, completely independent of Interlaken. Only in more modern times have the two communities fully merged together.

The Unterseen Altstadt

A right onto Hauptstrasse and a quick jaunt down the road brings us to our first stop, the small castle, Schloss Unterseen, which once formed a portion of the defensive town wall built around Unterseen near the end of the 13th century.

Looking up at Schloss Unterseen which once formed a portion of the medieval town wall

Following a devastating fire that consumed most of Unterseen in 1470, the expansionist Bernese helped build back the town and, in exchange, more or less took over. At the time, the lands of nearby Interlaken remained under the control of the Interlaken Monastery which, through the 13th Century had managed to acquire a huge amount of land and influence in the region (more on that in a bit).

Unsurprisingly, the Reformation in the 16th century led to quite a bit of strife between the Protestant Bernese in Unterseen and the Catholics over at the Monastery in nearby Interlaken. This culminated in a brief conflict between the two communities that ultimately saw the Bernese secularize the lands of the Monastery with a financial settlement.

The current Schloss Unterseen was built near the end of the 17th century as a new seat for the Bernese bailiff who controlled law and order in the district. In 1855, the crumbling defensive wall around Unterseen was demolished leaving the castle free-standing.

From the castle, we continue down Hauptstrasse into the heart of Unterseen, the Kirchgasse. The small old town center of Unterseen is picturesque and offers a complete respite from the modern architecture of nearby Interlaken. In the corner of Kirchgasse stands the original church bell tower constructed with Bernese funds after the 1470 fire. The rest of the church had to be rebuilt after a collapse in 1851.

Circling around the adorable town center we find a number of art galleries, coffee shops, and restaurants worth taking a peek at if you are hungry. This is also the location of the infamous Interlaken Tourism Museum, the site of one of Switzerland’s most engaging crime dramas, the (first) theft of the Unspunnen Stein. Check out our visit to Ruine Unspunnen just outside Interlaken for the full story, it’s almost too incredible to believe!

The adorable Kirchgasse in Unterseen

Looking around the Unterseen old town

As an aside, if you plan to stay in Interlaken, there are many hotels including a few around Unterseen. If you are looking for the convenience and proximity of the Interlaken train stations, but want something a bit quieter and more charming, I think Unterseen would be an excellent option.

Into Victorian Interlaken

In 1803, Franz Niklaus König, a prolific Swiss landscape painter, moved into the Unterseen Castle and co-founded the modern Unspunnen Fest outside of Interlaken celebrating the tradition, culture, and sport of the Berner Oberland. The artistic works of König and his contemporaries alongside the draw of the popular Unspunnen Fest are largely credited with kicking off tourism in Interlaken and the Berner Oberland in the 19th century.

As we talked about during our visit to Neuhaus, steamships on Lake Thun and, eventually, the establishment of the Bödeli and Lake Thun railways made access much cheaper and more convenient opening the floodgates to modern tourism.

After looping around the town center of Unterseen, we cross back over the Aare at Schaalbrücke and make our way back towards the center of Interlaken. After crossing the train tracks that connect Interlaken West and Ost, the original route of the Bödeli railway, we turn left onto Neugasse to take in some of Interlaken’s now characteristic Victorian architecture.

Timing is everything. The pervasive architecture found across Interlaken is a byproduct of the arrival of tourism at the height of the Victorian period in the mid-to-late 19th century. As you make your way down Neugasse, you pass several fine examples of the style here in Interlaken before encountering some less flattering mid-20th century apartments that are the norm across much of Switzerland.

The view looking up the Aare between Unterseen and Interlaken

Some of Interlaken's Victorian Architecture

Neugasse dead ends at Harderstrasse and you will turn right and make your way past a mixed bag of buildings down to Höheweg, the main drag through Interlaken. Without much forethought, the massive brutalist Hotel Metropol towering over the corner of Höheweg and Harderstrasse was opened in 1971, replacing its dilapidated Victorian predecessor and indelibly scaring the Interlaken skyline.

A right turn on Höheweg takes you to quite a few restaurants and cafes but we turn left to visit the Höhematte, a large open field in the middle of Interlaken with impressive views of the Jungfrau Massif. On any nice day you can watch dozens of tandem paragliders twirling high above and making their landing here. Across the street from the Höhematte, next door to the Metropole, stands the famous Victoria-Jungfrau Grand Hotel.

Today one of the most expensive resorts in all of Switzerland, the Victoria-Jungfrau was formed through the 1899 merger of the neighboring Victoria and Jungfrau hotels. The architecture of the buildings is an iconic exemplification of the Victorian style in Interlaken and the gilded mirrors, stucco and crystal on the inside do justice to the Belle Epoch where many of the other Victorian hotels are just a shell of their former selves.

Next door to the Victoria Jungfrau and set back behind some fancy watch shops, you will find the Kursaal Interlaken, today's Casino Interlaken. Originally built in 1858 as a spa, the building was converted into an event center around the turn of the last century. Changes to Swiss law in the 1980’s reestablished a long-lost means to legal gambling and, in the early 2000’s the Kursaal was awarded one of the country’s very few casino licenses.

Looking across Höhematte at the Hotel Metropole and the Victoria-Jungfrau

The Victoria-Jungfrau Grand Hotel with paragliders sailing high above

To Schloss Interlaken and the Interlaken Monestary

Past the Casino on Höheweg, the architecture turns a bit grim and modern but we continue on to the corner of the Höhematte and turn right on Klosterstrasse to face the Schloss Park, the former site of the Interlaken Kloster or Monastery.

Everything we have been walking through since we crossed back over the Aare from Unterseen was once part of the Augustinian Interlaken Monastery, first mentioned in writing in the year 1133. As I mentioned before, at its peak in the 13th century, the Monastery held significant power in the region, controlling nearly all the surrounding lands and communities from the eastern end of Lake Thun, across Lake Brienz, and all the way up into the Lauterbrunnen and Grindelwald valleys.

Power conflicts within the lands controlled by the monastery led to instability in the 14th century and, by the end of the 15th century, internal strife within the monastery was already starting to pull it apart. The reformation struggle with the Bernese in Unterseen was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Crossing the street from the Höhematte, we enter the grounds of the former monastery, now the Cantonal government’s district offices. After the Bernese purchased the lands from the church and the monastery was dissolved, several of the buildings were repurposed while the west wing was demolished and eventually replaced with the current Schloss Interlaken in the mid-1700’s.

A wander around the grounds reveals a complete mish-mash of architectural styles from Romanesque to Renaissance and everything in between.

The original gothic monastery church, the Schlosskirche, was divided into a granary and wine cellar by the Bernese in 1563 and only restored to its more-or-less original state in 1950. Heading inside gives a real sense of what it means to repurpose old buildings!

Back outside, you encounter a bit of a conundrum. Right across the path from the Schlosskirche stands the equally sized neo-gothic Kirche St. Joseph built in 1906.

Schloss Interlaken and the Interlaken Monastery

While the Interlaken Monastery was very much Catholic in its day, Bern was (and still is) a Protestant Canton. Even into the 1900’s, the Canton-owned Schlosskirche remained Protestant. With increasing religious tolerance in Switzerland, Catholics were once again allowed to start worshiping in the tiny chapel next door to the Scholsskirche starting in the 1840s.

The incredibly tight space required an upgrade and so went the construction of St. Joseph’s to better serve the catholic community of Interlaken.

Kirche St. Joseph closer up and the neighboring (and much older) Stadtkirche

On to Interlaken Ost and a World of Possibilites

Just across the street from St. Joseph’s you find the back of the Hotel Interlaken, one of Switzerland’s oldest hotels. You can sneak around the right side of the hotel along a gravel path to get to the front of the building.

Originally opened in 1323 as the guest house for the Monastery, Hotel Interlaken was ‘modernized’ in 1491 and assigned its own coat of Arms by the Bernese. The likes of Mendelssohn and Lord Byron stayed here in their day, and you still can as well.

Hotel Interlaken, one of the oldest hotels in all of Switzerland, next to the Japanese garden

Next door to the Hotel Interlaken, now back on Höheweg, is Interlaken’s small Japanese Garden gifted in 1995 by Interlaken’s twin city of Ōtsu, Japan to celebrate international friendship.

Continuing down the street from the garden, you eventually pass Beau-Rivage Brücke next to a large Victorian hotel of the same name. Crossing the bridge here takes you to the base of the Harderbahn, the popular funicular up to Harder Kulm with great views over Interlaken and its surroundings. Our walk ends straight ahead through the English Garden with its lovely flowers and along the banks of the Aare to the boat station at Interlaken Ost and the adjacent Interlaken Ost train station.

One of the boats on beautiful Lake Brienz

From here, you can catch one of the fantastic boats on Lake Brienz, we really enjoyed walking from Iseltwald to Giessbachfälle. Alternatively, continue your walk up to Ringgenberg, catch a train to Lauterbrunnen, or get high into the Jungfrau region, and so, so much more.

We hope you enjoyed this short walk taking in the sights of Interlaken. If you are looking for more walks in the Berner Oberland, check out our Discovering Bern series for lots of great ideas. As always, feel free to comment on our social media and, if you enjoyed the post, please share it. Until next time, gute Reise!