An Outstanding Shoreline Walk from Iseltwald to Brienz

Iseltwald to Brienz

Arguably, the Berner Oberland is one of the most touristy parts of Switzerland, but it doesn’t take much to escape the crowds, even if you are still interested in the main attractions. Take our walk in the Lauterbrunnen Valley for instance, head just a bit past Staubachfälle and you practically have the whole valley to yourself! The same rule seems to apply to all but a very few hikes and walks.

This week we head back to beautiful Lake Brienz for a gentle hidden gem of a walk between several of the most tourist filled locations on the lake, Iseltwald, Giessbach and Brienz. Honestly, the fact that hardly anyone was on this path (during school holidays in the peak of the summer) was almost unbelievable to me. It seems that most people prefer to hop on and off the boat rather than walk. If you are willing to put in just the bare minimum of effort, however, you can enjoy a spectacular portion of Switzerland with almost no competition.

The 10 km (6.5 mile) path runs right along the lake shore almost the entire way from Iseltwald and can easily be done in reverse if you please. Access is made exceptionally easy by both boat and bus and there are very easy ways to shorten the walk.

This is really the perfect half-day excursion from Interlaken.

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

Back in Iseltwald

Taking a boat ride on Lake Brienz from Interlaken Ost to Iseltwald is one of my favorite activities in the Berner Oberland. Gliding across the turquoise blue waters past Bönigen, beautiful mountain views, and the Castle at Ringgenberg is excellent, but the boat is not the only (or the fastest) way to get from Interlaken to Iseltwald. An efficient bus service from both Interlaken West and Ost train stations can drop you straight off in the village center in just a few minutes.

If you have the time to spare in the summer season, I would recommend taking the boat to Iseltwald. It’s a much more scenic journey than the bus, but, if you are running short on time, it's a great way to get there quickly. If you intend to drive to save time, I would not recommend it. The roads are narrow and you are likely to have a hard time finding parking. Just stash your car in Interlaken and catch the bus, you will be more flexible with your return that way anyhow.

Last time we made it to Iseltwald we reported back on our adventurous walk back to Interlaken Ost and on the pressure that intense, Netflix-driven, tourism has put on this small village. Unsurprisingly, not much has changed over the course of the summer and Iseltwald appears to be as packed as ever.

If you arrive by boat, our walk starts in the small village center just a few steps from the boat station. By bus, you are already at the start. If you are keen to take your selfies, by all means, go to the crowded 5 Franc a head ‘Crash Landing on You’ boat dock but just know that this walk offers many more scenic opportunities that are completely free (both monetarily and of insane crowds).

We start the walk by heading along the road paralleling the lake shore around the small bay formed by the Iseltwald peninsula. Until our latest visit a few weeks back, I didn’t even know there were as many hotels and restaurants as there are in Iseltwald. Albeit a far cry from the choices in nearby Interlaken, there are some decent looking waterfront accommodations and eateries if you care to stay here.

On the Path to Giessbach

Past the local strandbad or swimming area (not the only place to swim in Lake Brienz), the path forks. An upper trail to Giessbach heads into the forest while our path, the lower trail hugs the lake shore nearly the entire way.

Almost as soon as you get on the trail, the views looking back towards Iseltwald are spectacular. Schloss Seeburg, the Mediterranean Villa built by Bernese Merchant Gottfried Siegrist in 1907 dominates the end of the peninsula.

View from the path looking back at Iseltwald and Schloss Seeburg

Only 20 years after its construction, the villa was sold and converted into a convalescent home and, since the 1980’s, it has served as an event space and congress hall.

Schloss Seeburg also owns Schnäggeninsel, the small island just offshore of here. This tiny piece of land floating in Lake Brienz is actually the only registered island in the entire Canton of Bern and potentially draws its name from the cultivation of snails on the island by monks during the time of the Interlaken Monastery.

Continuing down the path, we eventually some steep and even overhung limestone cliffs which dominate much of the path. In places these walls extend as far as the eye can see. A couple of small sections were even blasted straight through the rock.

The path leaves the water once the cliffs get a bit too steep and heads inland through a cool natural cut in the rock to a barbeque and picnic area surrounded by beautiful rocks and cliffs. It’s a great place to take a picnic and poke around a bit.

Overhung rocks on the path between Iseltwald and Giessbach

Sights on the path between Iseltwald and Giessbach

Past the barbeque area, the path drops back down to the lake shore and parallels the water the rest of the way to the Giessbach boat and funicular station. From here, you have a couple of options for getting up to the spectacular Geissbachfälle. Our walk follows a steep trail up the hill to the Grandhotel Giessbach then on to the falls, but if you want to sweat a bit less, you can take the historic funicular from the boat station at the lake shore straight up to the hotel.

The historic funicular to the Grandhotel Giessbach

The Grandhotel Giessbach

In the summer, the outdoor terrace at the Grandhotel Giessbach has plenty of self-service seats with perfect views up at the 400 m cascading waterfall Giessbachfälle or Giessbach Falls. We chose to grab a coffee here before continuing on and I can highly recommend it. At a minimum, you should head up the stairs and take a peek at the hotel lobby. Stepping inside is like taking a step back in time. The hotel’s Victorian-era elegance is on full display and it almost makes you cringe to think that this was all so close to being completely lost not so long ago.

The incredible views of the falls and Lake Brienz have been drawing visitors to Giessbach since the early 19th century when Johannes Kehrli, the local schoolmaster in Brienz, established a path up to the site from the lake shore. At that time, visitors were rowed across the lake from Brienz by beautiful young women (possibly adding to the appeal of the visit) and entertained by music and dance from the Kehrli family.

After Kehrli’s passing in 1854, the family sold the site to a familiar name (assuming you have followed along with the blog), Conrad von Rappard. Rappard was a former German parliamentarian who was forced to flee Germany after a failed 1848 revolution. Just a few years after the purchase of Giessbach, Rappard would go on to pioneer a large portion of the tourism industry in Interlaken with several hotels, the Kleinen Rugen Ringweg, and the Kleinen Rugen Trinkhalle all to his name.

Conrad and his brother Hermann established the first large hotel at Giessbach in 1857 (coincidentally the same year as the birth of Conrad's daughter Clara who would go on to become one of Switzerland’s most prolific landscape artists). The pair brought in Eduard Schmidlin, a German gardener and botanist to design the grounds and manage the new hotel and spa.

Only a year after construction was complete, Rappard sold the hotel and its grounds to the United Steamship Company for Lake Thun and Lake Brienz who retained Schmidlin as manager. Over the next few years, Schmidlin would develop the hotel into a thriving business. Taking a cue from Kehrli, Schmidlin employed his young daughters to entertain and charm the hotel guests.

In 1875, under increasing pressure from hotel owners in Interlaken, the steamship company sold off the hotel at Giessbach, and the new owners, the Hauser family, substantially expanded the site. Among other construction works, they oversaw the building of a palatial French baroque-style hotel adjacent to the original hotel and the revolutionary Giesbachbahn, a funicular to whisk guests from the water to the hotel (the same funicular still in operation today). In 1884 a fire required a new roof for the baroque hotel which thoroughly changed the look of the building giving it more of a Swiss feel.

Giessbachfälle from the Grandhotel Giessbach

Looking back at Grandhotel Giessbach and Lake Brienz from the Gardens

Today the Grandhotel Giessbach, incorporating both the newer main building and the older Rappard-era hotel alongside its grounds is a well-preserved masterpiece of a bygone era. During its golden period, prior to the outbreak of the First World War, the Grandhotel Giessbach was renowned and drew the highest echelons of society nearly every summer.

Following the turmoil of two world wars, a string of short-lived owners, and after narrowly averting demolition for a hydropower project in 1949, the hotel was slightly revived but it never regained its pre-war stature. Eventually, the dilapidating and outdated buildings closed their doors in 1979.

Plans to completely demolish the iconic hotel and replace it with a ‘Jumbo chalet’ were (thankfully) narrowly averted in 1983 after years of contentious debate. Swiss environmentalist Franz Weber and his wife Judith formed the "Foundation Giessbach for the Swiss People" to raise awareness and public donations to successfully purchase and preserve the hotel and its grounds as a historical monument.

Between 1984 and 1989, the hotel and its various buildings and grounds were renovated and reopened to the public and today, on any given day during the summer, it is likely to be slam-packed with Swiss and foreign visitors alike. Not so far off from the hotel's 19th century glory days.

Inside the historic Grandhotel Giessbach

The Back Side of Water

After a coffee and cake, a wander through the hotel grounds takes you past the historic gardens and greenhouses, to the Conrad von Rappard era hotel then up a slight hill to the road, built in 1924 to provide even easier access to the site by car.

After reaching the road, a right turn brings you into the Giessbach Nature Reserve and to the base of the stunning Giessbachfälle. This spectacular waterfall, dubbed a ‘broken cistern that no one could stop’ by the former owners, is now the highlight of the site and this walk.

Paths zig-zag up the hill cross in front of the falls by way of bridges and even behind the falls at one point offering a unique perspective on the waterfall and and the hotel and lake below. On our latest walk, we headed up as far as the path behind the waterfall, but you can really keep going as far as you like all the way up the steep hill towards the top of the falls. It really just depends on how much time and effort you are keen to invest.

View from behind Giessbachfälle

From the waterfall, you can continue down the path towards Brienz or head back down the hill (perhaps via the funicular) to the boat station to catch a boat back to Brienz or Interlaken. In my mind, a ride on the Bel Epoch steamship Lötschberg would make for the absolutely perfect trip after visiting the Grandhotel Giessbach.

For better or worse, we opted to continue our walk. From back down on the road, you follow the path uphill towards a parking lot then further up some steep switchbacks through the forest to the top of a hill. From the hill, the path follows a gentle downhill grade through pasture lands and eventually runs into the road up to Axalp.

Views along the path from Giessbach to Brienz

You can catch a bus from this junction back into Brienz or continue on foot by taking the steep downhill path towards the highway tunnel portal and eventually the lake shore down below.

On to Brienz

The downhill to the lake is a bit of a killer on the knees but for us, the real fun (and I mean this only in the most sarcastic way) begins once you reach the highway. In order to cross a large gully, the path crosses under the highway and onto an open grated catwalk clung to the underside of the highway bridge some 70 meters or so above the lake. For the average human, the views from the pathway are spectacular. For those of us with a fear of heights, this walkway is downright sickening.

After scrambling up the last terrifying part of the walkway and an equally terrifying open staircase back to the highway level, the path becomes much more palatable. The walk follows a gently sloped access road down to the lake level past an endless series of military bunkers built into the mountainside beneath the highway.

The path from here to the Aare is rather uneventful and follows the road across the valley bottom behind sand mining operations which mostly block the lake view. A bridge over the Aare offers a nice view of the silty glacial water flowing into Lake Brienz creating the lake’s stunning turquoise blue color. Shortly past the Aare, the lake views open back up at Aaregg Steg, the local swimming spot.

A portion of the catwalk hugging the highway bridge between Giessbach and Brienz

The road and path curve around the Aaregg Campground before diverging. You reach the train and boat station in Brienz via the lake path crossing several of the large, engineered stream channels meant to divert debris-laden water straight into Lake. In 2005, much of Brienz was substantially damaged by debris flows but more on that in an upcoming post.

From Brienz, you have nearly endless options. You can continue your walk around the lake, explore the historic chalets of Brienz, or continue further into the Alps. The world is really your oyster here!

We hope you enjoyed this walk from Iseltwald to Brienz. If you did, check out the other walks in our Discovering Bern series and stay tuned for additional articles on our Swiss travels every week!

Until next time, gute Reise, and feel free to leave a comment on one of our social media platforms!

Heading along the lake path into Brienz