As part of our Spring month of travel, we spent our Easter long weekend in the town of Interlaken, Switzerland. While the town is exquisite in its own right, we used it as a base for a few superb day trips. We’ll list out our day trip itineraries and descriptions of the specific places we visited.
The iconic Lucerne landscape
A waterfall in the Lauterbrunnen valley
Our daytrip itineraries
Interlaken – Lauterbrunnen – Schilthorn – Murren – Interlaken
Interlaken – Lucerne – Brienz – Interlaken
Interlaken – Brienz – Interlaken (Repeat for a reason)
Our favourite places
1. Brienz
The Interlaken – Lucerne train journey has superb views throughout the journey but when we passed Lake Brienz just outside Interlaken for the 1st time, we knew we had to get off. It has a street that was voted Europe’s prettiest, has an incredibly picturesque lakefront & chapel and, best of all, sells King Cornetto!!! In the summer, it is also the base for the Brienz-Rothorn railway (a steam powered joy ride up the slope). We’re tempted to call this village unmissable for an Interlaken trip.
This was voted the prettiest street in Europe
Turquoise Lake Brienz
Brienz chapel up close
Getting in: The Brienz main railway station is served by both the Inter Regional (IR) & the Regional (R) trains. Takes less than 20 minutes. We took the regional train to Brienz West (close to the pictured chapel) and walked along the lake to Brienz main station.
You can also a cruise on Lake Brienz that takes just over an hour to reach. Costs either 38 or 50 CHF full fare, can’t remember. Check the BLS website.
Our prized possession at Brienz station
Fare: Free!!! Train travel to Brienz is covered under the Interlaken Guest pass provided by your hotel. It’s also valid for buses to more destinations we wanted to cover like Thun.
2. Schilthorn cable car + Murren + Lauterbrunnen
Blogpost: Schilthorn daytrip
We wrote up a detailed account of our day trip to the top of Schilthorn (10K feet) via Lauterbrunnen in our blogpost above. We got some fantastic Alpine scenery just before the clouds rolled in spoiling the view. However, this is a must-do on a summer’s day if you’re on a budget because it costs less than half of what a ride on the Jungfraujoch from Interlaken costs.
A classic Alps view
View from a cable car
The Lauterbrunnen valley is magnificent and is lined with 72 waterfalls! (looked a bit like Yosemite) We ambled across the scenic towns of Lauterbrunnen & Murren on this day as well. Wengen & Grustchalp are another two villages worth your time if you’re in this area.
The Staubach Falls overlooks a rain-soaked Lauterbrunnen
Murren
Last Lauterbrunnen shot
Getting in: As described in our Schilthorn blogpost in detail, getting a Rail & Away ticket from Wildersvil to Schilthron is the cheapest way to enjoy the cable-car daytrip (103 CHF round trip). The Interlaken Guess Pass is valid for train / bus rides to Wildersvil and you can take the train to Lauterbrunnen / Grindelwald from here. From Lauterbrunnen you can take the bus towards Schetelberg to get to the base of the cable car.
Postbus towards the Schilthorn cablecar
Fare: 103 CHF round trip to Schilthorn from Wildersvil. 13 CHF one way to Lauterbrunnen from Wildersvil. Free from Interlaken West / Ost to Wildersvil with Interlaken Guest Card.
3. Lucerne (Easter Sunday)
Our daytrip to Lucerne turned out to be a bit of a damp squib because, well, it was damp. But we cannot fault the scenery on the train journey on the Interlaken – Lucerne IR train one bit, it is spectacular. In Lucerne, we would have liked to go on a boat trip around Lake Lucerne (but it was raining) or visit the Art Museum (closed). Instead we walked around the beautiful old town, visited cathedrals and even drank some beer (with the crazy Swiss pricetag). But the rain did keep us forced to staying indoors a lot.
Inside the Jesuitenkirche chapel
Details
We were surprised to see an Indian Easter service in central Lucerne!
Lion monument
Expensive Swiss beer ($6 a glass)
Getting in: As mentioned, the IR train from Interlaken to Lucerne takes just under 2 hours 1-way.
Fare: 33 CHF round trip on Supersaver tickets. Check out our Switzerland Transportation Guide to read up on why we buy Supersavers.
4. Bonus: Interlaken itself
And of course, our base of Interlaken itself is a picturesque town in its own right. We didn’t spend much time in here, just spent an evening walking. However, the view from our bedroom and dining room were really nice 🙂 We highly recommend our hotel Beausite Budget, a short walk from Interlaken West, great breakfast and the rooms are small with a shared shower but quite affordable for Swiss standards (100 CHF per night).
View from our hotel room
Interlaken town on a wet evening
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Lauterbrunan is one of my most favourite places on earth 🙂
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We really wished we had better weather during our visit, it would have elevated our experience of visiting Lauterbrunnen. Thank you for stopping by.
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Your welcome, your blog is great. The weather being bad, gives you the excuse to visit again 🙂
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It absolutely does!!
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This looks amazing, thank you for sharing your itineraries! Fab pics too 😁
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Thank you Emmalene 🙂 This blog is all about sharing details. We can’t wait to visit Switzerland again.
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Place looks beautiful! Nice shots.
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Thank you for your kind words Gilbert and for taking the time to read this post. Switzerland is one of the prettiest countries in the world in our opinion!
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Your pictures are very pretty! and the Jesuitenkirche chapel has a very pretty interior. Thanks for sharing
Michelle,
Michellefranclee.com
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Thank you for the appreciation Michelle. The Jesuitenkirche chapel was very pretty indeed, we were fortunate to visit it on Easter Sunday of all days 🙂 Thanks for taking the time to comment and following our blog!
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Mesmerizing views. ❤️
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They sure are Pooja. There is no doubt in our mind why Switzerland is so popular with travellers.
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