What is it?

Interlaken is a Swiss resort town whose name says it all: 'between the lakes', cradled on a narrow alluvial plain between the milky turquoise Lake Thun and the deep blue Lake Brienz. Look south from the Höhematte, the vast green meadow at the town's heart, and the snow-crusted trinity of the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau rises like a wall of white above the rooftops. Founded around an Augustinian monastery in 1133, the town blossomed in the 19th century when Romantic-era travellers — Byron, Mendelssohn, Mark Twain — came seeking the sublime, leaving behind grand belle-époque hotels that still line the Höheweg. Today it hums with a different energy: paragliders spiral down onto the meadow all afternoon, canyoning vans rumble off toward the Lütschine gorges, and the cog railway to Jungfraujoch — the 'Top of Europe' at 3,454m — departs from just up the valley. The air smells of pine and lake water, cowbells clang from hillside pastures, and the sound of a landing paraglider's laughter is never far away.

Where is it?

Interlaken sits in the Bernese Oberland in central Switzerland, about two hours by direct train from Zurich or Geneva and under an hour from Bern, making it one of the easiest alpine bases in Europe to reach. It's the gateway to the Jungfrau Region, with Grindelwald, Lauterbrunnen, Wengen, Mürren and the Schynige Platte all within a short train ride. June to September brings wildflower meadows, warm lake swims and open high-altitude trails, while December to March offers world-class skiing and glittering, frost-hushed valleys; May and October are quieter and cheaper, though some mountain lifts close for maintenance.

What makes it worth it?

Few places deliver the sheer visual punch of Interlaken — the moment your train rounds the lake and the Jungfrau massif fills the window, most people simply stop talking. It's a rare town that lets you sip coffee on a hotel terrace at 10am and be soaring 1,000 metres above it in a tandem paraglider harness by noon, then swim in an ice-cold lake at sunset. Travellers consistently describe the first flight off Beatenberg as 'the best twenty minutes of my life', and the ride up to Jungfraujoch as feeling like ascending into another planet's atmosphere. There's also a gentler magic here: the evening light turning the Eiger's north face rose-gold, the clatter of the steam paddle-boat on Lake Thun, the smell of raclette drifting from a chalet window. Years later, what people remember isn't a single stunt but the feeling of being small and wide-eyed in an outrageously beautiful landscape — and how easily that beauty was within reach.

How accessible is it?

Interlaken is one of the most accessible mountain destinations in the world: trains arrive directly at Interlaken Ost and West stations, the town centre is flat and walkable, and cable cars and cogwheel trains do the climbing for you, so no fitness is required to enjoy the biggest views. The real barrier is cost — Switzerland is expensive, with hostel dorms around CHF 45–65, mid-range hotels CHF 180–350 a night, and a simple restaurant meal CHF 25–40. The Jungfraujoch round trip runs roughly CHF 210–240 (significantly discounted with a Swiss Travel Pass or Half Fare Card, both worth buying in advance), while tandem paragliding costs about CHF 180–200, canyoning CHF 130–190, and skydiving over the Alps around CHF 400. Adventure activities require no experience or prior training, just a signed waiver, reasonable mobility and a weight within operator limits; book summer flights and Jungfraujoch tickets a few days to weeks ahead in July and August. Budget travellers can still have an extraordinary time — lake swimming, the Höhematte, and many marked hiking trails cost nothing at all.