Paragliding in Interlaken: Fly Above the Swiss Alps

You stand at the edge. Behind you, a wing the colour of summer sky lies unfurled across the alpine grass, breathing softly in the wind. In front of you, the world drops away. The Bernese Oberland spreads out like a folded map: the turquoise of Lake Thun on one side, the deeper blue of Lake Brienz on the other, and between them the rooftops of Interlaken catching the afternoon light.

Your pilot calls your name. He is calm in the way only people who have done something a thousand times can be calm. He counts down: three, two, one. You run. Three steps. Maybe four. The grass is gone. The air takes you.

This is the first second of paragliding in Interlaken. After that, the sky belongs to you.

For travelers who reach this corner of Switzerland, paragliding is rarely just an activity. It is the moment when the whole reason you came to the Alps suddenly makes sense. The mountains become smaller. The lakes more brilliant. Time slows down. And for fifteen, twenty, sometimes thirty minutes, you fly above one of the most photographed alpine landscapes on Earth.

If you are searching for the soul of paragliding in Switzerland, Interlaken is where it lives.

Why Interlaken Became the Paragliding Capital of Switzerland

Interlaken was not chosen by accident. The geography wrote the story before the pilots arrived.

The town sits in a flat alluvial plain between two large lakes, surrounded on three sides by steep mountain walls. When the morning sun hits those walls, the air heats and rises. By midday, predictable thermal columns spiral upward from the south face of the Niederhorn and the slopes above Beatenberg. By late afternoon, a soft lake breeze pulls the warm air back down. For a paraglider, this is choreography. You launch into rising air, you glide, you land on a meadow surrounded by snow peaks. The valley itself is the stage.

Add to that two more rare conditions. The first is the Höhematte, a vast central meadow inside Interlaken that we will come back to. The second is access. From most launch sites, the drive from the town centre takes less than fifteen minutes. The chairlift to the takeoff hill takes another seven. You can be in your harness, ready to run off a cliff, less than an hour after eating breakfast.

Few alpine resorts in Europe combine this kind of geography, this kind of reliability, and this kind of logistics. That is why paragliding in Interlaken evolved from a fringe sport in the 1980s to one of the most booked summer activities in the entire Bernese Oberland.

The Pioneers Who Wrote the Sky's Story

Modern paragliding is younger than most people think. The first true parapente flight took place in 1978 in Mieussy, a small village in the French Alps, when a group of climbers led by Jean-Claude Bétemps decided to use a rectangular skydiving canopy to descend a mountain instead of climbing back down. Within a few years, the idea had crossed into Switzerland.

By the early 1980s, Swiss climbers and ski instructors began experimenting with the new wings on alpine launches. Interlaken caught their attention quickly. The valley had everything: predictable thermals, a soft landing, a town used to dealing with international tourists, and a respected mountaineering culture that welcomed innovation rather than fearing it. Within a decade, the first commercial tandem flights were being offered to visitors who, until then, had only ever looked up.

Among the operators who shaped the Interlaken paragliding scene, Alpin Air holds a particular place. Founded by Marc and Thea Herzig, who still own the company today, Alpin Air has been flying tandem passengers above Interlaken for more than two decades, building a reputation for safety and quiet professionalism rather than flashy marketing. Their pilots have logged tens of thousands of flights from Beatenberg and Niederhorn, often with the same passengers returning year after year, sometimes bringing children who themselves grow up to book their first flight.

The history of paragliding in Interlaken is, in many ways, the history of these small family operators. Each one quietly added to the body of local knowledge: which thermal works at 11 a.m. in July, which one only kicks in after the cows are moved up the alpage in spring, which crosswind makes Beatenberg unflyable but Amisbühl perfect.

Höhematte: The Meadow That Refused to Disappear

To understand paragliding in Interlaken, you need to understand a single, stubborn meadow.

The Höhematte, which means high meadow in Swiss German, is a 14-hectare green field in the very centre of town. While every other Swiss city built up its core with hotels, banks and boutiques, Interlaken kept this enormous open space. There is a reason for that, and the reason is older than paragliding itself.

In 1864, thirty-seven local landowners signed a pact. They formed an association called the Höhe-Interessentschaft, the Heights Stakeholders, and committed to a single rule: nothing would ever be built on the meadow. No buildings. No fences. No private use. The view of the Jungfrau massif from the centre of town would remain open for everyone, forever.

More than 160 years later, the agreement still holds. The Höhematte is still grass. The Jungfrau still rises above it. And, by happy coincidence of geography, it became the most iconic landing zone in the world of tandem paragliding.

Almost every commercial paragliding flight in Interlaken ends here. On a sunny afternoon, you can sit on the grass with a drink and watch tandems land every two or three minutes. The pilots often spin the wing or do a small swoop above the field before touching down, partly for the passenger, partly because the audience has been waiting. Children clap. Tourists film. The pilot folds the wing in three seconds, passes the harness back, and walks off to a waiting van that will take him back up to the launch site for another flight.

It is, quietly, one of the most beautiful daily rituals in Switzerland.

What It Actually Feels Like to Fly Above the Bernese Oberland

The takeoff is the hardest part. Not technically, because your pilot does the technical work, but psychologically. You are running off a hill. Your body knows this is wrong. Your brain has spent your entire life building reflexes against this exact movement.

Then your feet leave the ground and the resistance disappears. You are sitting in a chair in the sky. The harness cradles you. The wing is somewhere above your head, taking the wind on your behalf. The pilot is behind you, narrating quietly: Look to your left, that is the Eiger. The dark face. The Mönch is the one in the middle. The Jungfrau is the highest one, the queen.

You smell pine first. Then the strange, mineral coldness of high air. If the cows are out, their bells will reach you in long, irregular waves from the slopes below, sometimes half a kilometre away, somehow still clear. You will hear a sound you did not expect: silence. Real silence. The kind that exists only when you are no longer near roads, engines, or other humans.

The view changes by the minute. As you spiral up in a thermal, Lake Thun shifts from an aerial photograph into a living thing, ferries leaving thin white trails, vineyard terraces above Spiez catching the last sun. As you turn south, the Eiger Nordwand fills your peripheral vision, the most famous north face in mountaineering history, dark and solemn even in summer.

Halfway through the flight, your pilot may offer to do an acrobatic move. A wingover, a spiral, a quick dive that lifts your stomach into your throat. Most people accept once and ask not to do it again. A few ask for two more. There is no judgment in either choice.

The descent toward the Höhematte takes longer than you expect. The pilot uses the landing approach to circle the town one last time, dropping altitude in soft S-shapes. The grass comes up. You hear: feet up. You glide in, you slide for two metres, you stop.

Then your legs remember they are legs. You laugh. You always laugh.

Where Pilots Take Off: Beatenberg, Niederhorn, and the Hidden Sites

Most commercial flights in Interlaken launch from one of three sites.

Beatenberg-Amisbühl sits at around 1,300 metres above sea level, fifteen minutes from Interlaken by van and a short chair lift away from the launch ramp. It offers reliable conditions, panoramic views over both lakes, and is the workhorse site of the Interlaken paragliding industry. Most first-time flyers launch from here. Total flight time is around fifteen to twenty minutes.

Niederhorn is higher, nearly 1,950 metres, and accessed by a longer cable car ride from Beatenberg village. Flights from Niederhorn are longer (often thirty minutes or more), the views are wider, and the takeoff is more dramatic. This is where pilots bring photographers, repeat customers, and travelers who specifically asked for the long flight.

Männlichen and First, in the Grindelwald valley, are also used for paragliding by some operators when they want to give passengers a closer look at the Eiger. These flights have a different character: more alpine, more vertical, less lake. They tend to be booked by experienced flyers or by visitors who specifically want the high mountain perspective.

A few smaller, lesser-known sites such as Brienzer Rothorn are flown by advanced pilots only and are not part of standard tandem operations. They exist mostly in the conversations between local pilots over a beer in the evening.

The Best Time of Year to Paraglide in Interlaken

The commercial paragliding season in Interlaken runs from roughly late April to late October. Within that window, the experience changes month by month.

May and June offer fresh green slopes, snow still capping the high peaks, and quieter launch sites. Mornings are calm and afternoons can be glorious.

July and August are peak season. The weather is most reliable, but launch sites can be busy and you may share the sky with twenty other tandems. The light is high and bright. Cows are on the alpages, which means you will hear the bells.

September and October are, in the opinion of many local pilots, the most beautiful time to fly. The light is golden. The crowds are gone. The first dustings of snow appear on the Jungfrau. The vineyards above Spiez turn red and gold. Visibility is at its sharpest, and on a clear day you can see all the way to the Bernese Mittelland and, sometimes, to the Black Forest in Germany.

Each flight is weather-dependent. Wind above 25 km/h, low clouds, or thunderstorm risk will ground operations. Most operators decide on the morning of the flight and rebook quickly when conditions change.

What to Expect on Your First Tandem Flight

You arrive at the meeting point, usually in the centre of Interlaken or near the Höhematte. A van picks up the group of the day, eight to twelve passengers and their pilots, and drives up to the launch site. There is a short briefing. Your pilot will explain how to run, where to put your hands, and what to do during landing. The harness is fitted in less than two minutes.

The flight itself lasts between fifteen and thirty minutes depending on the launch site, the thermal conditions, and the altitude difference. You can request photos and a video, which the pilot will take using a small camera mounted on his arm or a selfie stick.

After landing on the Höhematte, you walk back to the meeting point, return your harness, and receive your photos and video. The whole experience, from pickup to drop-off, usually takes between two and three hours.

You do not need to be fit. You do not need to know anything about flying. You do not need any equipment beyond closed shoes and a layer warmer than you think you need. Children from around five years old can fly with most operators. Older travelers fly often. Couples on honeymoon fly even more often.

💡 Insider Tip from Pierre If you can choose, book the late-afternoon flight on a clear day in September. The light starts turning golden around 5 p.m., the thermals are smooth, and the pilots have more time to extend the flight. I have seen people land in tears, in a good way, three or four times. Bring a layer for after the landing, even when it's warm in town. The high air is colder than you expect.

FAQ — Paragliding in Interlaken

How long does a paragliding flight in Interlaken last?

Most tandem flights last between 15 and 25 minutes in the air, with the full experience (pickup, briefing, drive to launch, flight, return) taking 2 to 3 hours.

Is paragliding in Interlaken safe?

Switzerland has one of the strictest tandem paragliding regulatory frameworks in Europe, supervised by the Swiss Hang Gliding Federation (SHV-FSVL). Pilots must hold a tandem license, log a minimum number of flights, and pass annual checks. Equipment is inspected regularly. While no aerial sport is risk-free, the safety record of established Interlaken operators is among the best in the world.

What should I wear for a paragliding flight?

Closed shoes (sneakers are fine), comfortable clothes that allow you to run a few steps, and one layer warmer than the temperature in town. Sunglasses are recommended. Loose items should be left in the van.

Can children paraglide in Interlaken?

Yes. Most operators accept children from around 5 years old, with a minimum weight requirement (usually around 25 kg) and a maximum weight around 110 kg. Parental consent is required.

Do I get photos and video from my flight?

Yes. Almost every commercial pilot in Interlaken carries a small camera and offers a photo-and-video package, usually delivered by digital download within a few hours of landing.

Can I paraglide in Interlaken in winter?

Yes, but the offer is more limited. Some operators run winter flights when conditions allow, with launches from snow-covered hills and landings on prepared zones. The view is spectacular when the peaks are white. Book in advance and expect more weather-dependent cancellations than in summer.

Discover Switzerland From Above

For travelers who arrive in Interlaken expecting mountains, paragliding is the moment when the mountains turn into a memory. Between the silence of high air, the cowbells reaching you from far below, and the slow descent toward a meadow that thirty-seven farmers protected for 160 years so that strangers could land on it today, this is one of the most authentically Swiss experiences you can buy with a credit card.

If you are planning your trip, book early. The best afternoon slots in July and August fill up weeks in advance. Pair your flight with a vineyard walk and tasting in nearby Spiez for a full day that takes you from the sky above Lake Thun to the wines that grow on its shores.

Whether you choose Beatenberg for your first flight or Niederhorn for the longer ride, you will land on the Höhematte changed in some small way. Most people do.

Plan your Interlaken adventure with Swiss Local Adventures and let us help you build the kind of trip you will tell your grandchildren about.

*Written by Pierre, your local guide at Swiss Local Adventures