Stories, tips, and inspiration from the Swiss Alps
59 articles found
Plan a half day in Brienz around the right weekday: here is when the carvers work, when the museum opens, and what the village is worth on foot.
Ballenberg in half a day: CHF 32 entry, free with a Swiss Travel Pass, the free train inside, which entrance to use and what to skip.
Paddle Lake Brienz for CHF 115 and see the shore the steamer never reaches. Real 2026 prices, the rules nobody prints, and when the wind gets up.
Check the real temperature of Lake Brienz, swim free at Iseltwald or pay CHF 6 at Bönigen, and learn the one shore you must stay off.
Pick the right side of the Interlaken to Brienz boat, the 4 steamer sailings and the ticket that costs CHF 75 or CHF 83, checked at source for 2026.
Plan a day trip to Brienz from Interlaken: 17 minutes by train, 1h13 by boat, with 2026 prices for the Rothorn, Ballenberg and Giessbach checked at source.
Most guides give you a list of dishes. This one asks the people who make the food what a visitor should actually look for, from the fourteen-week alpine cheese season to five dated festivals no English guide lists.
A standalone tasting in Switzerland costs CHF 30 to 70, and most vineyards will not sell you one. Here is what CHF 139 buys instead, priced line by line against every Swiss alternative, plus the exact case where doing it yourself is cheaper.
Around 2% of Swiss wine ever leaves the country, and three working vineyards sit within 25 minutes of Interlaken. Here is where to taste, on which day each cellar actually opens, and what it costs.
Every September the Justistal divides a whole summer of cheese by drawing wooden tokens from a sack. It is free, it is not a show, and there is no bus into the valley. Here is the 2026 date, the transport reality, and the part nobody has published in English yet.
The full schedule of our alpine farm morning, from the 08:00 pickup at Interlaken West to being back in town close to noon. Zero walking, a real cheese batch you watch rather than make, and a farm breakfast that surprises most guests. Written by the founder who drives the van.
No strict minimum age, no walk to reach the farm, a car seat on request, and a breakfast even picky eaters will finish. Here is exactly how the Interlaken Farm Tour works with kids, based on the real family of six who took our very first tour.