Interlaken travel guide, in your ear
The resort town 'between the lakes' in the Bernese Oberland, the gateway to the Jungfrau region: a car-free central meadow framing the Jungfrau, two turquoise lakes with steamers and castles, and railways that climb to the Top of Europe.
- 13 narrated stops
- ~39 minutes of stories
- 6 languages
- Offline ready
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What is the Gingerguide Interlaken tour?
Interlaken has 13 narrated sights on Gingerguide's self-guided audio walking tour. Plan about a full day to walk them all. The app is free to download, every city has a free preview, and the tour works offline in six languages.
It is a self-guided audio walking tour of Interlaken, Switzerland, inside the Gingerguide travel guide app. The tour maps 13 sights and tells the story of each one in a two to three minute narration with a lifelike AI voice. When the story is not enough, ask the built-in AI guide about the place and keep the conversation going. Everything is available in six languages and works fully offline after a one-time download.
Which audio guide app is best for Interlaken?
It depends on the trip. For Interlaken, Gingerguide gives you all 13 sights on one offline map, narrated in six languages, with an AI guide to ask. Other apps are better for a single human-narrated walk, for museum guides, or for driving. We compared the main options honestly, with sources.
About Interlaken
Welcome to Interlaken, the great gateway to the Swiss Alps, set on a flat strip of land between two turquoise lakes in the Bernese Oberland. Its name says exactly where it is: 'between the lakes', with Lake Thun to the west and Lake Brienz to the east, and the river Aare flowing from one to the other through the town. Above it all, framed by green hills at the head of the valley, rises the snow-white Jungfrau, one of the most famous mountain views in the world.
The town grew from a medieval monastery, the Augustinian house 'inter lacus' that gave it its name, and for a long time it was just a village called Aarmühle. Tourism changed everything. From around 1800 travellers came for the mountains and the clear air, among them Goethe, Byron and Mendelssohn, and grand hotels rose along a new promenade, the Höheweg. In 1864 the town's hoteliers even bought the central meadow, the Höhematte, and banned building on it forever, so the view of the Jungfrau could never be walled away.
What made Interlaken the gateway to the high Alps was the railway. Lines pushed up the valleys to Lauterbrunnen and Grindelwald, and in 1912, after sixteen years of tunnelling through the Eiger and the Mönch, the Jungfrau Railway reached the Jungfraujoch, the highest railway station in Europe. From Interlaken you can ride up to that 'Top of Europe', to the flowery ridge of Schynige Platte, or just above the town to the viewpoint of Harder Kulm, looking down on both lakes at once.
Down at lake level there is a gentler Switzerland. Steamers have crossed the two turquoise lakes since the 1830s, some of them historic paddle steamers, calling at lakeside castles like Oberhofen, at the St. Beatus Caves, and at the Giessbach Falls with their grand old hotel. Near Lake Brienz, the Ballenberg museum gathers old farmhouses from across the country, and across the Aare the quiet old town of Unterseen keeps its arcades and its medieval church tower.
And then there is the adrenaline. Interlaken is one of the adventure-sports capitals of Europe, where you can paraglide off the mountains to land on the meadow in the middle of town, skydive, raft the rivers, go canyoning or bungee jumping. Whether you come to ride the great railways, cruise the lakes, walk the valleys, or throw yourself off a mountain, Interlaken is the place from which the whole wonderland of the Bernese Oberland opens up.
One day in Interlaken
A simple way to walk the highlights, following the route order in the app. Swap anything; Interlaken rewards detours.
Midday
Afternoon and evening
Have more than a day? Interlaken in 2 days →
What to see in Interlaken: all 13 stops
Every place below has its own narrated story in the app, and its own answers when you want more. Walk them in any order; the map shows what is around you.
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Höhematte
The great open meadow in the middle of Interlaken, kept forever unbuilt by a 19th-century agreement so that the view across the grass to the snowy Jungfrau stays open for all.
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Jungfraujoch (Top of Europe)
The 'Top of Europe': the highest railway station in Europe at 3,454 metres, reached by a cog railway tunnelled through the Eiger and Mönch, with a glacier observatory, ice palace and the Aletsch.
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Harder Kulm
The 'Top of Interlaken': a viewpoint at about 1,320 metres reached by funicular, with a castle-like restaurant and a Two Lakes Bridge platform looking down on both lakes and the Jungfrau.
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Lake Thun
The turquoise lake west of Interlaken, the largest entirely within one Swiss canton, ringed by villages, vineyards and castles and crossed by steamers, including a historic paddle steamer of 1906.
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Lake Brienz
The deep turquoise lake east of Interlaken, among the cleanest in Switzerland, with steep wooded shores, the Giessbach Falls, the village of Brienz and a paddle steamer of 1914.
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Schynige Platte
A ridge at about 2,000 metres reached by a historic cog railway from Wilderswil, with a grandstand view of the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau and an alpine botanical garden of wild mountain flowers.
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St. Beatus Caves
Show caves in the cliff above Lake Thun, with underground rivers, lakes and stalactites, waterfalls pouring from the entrance, and the legend of the hermit St. Beatus who drove out a dragon.
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Lauterbrunnen Valley
A sheer-walled glacial valley south of Interlaken, famous for its many waterfalls, above all the Staubbach Falls that leap nearly 300 metres off the cliff by Lauterbrunnen village.
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Kursaal
The turn-of-the-century Kursaal and casino at the end of the Höheweg, in a garden with a famous flower clock, long the cultural heart of Interlaken on the land of its former monastery.
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Unterseen
Interlaken's neighbouring old town across the Aare, founded in 1279, with an arcaded town hall square, a medieval church tower and a name that, like Interlaken's, means 'between the lakes'.
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Ballenberg Open-Air Museum
A vast open-air museum near Lake Brienz where more than a hundred historic farmhouses and rural buildings from across Switzerland have been rebuilt, with farm animals, gardens and traditional crafts.
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Oberhofen Castle
A storybook medieval castle standing in the water on the shore of Lake Thun, with a spired lakeside tower, a castle museum and a lakeside park, remodelled in Romantic style in the 19th century.
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Giessbach Falls
A great cascade that tumbles into Lake Brienz in fourteen stages below a historic Belle-Époque grand hotel, reached by the oldest funicular in Switzerland still running, opened in 1879.
Three things most visitors miss
Höhematte
In 1864 a group of Interlaken hoteliers and citizens bought the central meadow from the canton of Bern for 150,000 francs, specifically to stop it being built over.
Jungfraujoch (Top of Europe)
At 3,454 metres, the Jungfraujoch is the highest railway station in Europe; the first train reached it on 1 August 1912, after sixteen years of construction begun in 1896.
Harder Kulm
Harder Kulm, at about 1,320 metres, is reached by the Harderbahn funicular of 1908, whose track was curved in a long arc so as not to scar the hillside.
Interlaken tour: questions and answers
How many days do you need in Interlaken?
To see Gingerguide's 13 narrated highlights of Interlaken on foot, plan about a full day. The tour is self-guided, so you set the pace: cover the whole route in a day or spread it across a trip. Each sight has a two to three minute story, roughly 39 minutes of audio in total.
What are the top things to see in Interlaken?
Gingerguide narrates 13 sights in Interlaken, starting with Höhematte, Jungfraujoch (Top of Europe), Harder Kulm, Lake Thun. Each one has its own audio story on a live map, and you can ask the built-in AI guide anything the story leaves open.
Do I need a tour guide in Interlaken?
Not a human one. Gingerguide covers Interlaken with 13 narrated sights, so you get the stories a guide would tell, at your own pace and on your own route. And if a story leaves you with a question, you can ask the built-in AI guide and discuss the place right there, the way you would with a guide.
How many stops does the Interlaken audio tour have?
The Interlaken guide covers 13 sights. Each one has a researched story of roughly three minutes, about 39 minutes of listening in total. You choose the order and the pace; the tour is self-guided.
Does the Interlaken tour work offline?
Yes. You can download Interlaken in the app, audio, photos, and offline map tiles included. After the download, the full tour works without an internet connection.
Which languages does the Interlaken guide support?
Every Interlaken narration is available in English, Spanish, French, German, Turkish, and Chinese. You can switch the language in the app at any time.
Is the Interlaken audio guide free?
The Gingerguide app is free to download, and Interlaken includes a free preview: you can see all 13 sights on the map at no cost. A premium subscription unlocks the full stories, audio narration, and the offline download.
Hear Interlaken tell its own story.
Preview all 13 Interlaken stops free in the Gingerguide app.
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