Discover Interlaken in a different way by bike!

Adrenalin on different terrain

Our bikes were ready and so were we. We could hard­ly wait to get ped­alling and decid­ed to try out Bikepark Thunersee. Thanks to var­i­ous routes around Lake Thun, this bike park promis­es a var­ied range of bik­ing options for begin­ners to pro­fes­sion­als.

The «Bikepark Thunersee» asso­ci­a­tion is com­mit­ted to pro­mot­ing bik­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties around Lake Thun. Thanks to their ded­i­ca­tion, five trails are already in action and are reg­u­lar­ly main­tained by the asso­ci­a­tion. In order to sup­port the asso­ci­a­tion in its main­te­nance and oth­er projects, we bought a dai­ly Dai­ly spon­sor­ship for 5 Swiss francs. This can be eas­i­ly redeemed via Twint direct­ly at the trail entrance.

Day #1 The Goldiwheel Trail ideal to get started

We put the Goldi­wheel Trail near Thun to the test first and were not dis­ap­point­ed. The trail is flow­ing and rol­lable from top to bot­tom. This makes it ide­al to get start­ed or for begin­ners. A long jumpline (sev­er­al jumps in a row) beck­ons in the low­er sec­tion – a rar­i­ty in Switzer­land! The «Prügu Jumps» jumpline con­sists of sev­er­al rol­lable or avoid­able jumps that get big­ger and big­ger. The tables (jump with flat sur­face between jump and land­ing) range from four to eleven metres. We par­tic­u­lar­ly liked this line because of the numer­ous exit options and the uphill trail. In this way, you can work your way up from the small­er jumps to the big tables.

Day #2 The Heartbeat Trail says it all

The next day we drove from Inter­lak­en to the Nieder­horn­bahn, 12 kilo­me­tres away. There, the new Heart­beat Trail was recent­ly opened. The moun­tain rail­way trans­ports moun­tain bik­ers to Beat­en­berg sta­tion for just CHF 18.60 with a half-fare card. This is espe­cial­ly worth­while in sum­mer, when the train runs until 7 pm. The trail has it all: Tech­ni­cal pas­sages alter­nate with var­i­ous gaps (dis­tance between two ele­ments) and drops (jump where the land­ing is low­er than the jump). It’s worth tak­ing a good look at the dif­fer­ent sec­tions on the first descent, because the name of the trail «Heart­beat» says it all.

Day #3 Slow-paced fun on the single trails in Lungern

After two days in the bike park, the tech­ni­cal sin­gle trails of the region lured us to Lungern. A one-way trip on the Lungern-Tur­ren cable car costs CHF 18.00 per per­son includ­ing your bike and saves you 860 metres in alti­tude. Up to the Schön­bühl Restau­rant we cov­ered 500 metres in alti­tude under our own steam. Once at the top, we need­ed some ener­gy, so we tried the house spe­cial­i­ty. Don’t miss the 40 cm long nut crois­sant for CHF 6.50! Refu­eled, we enjoyed the view from the Gibel (2039 m) over Lake Lungern for a few min­utes. We con­tin­ued our jour­ney along the wind­ing hik­ing trail towards the Brünig Pass,
After anoth­er beau­ti­ful day on our bikes, we enjoyed the amaz­ing meal in Restau­rant 3a at the Inter­lak­en Youth Hos­tel. I fell in love with this menu: Thai peanut cur­ry with organ­ic tofu straight from Fruti­gen. Of course we explored Inter­lak­en for a bit in the evening. The front gar­den of the casi­no real­ly piqued my inter­est. But we were too tired for a round of pok­er.

After anoth­er beau­ti­ful day on our bikes, we enjoyed the amaz­ing meal in Restau­rant 3a at the Inter­lak­en Youth Hos­tel. I fell in love with this menu: Thai peanut cur­ry with organ­ic tofu straight from Fruti­gen. Of course we explored Inter­lak­en for a bit in the evening. The front gar­den of the casi­no real­ly piqued my inter­est. But we were too tired for a round of pok­er.

Day #4 Hidden bike trails and real insider tips

On the fourth day, a region­al bike guide accom­pa­nied us and showed us his bik­ing grounds. We met Dario Küf­fer in Stans, where we parked the car and rode our bikes to the val­ley sta­tion of the Wirzweli cable car near Dal­len­wil. For CHF 11.20 we com­fort­ably cov­ered the first 700 metres in alti­tude by train. After cov­er­ing anoth­er 400 metres of alti­tude by bike, the guide showed us one of his favourite trails, which we would nev­er have found on our own. The demand­ing trail real­ly chal­lenged us again with its tech­ni­cal pas­sages and jumps. If you also pre­fer to explore the area with a guide, then check out Trudy Bike bike school and guid­ing.

Our conclusion: Thumbs up for the bike trails around Interlaken

One thing we can say for sure: Inter­lak­en deserves five stars when it comes to bik­ing! We found bril­liant and var­ied bike trails that chal­lenged us in dif­fer­ent ways. Some of the trails are on hik­ing trails. But there are also pro­fes­sion­al­ly devel­oped bike trails that are suit­able for begin­ners as well as advanced bik­ers. One spe­cial plus is the breath­tak­ing view of the Cen­tral Swiss lakes.

If you are look­ing for the pearls among the bike trails off the beat­en track, you will find them with the help of the local bike guides. Since some of the trails are not easy to find, we would like to make a small rec­om­men­da­tion: Before you set off, map your routes on Swiss Topo. As always: The moun­tains belong to no one. That is why we all have to respect and have con­sid­er­a­tion for nature and oth­er alpin­ists. Don’t just dri­ve cross-coun­try, inform your­self about the route and trail rules before­hand. Often hik­ers and bik­ers use the trail net­work togeth­er, which can also lead to con­flict. A friend­ly greet­ing can often work won­ders and strength­ens mutu­al under­stand­ing. The Swiss Alpine Club SAC has put togeth­er 8 tips for nature-friend­ly moun­tain bik­ing.

What are you wait­ing for? Off to Inter­lak­en and get bik­ing!

If you are look­ing for the pearls among the bike trails off the beat­en track, you will find them with the help of the local bike guides. Since some of the trails are not easy to find, we would like to make a small rec­om­men­da­tion: Before you set off, map your routes on Swiss Topo.

As always: The moun­tains belong to no one. That is why we all have to respect and have con­sid­er­a­tion for nature and oth­er alpin­ists. Don’t just dri­ve cross-coun­try, inform your­self about the route and trail rules before­hand. Often hik­ers and bik­ers use the trail net­work togeth­er, which can also lead to con­flict. A friend­ly greet­ing can often work won­ders and strength­ens mutu­al under­stand­ing. The Swiss Alpine Club SAC has put togeth­er 8 tips for nature-friend­ly moun­tain bik­ing.

What are you wait­ing for? Off to Inter­lak­en and get bik­ing!