Discover Interlaken in a different way by bike!

Our mission for the holidays was clear: We want to discover new bike trails. In search of challenging and spectacular trails, we found what we were looking for in Central Switzerland. More precisely, in the region surrounding Interlaken.

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.

Frau auf dem Bike fährt über den Waldweg

Over hill and dale, up and down steep trails — Inter­lak­en has a lot to offer. ©Sina Can­dri­an

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.

Schild im Wald mit Infos zum Trail

The Goldi­wheel Trail offers the per­fect intro­duc­tion for big and small. ©Sina Can­dri­an

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.

Frau auf dem Bike fährt auf Waldweg am See

With a view over Lake Thun, it’s much eas­i­er to bikt. ©Sina Can­dri­an

Frau fährt einen Waldweg mit dem Bike hoch

First, how­ev­er, you have to ped­al hard. ©Sina Can­dri­an

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.

zwei Bikerinnen über dem Thunersee

High up, you always have the best view. ©Sina Can­dri­an

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.

Frau auf de Bike im Wald

Just don’t fall — it gets tricky as soon as the path gets bumpy. ©Sina Can­dri­an

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!

Frau mit dem Bike auf dem Grad

Just step down and enjoy the view. ©Sina Can­dri­an

Wegweiser über dem Thunersee

Many roads lead to Inter­lak­en. ©Sina Can­dri­an

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!

Our part­ner Schtifti launched the Goril­la pro­gram in 2010. Read our blog arti­cle about this pro­gram and find out who exact­ly is behind the project.

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