Interlaken as a base in summer?

A snowHead

Doing a mini road trip late August for 16 days or so. Staying in Talloires (near Annecy) for the second week and spending a night in both Antwerp and Strasbourg on way down. We were thinking of spending the first week in Interlaken as a base to spend time in the Swiss Alps. Any recommendations for hotels in the hood? Driving from Scotland and will have our bikes and paddle boards with us. Looking for nice cycling and walking. My wife is still recovering from chemo a couple of years ago so are not wanting anything too strenuous.
Thanks in advance

A snowHead

It's a lovely area in summer but I've never stayed in Interlaken itself. You must try the Rothorn railway up from Brienz. Also Ballenberg open air museum is a great day out. If you want a break from driving take a bus trip up the Rosenlaui, we had the most fabulous driver giving a commentary in Schweizerdeutsch that sounded like the Swedish chef from the muppets. We could barely understand a word but it sounded wonderful.

NB: if you decide to do the Rothorn do a bit of research first to make sure you get a steam train.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

The Aare Gorge is a nice gentle walk with the most incredible views, and you can take in Meringen and the Reichnbach falls on the same trip.

I would avoid Wengen/Muren/Grindlewald as they will probably be rammed full of Japanese/Korean etc. tourists. We went up the Jungfraujoch train and at the top there were a load of Muslim girls in burkas taking selfies Puzzled

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@boabski If you're touring by car, the Swiss have developed a set of routes called the Grand Tour of Switzerland with associated scenic drives and supporting maps. One of the sections goes from Neuchâtel, via Gruyères, through Interlaken to Berne. We use it more as a guide to places in an area, with the option to do some of the more scenic sections, rather than a rigid route to be followed. You can obviously do the route in reverse i.e. from Berne via Interlaken and Gruyères to Neuchâtel. There's also an old-fashioned, physical road map you can get (CHF 19.90) that highlights the Grand Tour routes as well as GPX and KML digital downloads (here).

Take a look at the MySwitzerland.com official Swiss tourism website for your destination of Interlaken. If you do stay in the Berne region, I'd consider a day trip by train to Berne, or an overnight city break there.

If you're into more gentle cycling, walking and water terrain, the Jura et Trois Lacs area to the NW is well-suited to this. It'll also be less busy with tourists than the Interlaken area. The river Doubs runs through here and offers (mostly) gentle and quiet river outings. St.Ursanne is a lovely preserved mediaeval village on the Doubs. We spent a day here en route back from the Valais to our stop-over in central France and will probably go back to explore the area a bit more. For a week in the summer, they close off a continuous set of B roads and make them car-free, for extended family cycling excursions. You probably won't coincide with this but worth looking out for. Just be aware there are more difficult MTB (VTT) routes all over the area, as well as the two national road cycling routes that cross it, so you need to be clear about the distinction if you're reading stuff that recommends cycle routes.

The same site has pages covering summer cycling ideas. There is an official website called Switzerland Mobility which has all sorts of information about cycle routes all over Switzerland. I seem to recall there's an app to match.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

It is a nice spot, very convenient, with a large range of activities nearby. From gentle lake trips to climbing the north face of the Eiger. The cog railway up to Schynige Platte allows for walks with the grandest of views without significant uphill effort. There must be some easy cycling (not something I did when have been there, more interested in 4000ers in those days) by the lakes and up the Lauterbrunnental. Worth getting a swiss rail pass, covers most public transport (not the Jungfraujoch) on land & water.

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Interlaken is the perfect base in summer. A hotel recommendation really depends on your budget - there's everything from the 5 star luxe Victoria Jungfrau (lovely) to the Youth Hostel at Interlaken Ost (also lovely). If you like paddling there's always the hotel Seiler au Lac at Bönigen, right in front of the lake, and 5 minutes by bus from the centre of Interlaken.

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@telford_mike,
Every cloud...

Following this as we have a week with our mountain bikes in Lauterbrunnen in mid June

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Worth investigating one of the area travel passes
Covers trains boats buses and most cable cars (not the train from Wengen to the Jungfraujoch which is a tourist trap anyway).
The waterfalls at the end of the Lauterbrunnen valley are worth the entry fee though and lots of other options
Must go back sometime Puzzled

Thanks all. Will have a look at some of those recommendations

You know it makes sense.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

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Interlaken as a base in summer?

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