Interlaken adventure activities: canyoning, the canyon swing and the bungee

The name says it: Interlaken is the town between the lakes. Lake Thun is on one side, Lake Brienz on the other, and behind them stand Grindelwald, Lauterbrunnen and Mürren. That geography is the whole reason the day list here looks the way it does. A day out of Interlaken is one of four things: you go up, you go out on the water, you go down into a gorge, or you go into the air. Everything on this site sits in one of those four, and the adventure searches — canyoning, the canyon swing, the bungee — land in the third and fourth.

Down into the gorge: $190. This is the listing that people mean when they type canyoning Interlaken, and it is our pick of the four. It runs three hours, begins with a ten-minute drive out of town and a 10-metre rappel, and then works down a local canyon through the narrow sections of it. The listing names all necessary canyoning equipment, professional guides, changing rooms and hot showers at the base in Interlaken, and a drink afterwards. In other words you arrive in ordinary clothes and everything technical is handed to you and fitted by people who fit it every day. It carries 219 reviews at 4.9, the joint-highest rating of the four, and at three hours it is the one that actually shapes a morning rather than filling a gap in one.

Out over the canyon: $172. The swing works from the rim of the glacier canyon at Grindelwald, in the valley beneath the Eiger. You are attached to a rope system, you step off the platform, and the rope turns the drop into a long arc between the canyon walls with the Alps opening up in front of you at the top of the swing. The listing names safety equipment, guides and a drink afterwards; the three hours cover the trip from Interlaken as well as the swing itself. It carries 429 reviews at 4.9. If the canyoning trip is about being inside the rock, this one is about being over it.

Off the gondola: $296. The Stockhorn bungee is the most expensive listing on the whole site, and it is also the most complete day of the four. It is five hours: the drive from Interlaken through the Simmental valley to Erlenbach, the gondola ride up the slopes of the Stockhorn, and then the jump itself from the cable car, which the listing describes as 440 feet above the clear water of Stockensee. Transport, the gondola ticket, all necessary safety equipment, professional guides and a drink are named in the fare. Its rating is 4.9 across 130 reviews. Nobody books this one for the transport, but the transport is the reason it eats an afternoon.

Flat out on the water: $147. The fourth is the one people forget to count as an adventure listing, and it is the easiest to slot into a day that already has something in it. A 45 to 50-minute jetboat run on Lake Brienz with 360-degree turns, the Giessbach Falls seen from the water, and a skipper who narrates the lake between the spins. Life jacket and a splash jacket come with it, plus a photo. At 403 reviews and 4.7 it is the best-reviewed of the four by volume, and at under an hour it is the one you book on the afternoon you arrive.

Those four are the adventure half of Interlaken. The other half of the list is quieter and is covered elsewhere on this site: the gondola to Mount First with the Cliff Walk at the top station, the glacier canyon walkways in Grindelwald, the kayak on turquoise Lake Brienz, and the boat day pass that covers both lakes on one ticket from $51. Most people who come here for a few days take one from each half.

These four are not versions of the same day, so the choice is really about what you want the hours to feel like and how many of them you have.

If you want the fullest experience: $190. Three hours, a proper start with a 10-metre rappel, and then a long working descent through a canyon with guides beside you the whole way. The wetsuit and the rest of the kit are handed out at the base, and the hot showers afterwards are in the listing for a reason. 4.9 from 219 reviews.

If you want one big moment: $172 or $296. The swing is the cheaper of the two and stays in Grindelwald, in the glacier canyon under the Eiger; the bungee is the bigger production, five hours door to door with the Simmental drive and the Stockhorn gondola built in. Both carry 4.9 ratings, both name the equipment and the guides in the fare, and both leave you with about the same story to tell. The difference is the $124 between them and two extra hours of your day.

If your day is already full: $147. Fifty minutes, on the water, in town. It is the only one of the four you can add to a day that already has a gondola or a lake cruise in it.

The verdict. Book $190. It is the one listing of the four where the whole three hours are the activity rather than the approach to it, everything technical comes from the operator, and 219 reviews at 4.9 say people come out of that gorge happy. If you have already done canyoning somewhere else, take $296 instead and give it the full afternoon it asks for — it is the listing here that people plan a trip around. And if you are only in town for one night, $147 is 50 minutes and still counts.

Interlaken has two clearly different halves of the year, and the adventure list belongs to the warmer one. Canyoning, the canyon swing, the bungee and the jetboat are all warm-season listings by nature: they use running water, open gorges and an unfrozen lake.

Late spring through early autumn is the stretch that carries all four comfortably. It is also when $51 covers both lakes rather than one — the listing states that the Lake Brienz half of the day pass runs from the beginning of April until mid-October — so an adventure booking and a lake day sit naturally in the same week.

High summer is the busiest part of that stretch. Group sizes are fixed by the operators, not by demand, so the practical effect of a busy week is simply that your preferred time slot goes first. Book the date before you arrive in town rather than on the morning.

In the cold months the list changes shape rather than disappearing. The gorge and the swing give way to the winter trio on this site: the beginner ski afternoon in Grindelwald at $172, night sledding at $122, and the small-group winter kayak on Lake Brienz at $172, which supplies a full expedition drysuit, neoprene boots and thick warm socks. The winter page on this site covers those three in detail.

Whatever month you are in, one habit is worth keeping: put the adventure listing early in your stay rather than on the last morning. That leaves room to move to another day if you want to, instead of losing the booking. Free cancellation is shown on the listings that offer it.

1. Reading the length as time on the activity. $296 is a five-hour listing because it includes the drive to Erlenbach and the Stockhorn gondola. $190 is three hours and almost all of it is in the canyon.
2. Assuming you need to bring equipment. You do not. All necessary canyoning equipment is named on $190, safety equipment and guides on $172, all necessary safety equipment on $296, and a life jacket with a splash jacket on $147.
3. Booking the swing expecting to stay in Interlaken. The canyon swing happens in the glacier canyon at Grindelwald; the three hours on the listing cover getting there and back.
4. Leaving no dry clothes. The canyoning base in Interlaken has changing rooms and hot showers, which is exactly why the listing mentions them. Bring a towel and something to change into.
5. Counting the jetboat out. At 50 minutes and $147 it is the cheapest of the four and the only one that fits beside something else on the same day, with 403 reviews at 4.7 behind it.
6. Booking on the last morning. Slots on the small operator days go first in the busy weeks. Put the booking early in the stay and keep the option of moving it.