Paragliding in Interlaken: tandem flights, prices and where they fly

Interlaken is one of the best known tandem paragliding places in the Alps, and the reason is the shape of the ground. The town lies on flat land between Lake Thun and Lake Brienz, with steep slopes rising on both sides and the high peaks behind them. That gives pilots a take-off above the town and a wide flat landing area below it, with two lakes and a wall of Alpine summits in the view the whole way down. The numbers on this site say the rest: $222 carries 2,580 reviews, which is more than a third of every review behind all thirteen listings here put together.

Tandem means you do not fly the wing. You are clipped to a qualified pilot who flies it, sitting in a harness in front of them with nothing but air under your feet. There is no course, no certificate and no prior experience of any kind involved. The listing for $222 names the flight, the qualified pilot, the equipment, hiking boots and the transport, so what you bring to the day is yourself and clothes you can walk a few metres in.

Take-off is a short walk forward. The pilot lays the wing out behind you on a sloping meadow, and when it is ready you walk downhill together for a few steps until the ground stops being underneath. It is the part people are most curious about beforehand and the part they describe afterwards as the easiest bit of the whole thing.

Then it goes quiet. The listing describes it as embracing the rush of flying and the quiet calm among the clouds, and that is a fair description of the two halves of a tandem flight: a lively first minute, then a long smooth glide where the loudest thing is the wind over the wing. From up there you see both lakes at once, the town between them and the snow-capped peaks around, which is exactly the view the listing promises and the one that is genuinely hard to get any other way.

$209 is the same idea in a different landscape. This flight starts from Mürren, the village on the cliff shelf above the Lauterbrunnen valley, and flies over the valley itself — the waterfalls down the rock walls, and the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau in the skyline. The listing names up to 20 minutes above Mürren and offers a choice of style: an armchair in the sky or a roller coaster, as the operator puts it, which simply means you tell the pilot whether you want a calm glide or a livelier one. The fare includes the tandem flight, a licensed tandem paragliding pilot, a helmet, boots or a jacket when needed, insurance and space to carry small items. Its rating is 5.0 across 367 reviews — the only perfect rating on this site.

How long the booking takes. The flight is the short part of both. $222 is sold as an hour and a half and $209 as an hour, counted from meeting the pilot to the end — that covers getting to the take-off, laying out the wing, the flight and packing up afterwards. Both fit inside a morning with room for something else after, which is why so many people pair a flight with a lake day or the gondola to Mount First.

The two flights cost within $13 of each other, so price is not the thing that decides this. The view is.

$222, over Interlaken. You fly above the town itself, with Lake Thun on one side and Lake Brienz on the other and the peaks behind. It is the classic picture of this place and the reason the listing has collected 2,580 reviews at 4.9, far more than anything else here. Transport and hiking boots are named in the fare, and the booking runs an hour and a half. If you are staying in Interlaken and this is your only flight, take this one.

$209, over Lauterbrunnen. A narrower, more dramatic landscape: a cliff-walled valley with waterfalls coming off the rock and the big three peaks along the skyline. The listing names up to 20 minutes in the air, the longest flight time stated on either, plus a helmet, insurance and a licensed tandem pilot. It holds 5.0 from 367 reviews. The catch is where it starts: Mürren is a cable-car village above the valley floor, so you need to be up there for it, which suits people already spending a day on that side.

The verdict. Book $222. Two and a half thousand reviews at 4.9 is as clear as evidence gets in this niche, the transport is inside the fare, and flying over the town between two lakes is the view people come to Interlaken for. Take $209 instead if you are already going up to Mürren or Lauterbrunnen for the day, or if the waterfall valley is the picture you want — it is slightly cheaper, it names the longest time in the air, and its 5.0 rating is the highest on the site.

Tandem flights are sold in Interlaken across the year, and the thing that shapes a flying day is the air rather than the calendar. Pilots read the conditions on the morning and fly when the air suits, which is why both listings are sold as a time slot rather than a fixed departure.

The warm half of the year is the busiest and the easiest to plan around: long daylight, a full timetable and plenty of slots, which is also when the rest of the day list is running at full strength — the boat day pass covers Lake Brienz as well as Lake Thun from the beginning of April until mid-October, and the kayak and jetboat days sit in the same stretch. Morning slots go first, so book the date before you arrive.

The cold half of the year keeps flying but changes the look of it: snow on the peaks and on the ground around the landing field, and a cleaner, sharper view across the two lakes. If you are here in winter, the flight pairs naturally with the winter listings on this site — $172 for the beginner afternoon in Grindelwald, $122 for night sledding, $172 for the drysuit kayak on Lake Brienz.

Two practical habits matter more than the month. First, book the flight for early in your stay: if the air on your chosen morning is not right for flying, you still have days left to move it to. Second, check the cancellation line — free cancellation is shown on the listings that offer it, and it is the thing that makes moving a date painless.

1. Thinking you need to learn something first. You do not. Both listings are tandem flights with a qualified pilot who flies the wing while you sit in front.
2. Reading the booking length as time in the air. $222 is an hour and a half as a booking; $209 is an hour and names up to 20 minutes in the air. The rest is getting to the take-off, laying out the wing and packing up.
3. Booking the Mürren flight while staying down in Interlaken. $209 starts from Mürren, up on the cliff shelf above Lauterbrunnen. Plan it into a day on that side of the valley.
4. Wearing the wrong shoes. Take-off is a short walk on a slope. $222 names hiking boots in the fare and $209 names boots or a jacket when needed, but closed shoes you can walk in are the sensible default.
5. Leaving it to the last morning. Flights are sold in time slots and mornings go first. An early booking in your stay leaves room to move the date.
6. Not telling the pilot what you want. $209 puts the choice in the listing itself — an armchair in the sky or a roller coaster. Say which before you take off.