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Bernese Oberland

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Overview of Lauterbrunnen Valley from Wengen.

Pete Seaward

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Overview

Nature works on an epic scale here. Whether you’re hiking in the shadow of the fearsome north face of Eiger, carving powder on a crisp winter’s morning in Gstaad, or gawping at the misty Staubbach Falls, the Swiss Alps don’t get more in-your-face beautiful than this. Nowhere are the resorts quainter, the peaks higher, the glaciers grander. Fittingly watched over by Mönch (Monk), Jungfrau (Virgin) and Eiger (Ogre), the Bernese Oberland sends spirits soaring to heaven.

Attractions

Must-see attractions

  • The red train running on the Jungfrau railway with a background view of Jungfrau

    Jungfraujoch

    Bernese Oberland

    This is the big one. At 3454m above sea level, Jungfraujoch is Europe’s highest train station: a once-in-a-lifetime trip, with views of the deeply…

  • Reichenbach Falls in Switzerland.

    Reichenbachfälle

    Bernese Oberland

    Gazing over the mighty Reichenbach Falls, where the cataract plunges 250m to the ground with a deafening roar, you can see how Arthur Conan Doyle thought…

  • Staubbach Falls during autumn.

    Staubbachfall

    Lauterbrunnen

    Especially in the early morning light, you can see how the vaporous, 297m-high Staubbach Falls captivated prominent writers with its threads of spray…

  • Thun Castle in Switzerland.

    Schloss Thun

    Bernese Oberland

    Sitting on a hilltop and looking proudly back on 900 years of history, Schloss Thun is the castle of your wildest fairy-tale dreams, crowned by a riot of…

  • The lower waterfall of the Trümmelbach glacier waterfalls in the Lauterbrunnen Valley, Bernese Oberland, Switzerland.

    Trümmelbachfälle

    Lauterbrunnen

    These glacier falls are a bang-crash spectacle. Inside the mountain, up to 20,000L of water per second corkscrews through ravines and potholes shaped by…

  • Pedestrian zone Obere Hauptgasse in Thun, Switzerland.

    Thun Altstadt

    Bernese Oberland

    It’s a pleasure to wander Thun’s attractive riverfront Old Town, where plazas and lanes are punctuated by 15th- and 16th-century townhouses. A stroll…

  • Schadau Park and castle on the shore of Lake Thun, Switzerland.

    Schadau Park

    Bernese Oberland

    These beautiful botanical gardens spread along the shores of Lake Thun, with sublime views to the snowcapped Jungfrau range on clear days. The grounds…

  • Trift Hanging Bridge

    Triftbrücke

    Bernese Oberland

    The Hasli Valley is laced with 300km of signposted walking trails. A huge hit is this 170m-long, 100m-high suspension bridge, Europe’s longest and highest…

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