Key takeaways
- Interlaken sits on a flat valley floor between Lake Thun and Lake Brienz, with mountains rising straight off the ground on both sides.
- The flight launches above Beatenberg, the village on the slope above Lake Thun, reached by a short drive and a walk on foot to the launch point.
- Flights land on the Höhematte, the large public meadow in the middle of Interlaken, rather than on a dedicated airfield outside town.
- From the air both lakes appear together, the town fills the valley floor between them, and the Jungfrau massif closes the valley to the south.
The Valley Between Two Lakes
Interlaken takes its name from its position: the town sits directly between Lake Thun and Lake Brienz, on a flat valley floor with mountains rising straight off the ground on either side. That shape is the reason a flight here can launch on one slope and land in the middle of the town below, rather than needing a stretch of empty countryside outside it.
The village of Beatenberg sits on the slope above Lake Thun, to the north, and the Jungfrau massif closes the valley at its far end to the south. Interlaken itself fills the flat ground in between, with the Höhematte, a large public meadow, kept open at its centre. From ground level the town already reads as a narrow corridor between mountains. From the air, that corridor is the whole point.
Above Beatenberg
The flight starts a long way from where it lands. From the meeting point in Interlaken, a van takes you up towards Beatenberg, a drive of about twenty minutes that climbs steadily out of the valley and onto the slope above Lake Thun. The last stretch is on foot: about five minutes of walking finishes the climb to the launch itself.
Beatenberg is where the flight actually happens, and the stop there, gearing up, launching and flying, runs to about fifteen minutes. The whole booking, from meeting point to landing, is scheduled at one hour and thirty minutes, with guiding offered in both English and German so neither language holds up the group.
The Höhematte meadow, Interlaken's landing field between Lake Thun and Lake Brienz
What Comes Into View
The launch faces down the valley, so the first thing the flight gives you is the shape already visible from the ground: Lake Thun below and behind, Lake Brienz opening out ahead, and Interlaken laid out on the strip of flat land joining them. The Höhematte is the easiest thing to pick out from above, a solid block of green sitting in the middle of a town built from roofs, roads and gardens.
The Jungfrau massif holds the head of the valley to the south for the whole flight, closing off the view rather than sitting to one side of it. The wing gains height quickly once it is launched, and the valley opens out beneath you at a pace no road trip around the two lakes could match: a town, two lakes and a mountain range that would otherwise take an afternoon of driving to see, all inside one view at once.
Landing on the Höhematte
The Höhematte is Interlaken's largest open space, a public meadow that sits in the middle of the town rather than a dedicated airfield somewhere outside it. Everyone who launches over Interlaken during the day comes down on the same stretch of grass, which is what allows a flight to end inside the town it started in view of.
Because it is shared and public, the meadow is not reserved for any single flight. You may land alongside others coming down at the same time, or find the grass largely to yourselves, depending on the day. In summer the flight's meeting point sits right at the landing area itself, in front of Restaurant Schuh on Höheweg 56. In winter it moves indoors, to the ground floor of the pink Savoy building on the corner of the same field. Either way, the Höhematte is where the day begins and ends.
2 lakes
Interlaken's flat valley floor sits directly between Lake Thun and Lake Brienz, with mountains rising off the ground on both sides.
What the Day Includes
The booking covers the flight itself and a qualified pilot, along with the practical layer around it: hiking boots, equipment and transport are all part of it, so there is little to arrange beyond turning up in the right clothes.
That means a jacket, clothing suited to the weather on the day, and closed-toe shoes rather than sandals. Digital photos and video of the flight are not included in the booking itself. Guiding runs in English and German throughout.
The flight is not built for everyone, and the exclusions are specific rather than vague: children under 5, pregnant women, people with heart problems or epilepsy, anyone over 91 kg (200 lbs), and people with mobility impairments are not able to book it. None of these are judgement calls made on the day. They are set before you arrive.
Switzerland Beyond Interlaken
Interlaken is not the only place in Switzerland where people fly. Wengen and the Lauterbrunnen valley both have their own paragliding, and higher alpine sites draw pilots who want a longer or more technical flight than a valley launch offers. None of them share Interlaken's particular arrangement, a town built on flat ground between two lakes, with a public meadow at its centre made for landing in.
That arrangement is the reason this flight, launching above Beatenberg and landing on the Höhematte, works as well as it does as an introduction to paragliding in Switzerland. The geography does the work that a difficult approach or a remote landing site would otherwise make of it: one drive, one short walk, one flight, and a landing back inside the town you started in.
