Tandem Paragliding in Interlaken: What the Flight Actually Feels Like

The Drive Up From Interlaken

A tandem paragliding flight in Interlaken starts on the ground, in a van heading away from town. The drive up takes about twenty minutes, climbing out of the valley toward Beatenberg, the village on the slope above Lake Thun. You are not doing anything yet except watching the town get smaller and the road get steeper, which for most people is when the flight starts to feel real.

Your pilot talks you through what happens next in English or German, whichever suits you better, while the van climbs. This is Swiss paragliding without the padding: a short, direct drive, and by the time you step out you already know roughly what to expect. The meeting point itself sits right on the edge of the Höhematte, the same field the flight lands back on around ninety minutes later, so the last five minutes of the day are already familiar before you have even left the ground.

The Walk to the Launch

From where the van stops it is a short walk, about five minutes, to the launch itself: open, sloping ground above Beatenberg with nothing between you and the valley. This is where the pilot fits your harness and clips you into the wing, working through the straps in a fixed order so nothing is guessed at.

The gear is straightforward. Hiking boots and equipment are supplied, and you are expected to arrive in weather-appropriate clothing, with a jacket and closed-toe shoes of your own. There is no changing room and no long checklist, just a few minutes of adjusting straps while the pilot checks the wing laid out on the grass behind you.

Clipped In, and the Run

Take-off is not a jump. Once you are clipped in, the pilot gives the signal and you run, a handful of steps down the slope, much as you would running down any hill. What changes is that behind you the wing is filling with air, and somewhere in the middle of that run your feet simply stop finding ground.

It does not feel like falling, because nothing drops. The wing takes your weight smoothly, the running motion turns into sitting in the harness, and the slope you were running down becomes a hillside dropping away below your legs. People describe the moment as closer to being lifted than to jumping off anything.

The Höhematte, the meadow in the middle of Interlaken where every flight lands.

The Quiet Once You Are Up

The two things almost everyone mentions afterwards are the same two things. The first is that the noise stops. The van engine, the wind of the run and your own footsteps are gone within a few seconds, replaced by air moving past the wing and very little else.

The launch and the flight together run to about fifteen minutes above Beatenberg. Below, Interlaken sits on the flat valley floor between Lake Thun and Lake Brienz, with mountains rising on both sides and the Jungfrau massif standing at the head of the valley to the south.

Who Is Flying the Wing

This is a tandem flight, which means a qualified pilot is clipped in with you and is flying the wing the entire time. You are not handed any controls, and nothing here asks you to steer; your job is to run at the start, sit back in the harness, and let the pilot do the flying.

That pilot is also who you will hear from in the air, in English or German depending on which you chose in the van. It is a quieter kind of guiding than a bus tour: short, occasional, mostly there so you know what is coming next rather than to fill the silence.

If You Are Afraid of Heights

It is worth being honest about this rather than reassuring about it. The fear that a ladder or a cliff edge triggers in most people depends on being connected to solid ground while looking down from it. Open air does not give the mind that same cue, because there is no edge, no drop and nothing directly underfoot to measure the height against.

That does not mean the fear disappears, and nobody flying this route can tell you in advance how you personally will feel once you are up there. Some people who dislike ladders and balconies find the open sky genuinely easier than expected. Others do not. Both are normal reactions to the same flight.

Landing on the Höhematte

The flight ends on the Höhematte, the large public meadow in the middle of Interlaken, and the landing itself is the other thing people tend to get wrong in their heads beforehand. A wing that is flying can be slowed right down before it reaches the ground, so the actual touchdown is gentler than most people expect walking in.

From the moment you are back over the meadow to the moment you are standing on grass again is about five minutes. You unclip, the pilot gathers the wing, and you are simply standing in a public park in the middle of town, exactly where anyone waiting for you can walk over and find you. From there it is an ordinary walk back into Interlaken, no different from anyone else out for a stroll across the Höhematte on any other afternoon.

Before you book

The flight, step by step

1. The drive up

   About twenty minutes by van from the meeting point, climbing toward Beatenberg on the slope above Lake Thun.

2. The walk to the launch

   About five minutes on foot to the open, sloping ground where the flight actually begins.

3. Getting clipped in

   The pilot fits your harness, clips you into the wing, and checks every strap before giving the signal to run.

4. Launch and flight

   About fifteen minutes at the launch and in the air above Beatenberg, with the noise of the ground gone.

5. Landing on the Höhematte

   About five minutes on the ground before you are standing on grass in the middle of Interlaken.