Off-Piste Fun in Interlaken, Switzerland

Editor’s Note:  Although travel remains limited for now thanks to Covid, exploring beautiful destinations keeps our wanderlust alive. We hope these Interlaken winter activities inspire you to book future travel.

“Do you need a penguin?” a Swiss woman shouts at me as she elegantly whizzes past. For a moment, I’m confused about what she’s referring to but then I recall the skating aids for children at the entrance to the rink. Clearly, my disgraceful wobbles and arm paddling have caused concern in the general public.  Nevertheless, I’m having so much fun! Not having skated for more than fifteen years, every turn round the rink delivers a brush with childhood memories.

I can’t ski for the life of me. In fact, I exhibit the same wild, bodily movements on the slope as on the ice so a winter trip to Switzerland had never been high on my travel bucket list. But, as I begin to learn in the charming town of there are plenty of Interlaken winter activities to experience off-piste and in the quieter months, too.

Winter Kayaking

I’m in the hands of Mancunian Dave Storey, who runs the Hightide Kayaking school. As we glide in the early hours over Lake Brienz in near silence, he shares my predilection for off-season hotspots. “I absolutely love having the lake to myself in winter”, he says. Surrounded by snow-covered mountains reflecting beautifully on the water, oddly, I feel totally connected with nature. In the distance, the first paragliders of the day soundlessly take their flight.

We break our excursion at Castle Ringgenberg which sits on rocks rising high above the lake. As we climb the steps to the viewing platform a tortoiseshell cat is our only companion. Back in the kayak on our return, a hazy mist rises on the opposite shore. “It marks the point where the icy stream from the Lütschine River hits the lake. Only six hours ago that water was on top of a glacier,” our guide tells us.

More Interlaken Winter Activities

Interlaken is located between glacier-fed lakes Thun and Brienz with the pearly white peaks of the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau forming a majestic natural landscape. “It’s the only place for miles where you can ride a bike from one end of the town to the other on a flat surface”, laughs local Celina Finger. But gentle cycling is not the reason why so many visitors are drawn to this small resort town. It’s the adrenalin-loaded adventures that make even the fearless shout.

And shout I do as our red jet boat makes another 360° spin before thundering towards the fishing village of Iseltwald. We circle the only island in Lake Brienz, the Schnäggeninseli (snail island), rumored to be named so because monks farmed snails there in earlier times for fish bait. Since 2015, both the island and nearby Castle Schlossburg have been up for sale. Our guide quips “For a mere 20 million Swiss Francs (£16 million) it could be yours.”

A New Year’s Tradition

Buying a castle is out of my budget but I might just have enough money left to add a hand-made mask to my collection. Woodcarver Gabriela Schild has been making sculptures for decades. “I’m currently working on a mask for the Harder-Potschete procession”, she says as she shows me her assortment of chisels. “It will take me about two weeks to complete and the face needs to look scary. On January 2^nd every year, our town is haunted by the masked figures of the Hardermann, his wife and his band of followers, the Potschen.”

While this New Year’s tradition in Interlaken is centuries old, the town’s name is not. Until 1891 it was called Aarmühle, however, a different name describing the location between two lakes (Inter-laken, you see) was used for its post office and train station. With a rise of the town’s reputation in the 1800s as an international resort, the name was changed to the more Anglicized version.

Indulge on a Swiss Food & Culture Tour

According to my guide on the Swiss Food & Culture Tour, Interlaken swells to about 150,000 people in the summer months. But once we leave the main streets it becomes quieter. Traditional Swiss houses with wide roofs and facades decorated with wooden balconies and carved ornaments come into view. We drop into a third-generation small farm for a cheese tasting only a 20-minute walk from the center.

Alpine cheese can only bear the designation Alpkäse when it is produced with milk from cows, goats or sheep grazing on the Alps. And, unlike mountain cheese, it is produced only in summer and only in the Alps. In a few months, the cattle in the back of the barn will be moved onto greener pastures. For me, I have another evening left in Interlaken and I head back for another spin on the ice rink, with or without penguin.

www.interlaken.ch