Should I get a travel pass in Interlaken?

For 2 full days, the Swiss Half Fare Card is the most economical way to travel that area I think if you have not been before.
It gives you 50% off transportation in Switzerland. But you should buy it to use it from your first port of entry to Switzerland and not when you get to Interlaken.
Judging by the amount of tourism that area receives, people have fun through seeing the unique natural beauty of it, and riding the gondolas and cogwheel trains up into the mountains.

Thanks for the info, however do you think its worth just buying the 3 day pass as opposed to half card. For example, how much transportation of trains buses cable cars will I need for the 2 days to explore the areas mentioned above where it would make sense to buy the unlimited. The half card is about $137 and 3 day unlimited is $278, so getting the half card, even with 50% discount wouldn't my total trip go over the $278?.

It all depends on your goals for those 2 days and how many lifts you want to ride. Assuming you do not want to go up the Jungfrau, all other lifts in the area will be fully covered with the BO Pass. You can can have a lot of fun riding the lifts between hikes. For example, take the cablecar from Wengen up to Mannlichen, Hike the Panorama to to Kleine Scheidegg, continue up to Eigergletscher and ride down the EigerGletscher Express to Grindelwald. On another day, you might like to head to Griindelwald and ride up the First lift to hike to Bachalpsee and beyond.

You could look up the prices of these lifts to see if the BO Pass would be of benefit. Each lift has its own website:

https://www.maennlichen.ch/en/

https://www.jungfrau.ch/en-gb/eiger-express/

https://www.jungfrau.ch/en-gb/grindelwaldfirst/

How are you getting to Interlaken? And where do you go next? If coming from elsewhere in Switzerland, the BO Pass will cover your train from Luzern or Bern to Interlaken. If coming from Italy it covers the train from Domodossola, providing you use the regional train shown on the BO Pass validity maps. If any of these apply, you would get some use from the 3d day on the BO Pass.

You are correct, I do not want to go to Jungfrau. If my itinerary is to stay at Interlaken 2 full days (with travel in and out of Swiss surrounding those 2 days), and I wanted to mostly travel up to Grindelwald, Wengen, Lauterbrunnen and do scenic hikes around the villages and maybe use cable cars between them, is there another option or is it basically purchase the 3 day pass or buy separate tickets for each? I feel like 2 days for BOP is not worth it however quick look at individual prices seems expensive. Im assuming ill need a train ticket to get to the top and then cable cars between the villages.

I am getting to Interlaken from Venice the day before, which I was going to book on SBB. You have provided me with details on that trip on a separate thread, it was the route through Milano -> Arth-Goldau and Luzern, then to Interlaken Ost. When buying on SBB, do I need to buy the full length of the trip or just ones that are not covered in the pass, and then use the pass to get on the remaining travel. What do you recommend.

If you are using the Berner Oberland Pass, it will cover your journey from Luzern to Interlaken. So your train ticket from Venice need only cover Venice to Milan and Milan to Luzern. Buy your Berner Oberland Pass online and set the starting date to match the date you travel from Luzern to Interlaken. That will be Day 1 of your 3-day pass.

Then your next 2 days could look like this (starting from Interlaken):

Day 1—-Train Interlaken to Lauterbrunnen, cablecar up to Grutschalp. You can walk to Mürren from here, a level walk along a small road with beautiful views over the valley and the mountains on the other side on your left. Walk through Mürren and explore. Maybe ride the little Allmendhubel funicular up to the restaurant, playground and small botanical garden. You can either ride the funicular back down, or take one of the several hiking trails back to Mürren.

Continue through Mürren and follow the signs down to the hamlet of Gimmelwald. Again you will have beautiful views over the valley and the peaks. At Gimmelwald you board the cablecar for the steep descent to the valley floor at Stechelberg. From there you can walk or ride the Postbus back to Lauterbrunnen for the train back to Interlaken.

You might want to include a visit to Trummelbach Falls near Lauterbrunnen before you head back to Lauterbrunnen.

https://www.truemmelbachfaelle.ch/e/

Day 2—-train to Lauterbrunnen again, then take the little red train from the station up to Wengen. Walk through the village to explore, ending at the cablecar station for the steep ride up to Männlichen. If you wish to ride on top of the cabin (the Royal Ride) you pay extra before you board. (it was 5 SFr. Last year) Otherwise the cablecar is free.

https://www.maennlichen.ch/en/summer/experiences/royal-ride.html

At Männlichen you begin the easy walk to Kleine Scheidegg along the Panorama trail, with views into the Grindelwald Valley.

https://www.maennlichen.ch/en/summer/experiences/panorama-trail.html

Kleine Scheidegg is not a village but it is a busy place with little shops and places to eat (we prefer the little mountain restaurant along the trail, on your left just before you arrive at Kleine Scheidegg. They have a nice outdoor terrace). From KS you have several choices:

—-take the train back to Wengen to head home, or walk down (the first part is scenic but then you are in the forest the rest of the way). Or,

—-head down to Grindelwald to explore this town. It is larger than the little alpine villages, and there are cars and tour buses, but nice views of the Eiger North Face, and more lifts to ride if you wish. The First gondola is popular and offers adventure activities like the Cliff Walk or First Flyer zip line). These activities are not covered with the BO Pass, but the First gondola itself is. Also free is an easy (but often crowded) hike to a beautiful lake (Bachalpsee), often photographed with reflections of the snowy peaks across the valley.

https://www.jungfrau.ch/en-gb/grindelwaldfirst/

There are 2 ways down to Grindelwald from Kleine Scheidegg: take the train, or walk up 1 km to Eigergletscher Station and ride the Eigergletscher Express gondola down.

If you decide to include the First gondola lift, with or without the activities there, be sure to keep track of your time and do not miss the closing time (6 pm) as it is a long walk back down.

From Grindelwald you can simply ride the train back to Interlaken.

Wow, that's a great itinerary. Thanks so much! So this would make good use of the BOP pass, as opposed to paying individually for each train/cable car ride I'm assuming.

I certainly would not want to pay for all those lifts. We did pretty much this same itinerary on 2 of our 6 days in Mürren last September, and felt it was well wort. That was our 6th trip to Switzerland, and normally we don’t ride all those lifts; we are avid hikers and keep our feet on the ground as much as possible, staying in a high village and hiking right from there. But last September we had our grandchildren and wanted to show them all the best in a short time. It turned out to be a lot of fun, and it was nice to be able to just hop on whatever lift or train we wanted, without stopping to buy tickets or worrying about the cost.

If you want to be sure you are getting a good value, you could look up the full cost of each of those lifts (I gave you the sites for Männlichen and First lifts) and the travel cost from Interlaken and back, on SBB.ch. The Mürren—-Allmendhubel—-Gimmelwald day would not be terribly expensive, but the Männlichen—Grindelwald—-First day would be.

perfect, I dont care spending little more for convenience but just wanted to make sure I wasnt totally off as I never been to Switzerland before. I see allot of posts saying its only worth it for 4-5 days or longer but to your point it seems like you can definitely utilize it in the 2 day span. Thank you again so much for this valuable info.

Hi Lola, can you help confirm. When I go from Venice to Interlaken Ost on Aug 18th, I plan to go from Milano to Arth-Goldau to Luzern. Then can I use BO Pass to go from Luzern to Interlaken Ost, in the SBB system it shows "Luzern-Interlaken Express PE-2934" when I select the full package. Is this train included with the BO Pass and do I need to reserve tickets separately or can I just get on it at that time. Just trying to make sure I do it correctly.

Any train from Luzern to Interlaken Ost is covered with the Berner Oberland Pass, whether it is call a “PE” or an “IR” train. Just make sure to include this travel date on your pass when you buy it online.

For planning purposes, are places closed or train/cablecars different on Sundays? Is there a day that we may want to avoid

Hi Lola, the itinerary you provided above is fantastic. I am trying to finalize my 2 days, and will be starting from Murren instead of Interlaken so ill adjust based on that. My real interest is just to get easy to moderate walk/hiking through the scenic valley areas and mountain side, would you say this gives me all of that. Anything else you think worth doing or going to, again im looking for enjoying the beauty of this area.

One additional thing, what is the best way to get a map of all the cable car and trains in this area, so I am able to reference when there. Any resources or websites that provide all the best scenic nature walks would be helpful.

the Rick Steves Switzerland Guidebook has a really good description and drawing of the transportation and attractions. It is what I used until I knew it off by heart.