Train pass help for the Bernese Oberland

I've never heard of the "guest card", but after doing just a little research it looks like it might be all you need! That would be an incredible deal!!! I will say that for your itinerary I would buy the tickets to the BO upon arrival and buy the tickets tickets to France in advance.

Before looking at the guest card info I assumed the regional pass would be best for you. If you do decide to go ahead and get it as it does cover almost all gondola's etc - be aware that the coverage area starts in Lucerne and goes all the way to Gstaad.

rhonda,

Are you planning to stay in the Lauterbrunnen Valley, rather than Interlaken? If staying in the Lauterbrunnen area, you'll be able to enjoy the magnificent scenery. I usually stay in Lauterbrunnen but many here really enjoy stayng in Mürren as the alpine views are incredible.

I've never used the "Guest Card" but had a look at their website. It seems to be tailored more for various tourist attractions. Unless you've planning to visit a lot of the attractions covered, it might be of limited use.

Before deciding which transportation pass to use, it would be a good idea to figure out which sights you plan on visiting in the Berner Oberland. The Half Fare card is certainly one option but the Berner Oberland Regional Pass may be a better choice, depending on which lifts you'll be using. I'd suggest buying either the Half Fare Card or the B.O. Pass, but not both.

If you plan on doing a lot of trips on the other side of the valley, the Jungfrau Travel Pass may be a good choice. Unfortunately there's no easy answer on which pass is best, as you'll have to do the math and figure out which one is most cost effective for the touring you plan to do in that area.

We have stayed in Lauterbrunnen our other 3 visits, and this time we will probably split our time (4 nights Lauterbrunnen/4 nights on one of the lakes on either side of Interlaken). We do hikes both in/around/above Lauterbrunnen Valley, as well as around Grindelwald. It is my understanding that the Guest Card does include (limited) train and bus travel throughout the Interlaken area, but I will try to clarify that. If that's the case, I think I'll do the math on the point-to-point airport transfer tickets. As far as doing the math for the lifts we will do while in the BO, I'm trying to be less Type A (whereby I have every hike and day planned out months in advance), and instead, find a few new scenic hikes, along with repeating a few past favorites. And obviously the mountain weather plays a big role in whether we will repeat Schilthorn, or spend the extra money and a day experiencing Jungfraujoch,, but whichever of those we choose, I know that there will be a supplement for those. With 8 nights in one area, it provides us a bit more flexibility. Thanks for your time and advice!

To Rhonda: send me a private message (click on my name) and I'll send you the dozen hikes in the area that I like best.

When I've used the Guest Card/Visitor's Card for a different area in Switzerland where I stayed (Meiringen and Hasliberg villages) it mainly covered city buses in Meiringen and tiny discounts, only, on inexpensive activities like walking the Aareschlucht (Aare River Gorge), Rosenlauischlucht (Rosenlaui Gorge), mini golf, and city health club. It also covered family board games borrowed from the Tourist Information offices, but we only borrowed those in 2003 when we brought our child with us, and I don't know if they do that anymore. I haven't used Interlaken's card, but looking at the web site, it appears to be the same idea: city buses and tiny discounts on activities in the Tourist office's area. The Passes cover much more expensive stuff, depending on the kind of pass you get. But determining what's best for your trip depends on what you want to do and how much it costs and what's covered by which kind of deal.

We have had 4 trips to the Berner Oberland and every time a Berner Oberland Regional Pass as recommended by Ken has penciled out for us. If we are going elsewhere in Switzerland we also get a Half Fare Card for the non-BO trains and the HFC allows for an additional discount on the BO Pass. I do the math every time and every time it works out. One of the advantages of the BO Pass is that you do not have to think about out-of-pocket expenses if you spontaneously want to ride a lift or train and it covers a huge area. We stay for a week or longer and the 8 day Pass works out well for us.

Thank you both so much for your advice. I have tried to do my best guess on which pass (or passes) would work best, and one thing that I've having trouble with is getting the price for the transfer between the Zurich Airport and Interlaken, and then from Lauterbrunnen to Martigny. When I use the sbb website and click on the ticket icon to check the price, I keep getting an error message. Depending on what those tickets cost, I think I agree with Laurel that we will get our money's worth out of the BO Regional Pass.

My other question is for Ken - you had said the Jungrau Regional Pass might work best if we were planning on spending time on the other side of the valley. I'm not sure what you mean by that. We definitely will be hiking around Lauterbrunnen (and above on both sides of that valley), as well as doing things in/around the lakes surrounding Interlaken, plus hiking above Grindelwald. Were you referring to other places as well, because it is my understanding that the BO Regional Pass covers all of these destinations. The only other place we might want to visit is Kandersteg, as we've been there before and loved it, but didn't have much time to hike around that area. That might be entirely too far from our Lauterbrunnen/Unterseen base though. Again, I appreciate everyone's helpful tips and advice!

one thing that I've having trouble with is getting the price for the transfer between the Zurich Airport and Interlaken, and then from Lauterbrunnen to Martigny. When I use the sbb website and click on the ticket icon to check the price, I keep getting an error message.

Rhonda, no error message is coming up for me. Are you making sure the train ride date and time are set for a future time and date?
Are you using Zürich Flughafen (airport) as your starting point?
Keep in mind that the ticket price shows the Half Fare Card price unless you reset it.

Since you mentioned home base in Unterseen, that is near the Interlaken West station, not the Interlaken Ost station. To get to Lauterbrunnen, you'll need to take the train (or bus) to the Interlaken Ost train station where you transfer to the little train that goes to Lauterbrunnen, since the Lauterbrunnen train doesn't go to Interlaken West.

If you get a Berner Oberland Pass, that covers transportation from Bern or Luzern south into the Berner Oberland. So you only need to check the price of the train ticket between Zürich Flughafen and Bern (or Luzern).

Here's the map of transportation coverage for the Berner Oberland Pass:
http://www.regionalpass-berneroberland.ch/en/pass-and-infos/area-of-validity/
You'll have to find where the Berner Oberland Pass coverage ends on your route to Martigny.

Hello again, I did finally get the website to show prices for me. After spending hours doing the math, I'm very surprised to find that I come out ahead buying both the BO Regional Pass and the HFC. Mainly that is because of my Zurich arrival, and then my need to get to Martigny afterwards. With the cost of Zurich to Luzern and either Gstaad or "Lenk i.S." (looks to be last cities covered by the BO pass with train travel) to Martigny, with the discount I get on the BO Regional Pass by purchasing the HFC, it makes the HFC worth it. I'm also hoping the HFC might help with cable cars and other things that might not be fully covered by the BO Pass. The other thing I realized is that we will be staying in the BO for 8 nights, but 9 days. There is no pass for 9 days, so I also had to do the math on purchasing the 8 day BO Regional Pass vs. the 10 day. Again, a lot of math, but the 10 day came out cheaper. At this rate, I went back to check on the Swiss Travel Pass because the cost is comparable, but again, there is a 8 day STP and no 10 day option, (it jumped to 15 days). So, with this new knowledge, I think I will purchase the 10 day BO Regional Pass and the HFC. I really appreciate everyone taking the time to help me sort through all these things. My prior 3 trips to Switzerland were much easier because we bought the 15 Day Swiss Pass and were set.

My next bit to figure out is this: can someone tell me the best (prefer scenic route) from Zurich Airport to Interlaken West, (we will be spending the first few nights in an apartment in Unterseen before moving on to Lauterbrunnen or Murren)? When we've done this trip before, we wanted to stop in Luzern to do some sightseeing, so that is the route we took. This time, we won't be stopping to sight see, but I'm wondering if Interlaken via Luzern is still be more scenic route? If it is, on the sbb website, I would be from Zurich Flughafen to Interlaken West via Luzern (which "Luzern" as there are a lot listed in the drop-down menu)?

Lastly, after reading posts here, I'm thinking of staying in Murren this trip, as opposed to Lauterbrunnen, mainly, to experience something different. We likely won't repeat Schlithorn, as we've done that on a gorgeous day, and we might possibly do Jungfraujoch, since we haven't done that, but if there are any nice hiking trails from Murren (or above), that would be a bonus to already be there. Plus, obviously the views from there are breathtaking. If anyone has a favorite hotel recommendation, I'd love to hear. Thanks again for your time and help!

Staying in Murren is definitely a different experience from staying in Lauterbrunnen and unless you will be doing hikes that take several hours it is a good choice. There have been a few discussions over the past month about hotels in Murren. We stayed at the Eiger guesthouse for 2 reasons - price and we were traveling with our 2 boys so got them a room next to ours. We were not on the "view" side but still had a very good view from our balcony. The food here was also very good!

There are some great hikes on that side of the valley. The North Face trail is one of my favorites. It's described in the RS book. My only recommendation is unless you have very strong knees end in Murren and not Gimmlewald:). We once took it down to the Sprutz waterfall which was very nice also. The walk from Murren to Gimmlewald is very nice - as is the walk from Miurren to Grutschalp. It sounds to me like there will be a lot of people from the forum in that area this summer! We'll be there for 6 nights in mid July. Have a great trip!

Hi Jill, thank you for weighing in on Murren, and telling me about a few hikes from there. We definitely have some days that we will be doing all day hikes, but we do want to plan on some shorter hikes for our days above the Lauterbrunnen Valley. It's too beautiful not to just take time to marvel at the views. I will also check out recent forum posts regarding hotel options in Murren, possibly Wengen as well. I hope you have a great time there in July! It would be hard not to!

(And P.S. we just returned from Boulder, where our daughter and son-in-law now live, and will be back there in July! You're lucky - you vacation AND live in beautiful parts of the world!)

The reason I mention all day hikes is that it does take some time to get from Murren to the valley floor if your all day hike starts elsewhere. We will be doing the ridge hike from Schnygge Platte to First so want to get an early start:). For that reason we are staying in Lauterbrunnen, With 8 nights you could consider staying in 2 different locations.

And thanks - yes I agree I am very lucky to live in such a great place:)

We did the ridge hike from SP to First last time, so we likely won't repeat that, (unless we just have a gorgeous day with not much else we are dying to do). We did decide to split our time up, (found a great apartment in Unterseen for the first 4 nights, and then the next 4 nights will be in Lauterbrunnen or Murren/Wengen. Those last 4 nights we will spend our days at a bit slower pace, as the next week we will be be primarily hiking in the French Alps. I'm trying to learn to slow down a bit on vacation; otherwise, all I'm doing is rushing us from one gorgeous place to the next, without truly ever savoring any of them. Hopefully the 4th time around will be the charm!

Good for you doing the analysis! It takes a lot of mental energy but when I have done it, I take comfort in my decision. We are spending 3 weeks in Switzerland later this year (3 different locations) and the HFC and BO Reg Pass worked out to be the ideal combo for us too.

With the BO Regional Pass, are cable cars in Grindelwald, Kleine Scheidegg, Murren, included, or only discounted? Or would we need/use our HFC to buy the tickets 1/2 off?

Also, does anyone have any advice on the more scenic way to go from the Zurich Airport to Interlaken? I'm thinking use our HFC to buy ticket to Luzern, but that's only because that's the way we've done it before. There may be a better way. And lastly, with the HFC, are there only certain trains that it applies to? I know they distinguish between Intercity and Regional, and others. I'm just wanting to make sure that I know the limits of the HFC before finalizing my decision to purchase these two passes. Thanks!

The BO Regional Pass covers cable cars at Grindelwald to First (and trains in and out of Grindelwald), trains and cable cars up to Murren (but only discount Murren up to Schilthorn), and all trains thru Kleine Scheidegg. It also covers trains South of BO down to Italy, but only the regular trains, not the faster train from Spiez down to Italy.

I'm pretty sure the HFC covers everything, but others can verify that.

Thank you so much, Shoe. The BO Pass sounds like a good value for the money. (Also, I did send you a PM regarding your hiking advice; hopefully you received that.)

Also, does anyone have any advice on the more scenic way to go from the Zurich Airport to Interlaken? I'm thinking use our HFC to buy ticket to Luzern, but that's only because that's the way we've done it before. There may be a better way.

Going from Zurich airport to Interlaken, via Luzern and MEIRINGEN is the most scenic route. Take the Luzern-Interlaken Express that leaves Luzern station from platform number 12, every hour (at xx:06). It has panorama windows. And it has a Bistro train carriage, too. There are other routes from Luzern, but you want the Luzern-Interlaken Express. It goes past mountain lakes, over the Brunig Pass through woods and wood carvings, past waterfalls around Meiringen, then along light-blue-green Brienz Lake to Interlaken Ost. From there you transfer to another train to get to the Interlaken West station. It's fully covered with the BO pass and all the Swiss Travel passes. HFC applies to it, too.

And lastly, with the HFC, are there only certain trains that it applies to? I know they distinguish between Intercity and Regional, and others.

I believe the HFC applies to all modes of transportation in Switzerland. Except maybe some private funiculars that go up to private hotels. And I don't know about the international high speed trains like the TGV from Basel to Paris.

(Rhonda, I did reply via Private Mail to your question. Have you looked in your "Rick Steves mail"? Click on your name on the upper right where it says "signed in as XYZ", then "view private messages".)

Thank you so much for the train advice. I'm so glad to see the BO pass really does cover so much of what we'll be doing. It sounds like I have a fellow Texas that loves Switzerland as much as I do. Appreciate your help.

Rhonda, you're welcome. I do love visiting Switzerland and have been there many times (summer only). You asked for hiking suggestions in the Berner Oberland area. You mentioned that you've hiked from Schynige Platte to First already, which sounds like quite a challenging endeavor, to make it in time to catch the gondola down the mountain, at First, before it closes for the day. I've only done a little of that hike on each end (First to Bachalpsee and return, and around Schynige Platte area with the 360 degree views. Where else have you hiked or visited in the BO area? If I know what else you've already done, I can suggest some different hikes for you.

We did that hike with 2 of our teenagers our last trip and it was our favorite. We also have done a few shorter hikes in/from Grindelwald, but I didn't really pay much attention to what they were. We've strolled around the lakes, and walked/jogged the Lauterbrunnen Valley, but we really haven't done any other long hikes around there. We walked down from Murren once, and also did one hike from Wengen, but I don't think it was the one from Mt. Mannlichen back down to Wengen, because I only remember taking the cogwheel (or some type of) train and not a cable car. We've done a lot of hiking around Kanderstag, which we loved. We've also hiked a lot around Zermatt and St. Moritz and in the Ticino. We just seem to wander around more than hike when we have been in/around Lauterbrunnen before. We've also had lots of rainy weather, so we did the ice caves and waterfalls. This is the first time we will be there for 9 days, so we'll have more time for hiking. If you have any great hikes you love from Murren, or Wengen, or elsewhere in the BO, I'd love to hear. I would like to explore Aare Gorge area hiking. I've seen pictures of an amazing suspension bridge (Trift Bridge maybe?) that we'd love to see. Also, I've seen people mention Mt. Rothorn to Turren (?) with a view of Brienzsee? I'm just now starting to work on what hikes we'd like to try, so I'm open to suggestions. Shoe sent me his favorites, and I'm looking forward to studying those these weekend. Thanks again for your help!

Rhonda, thanks for giving me a better idea of what kinds of hikes you're interested in. As soon as I have more time, over this weekend, I'll be happy to describe some hikes for you. For now, I can say that the Northface Trail, above Allmendhubel and Mürren is my all-time favorite. It's well described in the Rick Steves Switzerland guidebook, and "Shoe" who comments in this forum has excellent photographs and a map of it in the link he says he sent to you. My second-favorite hike (which was my top favorite until I found the Northface Trail hike) is from Kleine Scheidegg* to Wengernalp, but not the one in the Rick Steves guidebook. For R.S.' and mine you cross the train tracks from the train station to go down the hill looking toward the Jungfrau mountain. For his you turn right and follow a well-groomed wide path along and below the rail road tracks. It has a fine view. The hike I prefer starts once you walk down the hill across the train tracks, but instead of turning right to follow train tracks, you go straight ahead towards the cliffs of the Jungfrau and mountains beyond on a very narrow path. You'll see the mountains for the entire hike, but closer up than on the R.S. version. My favorite one takes you through flowering pastures and then a little bridge to walk over a stream with a tiny waterfall. Then it turns and follows the tiny stream (a stream in July, but was dry when we were there in September) a ways and then you go up a hill to look close up at the snowy Jungfrau mountain cliffs in your face. Then you climb back down the little hill, retracing you steps, and then follow the signs to Wixi. You walk through more pastures, always with the mountains in your closeup view. Eventually you cross a bigger stream through woods, and come to Wixi with cheese huts selling cheese from their cows that you met along the way. Finally it brings you to Wengernalp which has a little train station and a nice outdoor cafe with a gorgeous view of mountains. The cafe has excellent fruit tortes, whatever's in season (like apricot or plum or cherry in July).

My husband has hiked to the Trift bridge from the Gadmertal. He says, "The bus from Meiringen takes you to a cable car station, and you ride up to the trail head. From there it's a steep 2-hour uphill hike up the canyon to the steel-cable suspension bridge. If you walk across the bridge, it takes you 1,000 feet over the canyon below, with a view of the Trift glacier and lake to the south and the Trift brook to the north. It's not for acrophobics, but it's spectacular and rewards the effort."

I'll write about some other favorite hikes/walks when I have time later this weekend.

*Edit: Kleine Scheidegg is a short cog-rail train ride up from Wengen, or a long cog-rail train ride up from Grindelwald-Grund.

Both of these hikes sound like something we would love, (well, unless when you say "narrow path" it's one where you feel like you're going to fall off the mountain if you have any tiny slip of the foot :-). I glanced at "Shoe's" hikes, and he has several from Murren; but known actually labeled "North Face trail"; do you know which one is the one you're talking about?

The pictures of the Trift Bridge look so amazing, but both of us actually do have a tiny fear of heights. I guess I will have to read some more about that before deciding. As your husband said, the views might be worth our pushing ourselves a bit out of our comfort zone. Thanks for taking the time to give me some great places to start researching. I'll look forward to learning of others, as you have time!

The narrow path from Kleine Scheidegg to Wixi and Wengernalp is in a wide meadow, and not on the facing mountain.

On Shoe's site, the hike he labels "M2" is the Northface Trail. There are blue signs marking it as Northface Trail all along it, from Allmendhubel, which is at the top of the funicular from Mürren. He describes taking that hike to Mürren, but it can be extended below Spielbodenalp through Sprutz Falls, through woods, and on down steeply (if you have strong knees) to Gimmelwald. The Rick Steves Switzerland guidebook describes it with meticulous directions, both ways.

Regarding the Trift Bridge hike, my husband says you don't have to walk on the bridge. You can just look at it and turn back. He only walked 1/3 of it. However, there is one spot where you only have about 6 inches from the cliff, but you would only fall 5 feet there, he said.

Rhonda, I've walked through the Aare Gorge (Aareschlucht) many times, but only recently learned (from this travel forum) that there's a hiking trail around the outside of the gorge, too. I'd like to try that, myself, next time, too. Do you need any information about the Aareschlucht, since you mentioned you want to hike in that area?

The Hasli mountain (Hasliberg) is up above the Aareschlucht, which is near Meiringen. I like hiking on the Hasliberg from Käserstatt (gondola ride above Hasliberg-Wasserwendi and Twing) to Mägisalp (cable-car rides above Hasliberg-Reuti and above Meiringen). Mägisalp is a mountain dairy farm community with loads of cheese huts in a green bowl of a pasture, with views of the Rosenlaui glacier and mountains across the valley. I got to watch someone make cheese the old-fashioned way there in 2003, but I don't know if they do it that way anymore. It has a lovely outdoor cafe up there, at Mägisalp, and a nice souvenir shop with local quartz crystals. You can ride a gondola up one more level, to the top of the mountain above Mägisalp, to Planplatten, and look over that ridge and across the Gental Valley to the mountains beyond. It's quite spectacular up there! I've hiked from Planplatten on a path along the ridge, but it's gotten uncomfortably difficult for me, recently. It's rocky, covered in ice patches in spots, and is along the edge, so you can't walk and look at the distant view at the same time--you have to stop to look up from your feet when you want to see the view.

You mentioned you've hiked around Kandersteg. I've walked around the lake above the town (Oeschinensee); seen all the strange carved up trees, rode a row boat, but haven't done any hikes around that area. Do you have a favorite that you recommend?

Going a bit further south from Kandersteg, is the Lötchental, which I find spectacular! We take the local train to Goppenstein, change to a bus there, which goes through that valley. We get off at Wiler and take a gondola up to Lauchernalp for a very beautiful hike through pastures and by a little lake, and the trail has tall snow-capped mountains in close view across the narrow valley, all along the way. The trail has an outdoor cafe about half way to the end of the trail. The trail ends at Fafleralp, where we get the best homemade apricot torte (the best apricots [from the Valais] are grown nearby) and eat it outside while we wait for the bus there. As I recall, restrooms at that stop cost 1/2 franc. Always carry a 1/2 franc piece with you in Switzerland. (Disclaimer: I was last there in July, 2016.)

Here are some more hikes near the Lauterbrunnen area that I've done. Let me know if you want to know more about any of them:

For Lauterbrunnen-area hikes (besides my previously mentioned Männlichen to Kleine Scheidegg, Kleine Scheidegg to Wengernalp hikes, Northface Trail to Mürren, and Northface Trail extended to Gimmelwald), I've also hiked the Mountain View Trail from Allmendhubel to Winteregg, and walked Grütschalp to Mürren. I've also hiked the Romantikweg Trail from Männlichen to Alpiglen, and hiked Wengernalp to Allmend (not Allmendhubel). Also, I've hiked behind Wengen up to the Mendelssohn memorial.

Near Grindelwald, I've hiked from Grosse Scheidegg to First, and from First to Bachalpsee. A bit further out, I've walked through the Rosenlaui Gorge (Rosenlauischlucht).

I love visiting beautiful Giessbach Falls, on Lake Brienz (Brienzersee), and walking up along the different levels of waterfalls.

Another vote for wandering around Giessbach Falls, above and below, and all around that hillside. While they have a nice carpark the best way to arrive is without doubt by lake steamer so you get a clear view of where you will be with the falls and hotel (nice toilet facilities) and then taking the ancient funicular up to hotel level, and then heading off....

Wow! Such a wealth of great info regarding BO hiking! Thank you so much for taking the time to do that for me. I have tried to look up a lot of the hikes you ("Shoe" and Nigel) told me about, and it's obvious there are way more we'd love to do than we will have time for. Based on what I've researched thus far, it sounds like these hikes will be easy to break up between our 2 base locations. Top contenders while based in Unterseen are the Aare Gorge, Hasli Mountain area hiking, Trift Bridge, and the hiking we can do around Giessbach Falls. I'd also like to do Gross Scheidegg to First, (although would we have come down this path when we did Schynige Platte to First)? I'm not sure we would have made it to Gross Scheidegg. I also am interested in seeing Gstaad this trip, if we can fit that in - possibly when enroute from the BO to France. Of course our plans could change based on the weather when we are there, but I'm thinking if we have a pretty day the day we leave Unterseen (for Murren/Wengen/Lauterbrunnen), we might make that the day we do the Mannlichen - Kleine Scheidegg to Wengernalp hike, which sounds beautiful! When we've stayed in Lauterbrunnen before, with only 4 nights there, we didn't have a lot of time to do many longer hikes, so with 8 night this time, hopefully with all these great leads, we can find several new favorites.

A few last questions: I have the website www.aareschlucht.ch for Aare Gorge info, but do you have any more specific information about good hikes around there? And we've gone to the Giessbach Falls (and the hotel, and just like Nigel mentioned, perused their very nice bathroom facilities!), but I didn't know there were hiking trails around the various levels of the falls. Did you also have a lake view from the fall's hiking you did? Are those trails marked or do you have a link to any info about them?

In Kandersteg, other than the lake walk, the one we did with the best views of the lake was off to the left of that restaurant. It skirted some caves and quickly became more of a steep rock scramble than we prefer doing. We were in it before we really knew what it would entail. My hubby turned back and I went on with our 2 older teens. Although the views from the top were gorgeous, I personally wouldn't do that hike again, nor would I highly recommend it. I'm sure there are many better paths around that lake with equally great views. I'm just not sure what they are. We did 2 other long hikes away from Kandersteg, but neither of those had lake views or particularly beautiful mountain views.

We based in Brig and did a good chunk of the long Aletsch Glacier hike. Then we spent 2 different trips hiking in/around Zermatt and the Matterhorn. We were blessed each trip with gorgeous sunny weather. We also spent 2 trips hiking in the Engadine, the Ticino, and exploring all around Geneva and the wine region. Going back and looking at my notes makes me realize we have done lot more hiking outside the BO than we have in that region. I'm glad this time around, the BO will be our only focus.

Thanks again for your help!

Rhonda,
Thanks for all your descriptions of areas you've hiked in Switzerland. I appreciate your honest details. Here are my answers to your most recent questions:

GROSSE SCHEIDEGG:
You would not have gone to Grosse Scheidegg when you hiked from Schynigge Platte to First. Grosse Scheidegg is further beyond First.

GSTAAD:
Gstaad is a super cute village! A budget warning though--the restaurant prices there were shocking, but at the bakery, sandwiches were "only" 7 francs (as opposed to the 40 francs and up per entree starting price that I saw on menus at restaurants there). (A friend of mine had warned me that she got only a little cup of soup in Gstaad and it cost 40 francs--but I think she was exaggerating a bit.)
We had a lovely hike near there--Rinderberg to Horneggli. We took a train to Zweisimmen, and a cable car up from there to Rinderberg. We hiked from Rinderberg through pastures in rolling hills with views of valleys below and snow-capped mountains in the distant background. We bought cheese from a dairy farm. When we got to Horneggli, a hotel van shuttle brought us down the mountain to Schönried, where we took a train to Gstaad.

AARESCHLUCHT:
Here's the link for the info and "Diagram" (map) of the Aareschlucht walk on the cliff-walk along the Aare Gorge, and also for the hike around south of the cliff-walk that goes over the Lammi Pass. The Lammi Pass hike is the one I hadn't heard of until recently and I want to try it next time I'm there. I've walked the Aareschlucht cliff-walk many years, including last summer. It's safe, easy and not scary at all. The info says the Lammi Pass takes one hour; the Aare Gorge cliff-walk 40 minutes. You get there on the little train that shuttles from Meiringen to Innertkirchen, with the Aareschlucht West and Aareschlucht Ost stops "on request only" (Halt auf Verlangen) by pushing the button before your stop.
https://www.aareschlucht.ch/en/Angebot/The_Aare_Gorge_/location_plan#.Wr_m2S_MxsM

GIESSBACH FALLS:
Yes, you have a lake view from the falls. The path takes you through a cave/carved out area behind one of the waterfalls, so you can see the lake through the waterfall! Here's a link to their web page with a picture:
https://www.giessbach.ch/en/giessbach-falls-nature-park.html
Click on "Walking and Bicycling" and you get the link to a map and description of the trails at the falls:
https://www.giessbach.ch/en/walking-bicycling.html
The quickest way to get to Giessbach Falls from Interlaken is to take the train from Interlaken Ost around Lake Brienz (Brienzersee) to the town of Brienz. Switch to the lake ship/ferry at Brienz and take it to the first stop, which is Giessbach.

HARDER KULM:
While you're staying in Interlaken, you might want to take the funicular up the nearby mountain to Harder Kulm, if you haven't done that already. There's a nice viewing platform up there that's called the Two Lakes Bridge. It's cantilevered to "float" off the edge and has a see-through floor. The view is of Lake Brienz and Lake Thun, and across the lakes, in the far distance, you'll see alpine mountains including the Jungfrau and the Eiger. Here's a link with a picture:
https://www.jungfrau.ch/en-gb/harder-kulm/two-lakes-bridge/