Which Rail Pass? Switzerland and other countries, and where to stay in the BO

Caroline, before you buy any pass, read this web page (especially the section on Eurail passes): http://seat61.com/Railpass-and-Eurail-pass-guide.htm
You need to do some serious arithmetic to decide if a Eurail pass is the best option. You need to make a spreadsheet with all your trips listed, and compare the cost of discounted advance-purchase tickets with the pass (plus any extra reservation charges you need to pay with a pass). Get your advance-purchase prices from the website of the company running each of the trains, NOT from a reseller.

The coverage of the Eurail Pass, the Swiss pass and the Berner Oberland pass are all different. IF you have a Eurail pass (and that is a big if), the the Berner Oberland pass may be a good add-on.
Yes, if you like hiking do not stay in Interlaken, but somewhere further into the mountains (Grindelwald, Lauterbrunnen, Wengen, Mürren etc.). You can always go to Interlaken as a day trip.
This map might help you see how all these places fit together: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/ed/62/9e/ed629e048086401fa30955a9b42c1360.jpg (red and black lines are cable cars and railways, both are called "bahn" in German, so they don't distinguish)

You should also consider the timing of your trip to the BO if you plan on doing a lot of hiking. We've been 3 times all in June and have always had some snow on the hikes. Our last trip we wanted to do the hike from Schynige Platte to First. The hike wasn't officially open yet (on June 25th). We tried hiking it anyway - with many other people, but were unable to finish due to a large very steep snow field. We're going back next year at the end of July to try and do it again.

If you plan on hiking both sides of the valley IMO Lauterbrunnen is the best place as it is in the middle. I believe there is a very nice hostel in town.

Caroline, please don't do the knee jerk action thing of running out and immediately buying a Eurail Pass. Do as Chris suggested above. Point to point tickets can be VERY affordable, and Eurail Passes come with extra charges - we might also be able to call them "hidden" charges.

Do not use RailEurope as your search engine for trains. Use the national rail companies like:

Switzerland: www.sbb.ch
Italy: www.trenitalia.com
Germany: www.bahn.de

Any Eurail multi-country pass gives you a 25% discount on trains and lifts around the Lauterbrunnen Valley without using a counted travel day on a flexi style of pass. It fully covers other trains to/from Interlaken and boats on Lakes Thun and Brienz when you are using a counted travel day. Since the pass details have changed this year, beware older info that may be in guidebooks or some web sites. See more comparison at https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/transportation/trains/switzerland-rail-passes. You haven't mentioned taking the expensive train to the top of the Jungfraujoch, and I think that's more popular with sedentary than active sightseers, so that's one reason that I would not pay for a second pass.

If you stay in the valley in the town of Lauterbrunnen, then it's only a 20-minute train ride back to Interlaken, if you have to go there to meet up with hang-gliding, for instance, but they might also pick you up in Lauterbrunnen. If you stay in Gimmelwald, it's 25 minutes down the mountain to Lauterbrunnen by lift and bus.

If you're not already planning to fly from Spain to Switzerland or Munich, then look into options at www.skyscanner.com. That's likely to be faster and cheaper. If you take trains across France with the pass, then we recommend reserving them early, which may be handy to do at the same time that you buy the pass.

Thank you everyone for your responses, I appreciate all of your advice. Chris and Tim, I'm going to do as you suggest and calculate all of my transportation costs to and from every place I am going before I invest in a Eurail pass. Jill and Laura, I will probably end up staying in Lauterbrunnen. Thank you for your advice on hikes as well!

The ticket prices shown on the SBB webpage are half the usual price, because the SBB assumes that purchasers have the half-fare card. You can verify this by selecting one of the displayed itineraries and changing the pull-down box on the next screen to "No Reduction".

carolinenazworth check out Kev Reynolds "Walking In The Bernese Oberland". It has alot of good information for hikes in the BO.

caroline,

I'm a bit late getting into the discussion, but a couple of thoughts to add.....

Lauterbrunnen makes a great 'home base' for touring the Berner Oberland as it's the transportation hub, and therefore easy to get to both sides of the valley. It's on the valley floor so doesn't have the same spectacular alpine views as some other locations. If you plan on touring both sides of the valley and don't mind spending a bit more time and money, Mürren is a good base. From there you can easily walk or take the cable car down to Gimmelwald, or take the cable car up to the famous Schilthorn, which was used in the filming of the James Bond movie On Her Majesty's Secret Service (trust me, the building did NOT explode). The Schilthorn is at 10K feet and has a revolving restaurant, so nice to sit there while vistas of the Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau glide by the window. It's a bit pricey but a very enjoyable experience and I always stop for a fine hot meal whenever I'm there.

As you're planning on Tandem Paragliding, Mürren is a good choice as one of the hillsides above the town is a very popular launching point. You could still achieve that by staying in Lauterbrunnen, but there would be slightly higher cost in time and money as you'd have to get to Mürren to reach the launch point.

Regarding the Rail pass, which one to get will depend to a large extent on where you plan on visiting in that area. If you plan to focus on the side of the valley with Mürren / Gimmelwald / Schilthorn, then the Berner Oberland Regional Pass may be a good option. You could also look at the Jungfrau Regional Pass for the other side of the valley. A good overall choice is the Half Fare Card. Unfortunately the only way to get some idea on which pass is better is to do some number crunching. Research the costs of all the trips you plan to take using the sbb.ch website, and then compare that with the cost of each of the passes in the weblink that Laura provided.