Les meilleurs hôtels à Interlaken

Some advice: do not visit Switzerland without spending time in the Bernese Oberland. It would be like visiting Paris while fasting. Or going to Rome and skipping the Sistine Chapel. This is the jaw-dropping Swiss Alps at its best. Interlaken is the jumping off point for the region known as the Jungfrau, where small villages are tucked in the shadows of three massive mountains: Jungfrau, M?nch and Eiger. You'll find good Swiss food, great day treks and spectacular scenery in this town, which sits between two lakes. Many of the villages in the Alps don't have roads going to them; trains from Interlaken will get you there. Wengen is best known for its annual Lauberhorn Downhill Ski Race, which boosters call "surely the most spectacular race of the whole world cup circuit." Fifteen cable cars operate from Wengen. Road engineering nightmares aside, the Swiss must have figured out that cable cars are a bit more relaxing than white-knuckled driving around mountain hairpin turns. The "Top of Europe" is a trainride away. Jungfraujoch is home to Europe's highest train station (11,333 ft). A scientific station is set up here for astronomers, geologists and physicists. Mountain climbers also use this as a starting point to climb to M?nch, at 13,449 feet. Villages like Grindelwald, Murren and Lauterbrunnen offer even further skiing and hiking opportunities. And if the area's mountain air and breathtaking scenery inspire you to let out a long yodel, you wouldn't be the first. Grindelwald holds a yodeling contest every summer. Further west in the Bernese Oberland, the Saanenland area is dotted with lower lying (around 3,500 feet) year-round resorts and villages. The Cinemusic festival, the Rado Swiss Tennis Open and a Country Night featuring Emmylou Harris, George Jones and Dwight Yoakam round out some of Gstaad's draws for the year -- as if the scenery weren't enough to tempt you.