Skydiving Over the Swiss Alps in Interlaken — A Solo Traveler’s Experience

Ava’s Interlaken Diary

1. Arrival · Day One

The town between two lakes — smaller than expected, bigger than imagined

I arrived by train from Zürich, two hours through countryside that kept getting more aggressively beautiful. By the time we curved into Interlaken Ost, the mountains were so close they felt theatrical — like a backdrop someone had placed without asking. I dropped my bag at the hostel, went straight to the rooftop, and stood there for ten minutes saying nothing. Switzerland doesn’t ease you in.

2. The Jump · Day Two · 4,000m

One second between the edge and the open sky

There is exactly one second between the plane door and freefall. One second where your brain lists every rational reason to go back inside. Then the instructor tips forward, and you’re falling through 4,000 metres of alpine air with the Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau spread beneath you like a painting no human hand could have made. I screamed. Then laughed. Then forgot to breathe. When the parachute opened, the silence that followed was the deepest I have ever known.

3. Paragliding · Day Two Afternoon

If skydiving is the scream, paragliding is the exhale

I launched from Beatenberg with a pilot named Stefan — three running steps down a grassy slope, and then we simply lifted. Thirty minutes above the Thunersee, the water below the colour of glacial mint. A hawk flew alongside us briefly, riding the same thermal, completely unbothered. I steered the glider for two minutes. I still cannot believe I get to say that sentence.

4. The Quiet · Day Three · 6 AM

Lake Brienz before anyone else woke up

On my last morning I walked twenty minutes to the shore of Lake Brienz. The water was jade-still, mountains mirrored so perfectly I couldn’t tell where the reflection ended and the real thing began. I sat on a bench with a hostel-kitchen thermos of coffee and watched the peaks catch gold while the valley stayed blue. No photos. Just me and the morning and the specific contentment of a day not yet used.

“Interlaken doesn’t let you be a passive tourist. It straps you in, throws you into the sky, and asks — how alive do you actually want to feel?”

✈️Flights into Zürich or Geneva

Both connect to Interlaken by train in under 2.5 hrs. Best fares 5–7 weeks out on Skyscanner.
Click here to book your Flight.

🛏️Hostel — Balmers or Funny Farm

Legendary solo-traveller hostels. Rooftop terraces, activity deals, social kitchens. Book early.
Click here to book your Hotel.

🏨Hotel — Interlaken West, mountain views

Book with free cancellation — weather can reschedule activities and you may want extra days.Click here to see the option

🏡Explore where I Stayed.

Wake up inside the mountains. 20 min by train from Interlaken. Worth every franc.
Click here to see where I Stayed.

🪂Skydive Switzerland — book your jump

Licensed, English-speaking, best alpine backdrop on earth. Don’t wait — slots fill by noon in summer.Click here to book your Jump

🛡️ Ava’s Travel Insurance Pick

3 Mistakes. Learned the Hard Way.

“For sixty seconds I was falling through the Alps at 200 km/h and my mind went completely quiet — no lists, no anxiety, no performance. Just air and altitude and the knowledge that I was, right now, exactly where I was supposed to be.”

Interlaken is a question. The question is: how alive do you actually want to feel?

Heart still racing — Ava 🪂