Paragliding in Interlaken: tandem flights and prices

A tandem paraglider flight is the simplest airborne thing you can buy in the Alps, and the reason Interlaken has so many of them is geography. The town sits on the flat strip between two lakes, with steep grassy shoulders rising immediately on both sides and a wide, soft landing field in the middle of the valley. That is the exact shape a wing wants: high ground to step off, still air over water, and somewhere obvious to come down.

How the outing is put together. The listing time you book — 90 minutes on $222 and $234, 60 minutes on $259 — covers the whole outing, not the flight alone. Inside it are the meeting, the transfer up to the launch site, the fitting of the harness, the flight itself and the walk back. No listing on this site publishes a number of minutes in the air, and we are not going to invent one: what is published is the length of the outing, the equipment, and the fact that a pilot flies you.

The three Interlaken launches. $222 is the one most people book, and it is not close — 2,580 reviews at 4.9, more than every other listing on this site combined. It is sold as the tandem flight with a pilot above Interlaken, with the equipment included. $234 launches from the Beatenberg terrace above Lake Thun and holds the cleanest score on the site at 5.0 from 655 reviews; if the pure rating matters more to you than the volume of reviews behind it, that is the one. $259 is the outlier: a high flight, sold on extra altitude before the landing, at 4.7 from 73 reviews. More height is more glide, which is the whole idea.

What you actually do. You are clipped into a harness in front of the pilot, you run a few steps down the slope, and the wing lifts. From that moment nothing is asked of you: the pilot steers, and your job is to look at Lake Thun on one side and Lake Brienz on the other with the Alps standing behind them. It is a seated, continuous experience, which is why it works for people who would never describe themselves as adventurous.

What it is not. It is not a skydive, and the difference is worth stating plainly because the two are sold on the same streets. A paraglider has its wing open from the first step to the last, so the flight contains no freefall at any point. If freefall is what you are after, there is exactly one listing in Interlaken that sells it: $526, an airplane jump from 4,000 metres with 45 seconds at 200 km/h and 5 to 7 minutes under the canopy afterwards. Booking a flight instead will give you a beautiful hour and none of those 45 seconds.

If you want the flight everybody books. $222. Two thousand five hundred and eighty reviews at 4.9 is not a marketing line, it is a volume of evidence no other listing here comes close to, and it is a 90-minute outing with the pilot and equipment included. For a first tandem flight above Interlaken this is the straightforward answer.

If the rating is what you care about. $234, at 5.0 from 655 reviews, launched from Beatenberg above Lake Thun. Same length, same inclusions, a different side of the valley and a score that has not slipped across six hundred bookings.

If you want more height. $259 is the high flight, sold specifically on extra altitude before the landing, in a 60-minute outing. It carries 73 reviews at 4.7, so there is less evidence behind it than behind the two above — but it is the only Interlaken listing that names altitude as the thing it is selling.

If you want the most dramatic ground underneath. Leave the Interlaken valley and fly from Mürren. $209 is rated 5.0 from 367 reviews and flies over the Lauterbrunnen cliffs and waterfalls, and $234 is the longer panorama version at two hours. Those get their own page on this site.

If a glide is not what you came for. Then none of the above is the right purchase, and it is better to say so here than to let you find out in the air. $526 is the one listing in Interlaken that sells freefall: 4,000 metres, 45 seconds at 200 km/h (120 mph), one instructor attached to you, 5 to 7 minutes under the canopy after that, 586 reviews at 4.9. No paraglider flight contains any part of that, and no amount of altitude on a wing produces it.

The verdict. For a first flight above Interlaken, book $222 — the evidence behind it is overwhelming and the outing is the right size for an ordinary day. Take $234 if you would rather launch from Beatenberg, and $259 if altitude is the specific thing you want. Then, if the idea of falling rather than gliding is still sitting there unanswered, book $526 on another day and get both.

1. Reading the listing time as time in the air. The 60 or 90 minutes on a listing is the whole outing: meeting, transfer up, harness, flight, return. No operator here publishes airborne minutes, so nobody should be quoting you one.
2. Booking a flight because freefall sounded like too much. They are not the same purchase at different intensities. $526 is the only listing here with 45 seconds of freefall in it; a flight is a continuous glide and always was.
3. Leaving $222 to the last minute in high season. It carries 2,580 reviews because it sells constantly. A few weeks ahead is the sensible habit.
4. Assuming all the flights launch from the same place. $222 and $259 go from above Interlaken, $234 from Beatenberg, and $209 from Mürren on the Lauterbrunnen cliff edge. Check which valley you have booked.
5. Dressing for the valley floor. You leave from a slope well above the town. Layers and shoes you can run three steps in are the whole requirement.