Brienz tourist information & hotel reservations.

We warmly welcome you to visit Brienz and wish you a wonderful vacation.

Brienz is a town located in the canton of Berne, on the banks of Lake Brienz, near the Brienzer Rothorn Mountain. The place is a popular tourist destination and it also is famous with woodcarving. There is housed the deeply-respected Cantonal Woodcarving School, founded in the middle of the 19th century. Brienz is inhabited for quite a long time – its church is from the 12th century. There are still houses in the town from the 17th century and even the new ones are with old architecture – overhanging roofs and wooden terraces. The place became well-known among tourists in the middle of the 19th century when British and Germans started visiting it.

A place you can visit is the Brienz Rothorn train station. The steam train can take you to the “Matterhorn of the Bernese Oberland” (Brienzer Rothorn) from May till October. You can even go up with the train and go down on foot. The station is located on the Rothorn summit and can be reached by a cogwheel steamer operating since the end of the 19th century.
Perhaps the greatest attraction is the Brienzersee (Lake Brienz). It is 15 kilometers long and 2,4 kilometers wide and its deepest place is at 262 meters below the surface. The lake is ideal for the nature lovers as it is surrounded by forests and mountains – the scenery is quite amazing.

Another place of interest is the open-air museum Freilichtmuseum. It is located at Ballenberg, near Brienz, and there you can see different buildings, typical for the different areas of Switzerland. From April till October you can even see people in traditional costumes, demonstrating traditional crafts.

Another beautiful place in the area is the Giessbach Falls, reachable by car, boat or on foot. There is also a funicular which will take you above the rocky hillside in 4 minutes. The funicular is actually the oldest on in Europe, opened in 1879. The waterfalls are seven, their total height is 278 meters and they offer some amazing nature views.
In Brienz itself you can walk along the lake promenade which will take you from the town to the shore of Lake Brienz. This is a peaceful and tranquil stroll, passing along beautiful flower beds and trees.

Brienz Transportation

By train Brienz can be reached via the railway line connecting Lucerne and Interlaken.
From Interlaken you can also take a lake steamer if you are visiting during the summer. There are boats on every hour and the trip takes a little more than an hour. There is also a restored paddle-wheeler connecting the towns on Sunday and in high season.

For flights, trains and car-rental reservations as well as for buses, coaches and taxi ski transfers refer to the general Switzerland Transportation page!