The Brienzer Rothorn is tall mountain east of Interlaken, with spectacular views of Lake Brienz and the surrounding mountains.
You can easily reach the top with a vintage steam railway, taking about an hour to slowly climb the mountain. From the other side of the mountain, you can ride the Sörenberg cable car instead, which is slightly less expensive.
At the top, you’ll find two restaurants with panorama terraces, a nice place to enjoy the view without much work. It’s a short walk to a higher panorama viewpoint, where you can peer over the cliffs and see for miles in every direction.
| Location: | Bernese Oberland Switzerland |
| Address: | Hauptstrasse 149, 3855 Brienz |
| Car: | Parking: Trachtlistrasse 13-3, 3855 Brienz From Interlaken 20 mins, Lucerne, Zürich 1hr30 |
| Train: | Train station: Brienz train station From Interlaken 21 mins, Lucerne 55 mins, Zürich 2hr20 |
| Trail: | short walk to observation area at top |
| Open: | June through October |
| Prices 2025: | via Brienz Rothorn Bahn train – CHF 96 + CHF 8 seat reservation fee via Sörenberg cable car – CHF 55 Discount for SBB Half-fare, GA, Day Passes, etc. Free with Tell Pass and Berner Oberland Regional Pass. |
| Services: | restaurant |
| More info: | www.brienz-rothorn-bahn.ch |
Overview
This mountain is located in the Berner Oberland, east of Interlaken.
You can reach the peak in two ways:
- the Brienz Rothornbahn cogwheel mountain train that starts in Brienz on the lake shore
- the Sörenberg cable car on the north side of the mountain (less expensive).
Here is the summer for this area.
What to do
Most visitors simply ride up to enjoy the views. There is a short walk to a higher panorama viewpoint, where you see down both sides of the peak. There are two restaurants with nice outdoor terraces and a picnic area.
Hiking options
Several hikes start at Brienzer Rothorn, including one of our favorite ridge trails that ends at the Turren-Lungern cable car.
For a short hike, you can walk down to the Eisee alpine lake, about 1h15 walking time. Then you can ride a chair lift or hike back up to Brienzer Rothorn. See trail map.
For a longer hike, you can keep hiking from the Eisee lake all the way down to the Sörenberg cable car station. It’s a lot of elevation descent at 990m, taking about 3h. But if you take your time, with a nice break at the Eisee lake, it’s not too strenuous. See trail map.
Another popular option is hiking up or down the mountain, somewhat parallel to the mountain train tracks.
We do not recommend the infamous Hardergrat trail, which is very dangerous and only suitable for very experienced hikers comfortable with risk. Learn more.
Nearby activities
If you’re not hiking, this isn’t really a full-day activity. So you might consider combining this with the nearby Giessbach Falls, which are conveniently accessed by boat from the ferry dock immediately opposite the Rothornbahn.
Other half-day options in the area are Reichenbach Falls and Aare Gorge.
How to get there
You can reach the peak via the Brienz Rothornbahn cogwheel mountain train or Sörenberg cable car.
Brienzer Rothorn mountain train
If you staying in the Interlaken or Lucerne regions, it’s more convenient to visit the peak via the Brienz Rothornbahn cogwheel mountain train. This train is located at Hauptstrasse 149, 3855 Brienz.
If you arrive by car, there a small metered parking lot at Trachtlistrasse 13-3, 3855 Brienz. There is more parking at the Brienz train station and a couple more parking lots along the main road through town.
By public transport, you can take a train to Brienz BE, Bahnhof, about 15 mins from Interlaken Ost. The mountain train is directly across the street from the Brienz train station and ferry dock.
You could also travel from Interlaken by boat to Brienz. See the boat schedule.
Sörenberg cable car
The Sörenberg cable car is located at Flüehüttenboden 1, 6174 Sörenberg (bus stop Sörenberg, Platz), in the Biosphare Entlebuch region west of Lucerne.
The cable car less expensive and runs more frequently than the Brienz Rothorn mountain train. But from most cities, it takes longer to get there either by car or public transport.
Planning your day
Tickets for mountain train
In 2025, a return trip on the Brienz Rothornbahn train costs CHF 96/adult.
You get a 50% discount with Swiss Travel Pass, Swiss Half Fare Card, and GA. Free with Tell Pass and Berner Oberland Regional Pass.
Children aged 6-15 are half fare, under 6 ride free. Children with Junior Card or Family Card ride free.
If you take the first train of the day at 8:36 (sometimes also 7:36), your ticket is discounts to CHF 80 full fare (this includes an CHF 8 online booking fee).
Note: It’s less expensive to ride up to Brienzer Rothorn using the Sörenberg cable car from the other side of the mountain. In 2024, a round trip ticket costs CHF 55/adult. Same discounts as above.
Seat guarantee
We recommend purchasing tickets in advance with a seat guarantee on the train. This does not reserve a specific seat on the train, but guarantees you a seat on a specific day and time. You may not necessarily be able to sit with everyone if your group.
The seat guarantee costs CHF 8 per person.
Timetable
The mountain train only runs once an hour, so time your arrival. We went on a hot sunny public holiday at mid-day, arriving 5 mins before the train would leave and got the last parking spot and last seats on the train. Lucky us, but not ideal.
Get there early in the day and give yourself some time to get settled before catching the train. Although our train was packed, I noticed on our way back that the 14:30 train was quite empty. So maybe afternoon is also a good time to go.
Photo story
1. Brienz Rothorn Bahn train
Here is the mountain train. It is open-air, with no windows.
Here’s the view of Brienzersee as you first start up the mountain. I recommend sitting on the left side of the train as you face up the mountain. Both sides are nice, but the left side has more open views.
Looking back towards Brienzersee. The train is open air, but it does have glass windows that slide down in cold and inclement weather.
The train passes through a few tunnels. You’ll also pass a train coming the other way, which was fun for all the passengers. Lots of people waved or gave high-fives to people in the other train as it passed.
One of the many beautiful views as you go up the mountain.
It’s really quite amazing how high up you get on this train. Such ambitious engineers.
2. Arriving at the top
After an hour, the train stops here. There is WC here and it’s a two minute walk to the first restaurant.
Here’s the outdoor seating for the first restaurant. There’s tons of seating inside as well, in case the weather is bad. The small gift shop inside sells some really cool retro postcards of the area.
Our table with a view. The food wasn’t anything special, but the setting was top-notch. The menu is typical Swiss (wurst, aelpermagrönen, rösti, salads, etc.) with typically high Swiss prices. They do have children plates for about CHF 9. They also brought us colored pencils and placemats for coloring.
A couple minute further, there’s another restaurant at the Sörenberg cable car station. That one has sun umbrellas, which we could have really used on that hot day. I’d try that one if we went again.
On the far side of the restaurant, there are some stairs on your left leading to a sun terrace with tables. I don’t know if it’s officially part of the restaurant or what. But you could probably picnic up there without anyone bothering you. There are some lounge chairs as well if you want to soak in some rays.
This pic is from the terrace, looking east to the lookout point, our next stop.
3. Hiking up to the viewpoint
The path continues past the restaurants and on to a higher elevation lookout point. The trail starts paved but quickly gets lumpy and quite unsuitable for strollers. In the distance above the restaurant, you can see another lookout point, to which you can also hike.
Probably best to stick to the path, but the kids liked scrambling up the rocks.
From the lookout point, you get a beautiful view of the valleys to the northeast.
4. Visit the Eisee alpine lake
If you need more to do, you can either hike or ride a chair lift down to the Eisee alpine lake shown here.
The chair lift runs four times at a day at 7.50, 10.45, 13.45, 16.25 (sometimes closed Mon, Tues). So time your visit carefully. You can ride just one way if you prefer and hike the other direction. It costs CHF 7 each way, discount for SBB Half-fare, GA, etc and children.
If you hike, it’s about 2.5 km one way, descending about 370m. It’s a steep rocky mountain trail that requires sure footing but not particularly dangerous.
There’s a restaurant at the bottom of the chair lift. The lake is a short walk from here.
On our last visit, we went fishing at the Eisee. You can buy a fishing license at the nearby restaurant.
5. Riding back down to Brienz
When the kids were little, we had done pretty much everything we could do up at the top after about 90 minutes. We were worried that the descending train would be as full as the one we took up, but happily it wasn’t. We wondered why the conductor didn’t open up all the benches and made everyone fill up the other benches. Then when we reached the middle station in Planalp, many people (perhaps those who had hiked down through the lovely wildflowers below) were waiting there to get on and ride the rest of the way down. So those benches were reserved for them.
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2 responses
Thanks for the tips Fiona! We were lucky it wasn’t so crowded the day we went.
I just wanted to add that we did this trip last Summer, and it was chaos getting tickets and onto the train. We arrived early, and the line was out of the sheltered ticket area and back down the street. One of us had to stand in line for over an hour just to get tickets. I spoke to a staff member about this and he said it is pretty typical, but they don't allow families or individuals to pre book – only groups. He suggested collecting tickets late the day before you want to travel, which isn't very helpful if you are going on a day trip.
Coming back down was even worse. The train we waited to catch was full (booked out mostly by groups) and there is no where to wait sitting down or in the shade. They had added extra trains to the schedule, but we still were told we would have to wait another 40 minutes. Thankfully a lovely group from England heard us talking, and offered to move over so we could cram into their carriage with the kids on our laps. It wasn't ideal, but better than waiting.
I have spoken to several people since and they all had similar experiences, so I think if you do go you should be prepared for long lines and lots of pushing and shoving to get a seat on the train. The trip is amazing and the views spectacular, but I probably wouldn't do it again with young children.