For adventure addicts, Interlaken Switzerland is the perfect place to set up base camp. You’ll see hand gliders land in the
town square every afternoon (in good weather). Vendors along the main street have booths offering hang-gliding, scooter bike, mountain biking and climbing excursions. It’s so easy to do get an adrenaline rush in the Alps.
All the cogwheel trains, cable cars and gondolas in the Alps make it easy to access the high country. The Swiss Pass gets you there and offers deep discounts for narrow track trains and gondolas not covered by the pass.
Several weeks I made Interlaken my base and I hiked, climbed, biked, and took a 54-mile-an-hour zip line (in 40 seconds) to descend to a ski station above Grindelwald.
From Grindelwald I took a 6-seater cable car and in 20 minutes I was at the base of over 60 miles of trails and footpaths. I could see the trail markers and paved routes below me as I rode up the ski cable car. There were trails to for every level of adventure.
From the top you can hike or rent a scooter bike and whizz down the well-marked trails through mountain pastures full of wild flowers and grazing cows.
Ride a zip line at 54-miles-per-hour
I chose to step into a safe harness and ride the zip line to whizz down to the valley. I was instructed not to wear a scarf or hat because it would never survive the trip. My sun glasses were plastered to my face, as tears streamed out of my eyes and I screamed with delight, zipping above green meadows at 54 miles per hour. Talk about an adrenaline rush!
Switzerland is an adventure junkie’s paradise
A network of trails covers Switzerland for bikers, canoers, in-line skaters and walkers. And the Swiss are plugged in! Hiking tips and itineraries for over 440 hikes are available on an integrated search engine at www.mySwitzerland.com/hiking. It’s available in 15 languages, just in case you want to read it in Hindi.
For more information: www.MySwitzerland.com For Paragliding. www.paragliding-jungfrau.ch
For Zip Lining and Scooter-Biking www.jungfrau.ch