From Mürren, down the valley
What it costs, how long you are actually in the air, why it beats flying from Beatenberg, and which day of your trip to book it for.
Most people who fly in this region fly over Interlaken. It is the bigger operation, the easier sell, and the one every hostel desk books. It launches from Beatenberg, above Lake Thun, and lands in a field in town. Flying the Lauterbrunnen valley is a different thing entirely, and if you are staying here it is the one to do.
You launch from Mürren, on the terrace high on the valley’s western wall, and you come down inside the valley. That is the whole difference. You are close to the rock the entire way — cliffs on one side, waterfalls coming off them, the valley floor a long way below — rather than crossing open air above a lake basin.
Beatenberg is a beautiful flight over big scenery. This one is a flight through something. It is the answer we give guests every time they ask, and nobody has ever come back from Beatenberg and told us it was better.
The Wall — CHF 199. Take off at Mürren, fly the cliffs and waterfalls, land on the Lauterbrunnen valley floor. Twelve to twenty minutes in the air, depending on conditions.
Double Airtime — CHF 299. The same launch, but a thermic flight: the pilot uses rising air to stay up and climb. Thirty to forty minutes, so roughly double the flight for about a 50% higher price.
The extra hundred francs buys time, not a different view. If you have never flown, the CHF 199 flight is the experience. If you have flown before, or you know you are going to want it to not be over, pay for the longer one.
This is the part worth reading twice, because it decides which of the two flights is even possible.
Thermals are the whole mechanism of the CHF 299 flight. A thermic flight needs rising air, and rising air needs the sun to have warmed the ground and the slopes. So the long flight wants a warm, settled, sunny day with some heat already in it — not a cold, flat, overcast morning. On a grey day there is nothing to climb in, and a Double Airtime becomes a Wall flight with a longer wait.
The same is true, in a smaller way, of the standard flight. It is quoted as twelve to twenty minutes depending on thermic conditions, and that eight-minute spread is the difference between a still day and a working one. On a good warm afternoon you are at the top of that range for CHF 199.
So if the long flight is what you want, book a warm settled day and let the pilots choose the slot. They fly this valley every day and they know when the air over that wall is working. If you only want the standard flight, you have far more latitude. In winter they launch from a higher take-off at Schilgrat, which is a different flight again.
If you cannot fly because of weather, you do not pay anything, and if the flight cannot be rescheduled inside your stay you get a full refund. So the only thing a cancelled flight costs you is the flight itself, and only if you left yourself no second chance.
This is the same argument as the Schilthorn, and it is the honest practical case for a third night in the valley rather than a second. A day of slack is the difference between flying and going home having not flown.
You will see BASE jumpers. On a summer afternoon on the valley floor, look up at the cliffs on either side and you will watch canopies open against the rock, sometimes several in an hour. Lauterbrunnen is one of the most significant BASE jumping sites in the world, and has been for decades: the walls are the right height, the exits are walkable, and the landing fields are right there in the middle of the village.
It is not something you book. It is something you watch, from a bench, for free, and it is one of the genuine oddities of staying here rather than passing through. The people doing it have spent years getting to the point where they can. If you want to be in the air over this valley yourself, that is what the tandem flight above is for. The two things share a sky and nothing else.
Prices, limits and timings above are the operator’s own published figures at the date below. Confirm when you book.
Common questions
CHF 199 for the standard flight from Mürren over the valley, twelve to twenty minutes in the air. CHF 299 for the Double Airtime thermic flight, thirty to forty minutes. The cable car up to Mürren is extra, around CHF 12 one way.
Twelve to twenty minutes on the CHF 199 flight, depending on conditions, and thirty to forty minutes on the CHF 299 thermic flight.
The Lauterbrunnen flight launches from Mürren and descends inside the valley, close to the cliffs and the waterfalls the whole way. The Interlaken flights launch from Beatenberg over the lake basin. Both are good; the valley flight is the more dramatic of the two, and it is the one to do if you are already staying in Lauterbrunnen.
90 kg as standard, up to 95 kg for a larger build, and up to 100 kg in summer conditions.
Five years old. There is no upper age limit.
You do not pay. If the flight cannot be rescheduled within your stay you get a full refund, which is why it is worth booking for the start of your trip rather than the last morning.
The thermic flight needs rising air, so a warm, settled, sunny day is what you want. On a cold overcast day there is nothing to climb in. Book a day with some heat in it and let the pilots pick the slot.
Lauterbrunnen is one of the world's most significant BASE jumping sites, but it is not a bookable activity and it is not related to tandem paragliding. For visitors it is something you watch from the valley floor on a summer afternoon.
On the valley floor, a short walk from where you come down and from the cable car that takes you up.
