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Aare Gorge, Switzerland

Aare Gorge

The Aareschlucht at Meiringen — 1.4 km inside the mountain, on a boardwalk bolted to the rock

What it actually is

  • The Aare has cut a slot straight through a limestone ridge between Meiringen and Innertkirchen, and somebody hung a walkway down the inside of it. You walk 1.4 km a few meters above the water, through short tunnels, with the rock closing overhead.
  • It is a walk, not a day. The full length one way is about an hour to an hour and a half, and that already assumes you keep stopping — which you will, because the reason to be in there is the light.
  • The narrowest stretch is the one people remember. The walls come within a few meters of each other and the sky becomes a strip a long way up. Every photograph on this page is that part of it.
  • The water is the other half of it. Glacier melt comes through pale green and moving fast, and in June it is loud enough that people stop talking.
The green water between the walls, walkway on the right
The green water between the walls, walkway on the right

Two entrances, and it matters which one you use

  • There is a west entrance on the Meiringen side and an east entrance on the Innertkirchen side, and you can walk it in either direction.
  • They do not open on the same date. In 2026 the west entrance runs from 3 April, the east entrance only from 9 May. Turn up in April expecting to start from Innertkirchen and you will be driving round to the other end.
  • The west entrance is the accessible one. From there, the gorge as far as the main part of it is manageable with a wheelchair or a pushchair — which is unusual for anything of this kind and worth knowing in advance.
  • You do not have to walk back. The Zentralbahn’s Innertkirchen line runs the valley below, so the sane version is to walk the gorge one way and take the train back to where you left the car.
Where the gorge closes overhead
Where the gorge closes overhead

When it is open, and when it is shut

  • Daily from 8:30, closing at 17:30 in spring and autumn and 18:30 in high summer — 13 June to 20 September in 2026.
  • The season ends on 1 November and it is shut all winter. This is the single thing to check before building a day around it. A gorge with a boardwalk in it and meltwater underneath is not a year-round attraction, and plenty of people arrive in March having assumed otherwise.
  • On Friday and Saturday evenings in midsummer — 3 July to 29 August in 2026 — it reopens from 18:30 to 22:00 with the gorge lit from inside. We have not done that version, so take it as information rather than as a recommendation.

Budget tips

  • CHF 13 an adult, CHF 8 for children from 6 to 15, free under 6 — checked against aareschlucht.ch, 8 October 2026. Prices move each season; treat this as the shape of the cost rather than a quotation.
  • The combined ticket with the Reichenbach Falls is CHF 25 an adult, CHF 16 a child. It only saves you anything if you genuinely intend to do both, and both are within a couple of kilometers of Meiringen, so that is an easy afternoon to justify.
  • Parking at the west entrance is free, for cars and for coaches. Do not pay for parking in Meiringen and walk.
  • It is a discount partner on the Bernese Oberland Pass. Check what your particular pass actually gives you before you pay the counter price — passes in this corner of Switzerland vary more than people expect.
On the walkway inside the gorge
On the walkway inside the gorge

The day these five photographs were taken

All five were shot on 9 June 2022 — and so were all seven of our Gelmersee photographs and two of the Lungern ones. One day, three places, in a line up and back down the same valley.

That is worth saying out loud, because the gorge does not fill a day on its own and nothing about it pretends to. What it does is sit in the middle of a valley that is full of things that do:

  • Up the Grimsel from Innertkirchen for Gelmersee and the funicular that gets you there.
  • The gorge itself in the middle of the day, which is also when the light reaches the bottom of it.
  • Over the Brünig on the way out, past Lungern and its lake.

Treat the Aareschlucht as the hour that joins two other things together and it is excellent. Treat it as the destination and you will have driven a long way for a very good walk.

Water falling the full height of the limestone
Water falling the full height of the limestone

Would we send you here at all?

Only if the rest of the week puts you within reach of it. This is a stop, not a destination — it earns its place because of what it sits between, and on a trip routed somewhere else entirely it is a long detour for an hour. Whether it belongs in your week depends on where you sleep the night before and the night after.

Knowing which stops are worth the detour for your route is the part we do.

Aare Gorge in photographs

20 images, every one taken on one of our own trips.

A waterfall coming into the gorge off the rock face — Aare Gorge, Switzerland · June 2022 A waterfall coming into the gorge off the rock face The green water between the walls, walkway on the right — Aare Gorge, Switzerland · June 2022 The green water between the walls, walkway on the right The gorge narrowing overhead — Aare Gorge, Switzerland · June 2022 The gorge narrowing overhead Water falling the full height of the limestone — Aare Gorge, Switzerland · June 2022 Water falling the full height of the limestone The boardwalk bolted along the rock above the river — Aare Gorge, Switzerland · June 2022 The boardwalk bolted along the rock above the river On the walkway inside the gorge — Aare Gorge, Switzerland · June 2024 On the walkway inside the gorge The family on the boardwalk, the Aare below — Aare Gorge, Switzerland · June 2024 The family on the boardwalk, the Aare below The walkway beside the green water — Aare Gorge, Switzerland · June 2022 The walkway beside the green water Where the gorge closes overhead — Aare Gorge, Switzerland · June 2022 Where the gorge closes overhead A fall coming in from the side — Aare Gorge, Switzerland · June 2022 A fall coming in from the side The walkway bolted to the wall — Aare Gorge, Switzerland · June 2024 The walkway bolted to the wall Four of us on the walkway — Aare Gorge, Switzerland · June 2024 Four of us on the walkway
Show the other 8 photographs
In the gorge, the water below — Aare Gorge, Switzerland · June 2024 In the gorge, the water below The ladder up the rock face — Aare Gorge, Switzerland · June 2024 The ladder up the rock face Walking on into the dark — Aare Gorge, Switzerland · June 2024 Walking on into the dark In the narrowest part — Aare Gorge, Switzerland · June 2024 In the narrowest part The walkway into the lit tunnel — Aare Gorge, Switzerland · June 2024 The walkway into the lit tunnel A rainbow on the water — Aare Gorge, Switzerland · June 2024 A rainbow on the water A coat of arms cut into the rock — Aare Gorge, Switzerland · June 2024 A coat of arms cut into the rock The sign at the wartime cavern — Aare Gorge, Switzerland · June 2024 The sign at the wartime cavern

This is one stop. The route is the harder part.

Notice what the guide above never tells you. It does not name a hotel, or say where to stay at all — it assumes you already have a bed. It gives you no way into Aare Gorge from wherever you woke up, no view on whether it belongs on the second day of your trip or the ninth, and nothing about the week it rains.

Those answers change with your budget, your dates and who is traveling with you. Working them out, and booking them, is the job.

Tell us about your trip

The day above is free and yours to use. What it cannot do is decide where this fits in a two-week trip, which hotel works with your arrival time and your walking pace, what needs reserving months ahead, or what happens on the day it rains. That is the part you would be hiring me for, and planning starts at $750.

Or read the questions we are asked most — what a trip includes, how far ahead to book, deposits and cancellation.