Interlaken shopping guide: watches, tax refunds and real prices

What the shop windows on the Höheweg are actually selling

Walk the length of the Höheweg between Interlaken West and Interlaken Ost and you will pass more watch and jewellery shopfronts per hundred metres than almost anywhere else in Switzerland. Bucherer, Gübelin and Kirchhofer all have branches here, and Kirchhofer in particular has genuine local roots: the firm was founded in Interlaken in 1918, long before the coach parties arrived. That history does not make the prices local. A steel Rolex Submariner or an Omega Speedmaster costs the same official Swiss retail price here as in Zurich or Geneva, sometimes with a small tourist-shop premium built into the “special offer” pricing on display models.

None of this is a scam. Swiss watch retailers do not haggle much, and the prices you see are close to the manufacturer’s suggested price, which is set globally and does not move much between a mountain resort and a capital city. What changes is who is buying: browsers on a two-hour stopover between the train station and a boat, most of whom will never come back to compare. That is a market built for a single transaction, and the shops price accordingly, loading extra margin into accessories, straps, and the mid-range Swiss-made pieces that tourists buy as a once-in-a-lifetime souvenir rather than a considered purchase.

If you are watch shopping seriously, treat the Höheweg as a place to look and try things on, not necessarily to buy. Prices are close enough to fixed nationally that shopping around within Switzerland saves little, but the VAT refund available to non-residents (covered below) is worth more than any discount you are likely to negotiate in person.

The other Höheweg: chocolate, knives and cowbells

Below the watch tier sits a denser layer of souvenir shops selling Swiss Army knives, cowbells, cuckoo clocks, embroidered edelweiss textiles and chocolate in tins stamped with alpine scenes. Some of this is genuinely Swiss-made. Victorinox and Wenger knives are manufactured in Switzerland and sold at consistent, regulated prices wherever you buy them, so a Höheweg price is not inflated compared with a hardware shop in Bern.

A meaningful share of the rest is not what it looks like. Cuckoo clocks are a Black Forest tradition from southern Germany, not a Swiss one, whatever the shop display implies. Cowbells sold as souvenirs are frequently smaller, thinner-walled versions made for the tourist trade rather than the heavier bells actually used on cattle in the Jungfrau region. Chocolate bars in tins cost two or three times what the same or a comparable bar costs at a Migros or Coop supermarket a few streets away.

None of it is illegal or even unusual for a resort town, but check country-of-origin labels before paying resort prices for something with no Swiss content at all. For chocolate specifically, a proper tasting or factory visit is better value than a tin bought on impulse; see the separate guide on Swiss chocolate experiences near Interlaken.

Where Interlaken actually does its shopping

Step off the Höheweg into Unterseen and Matten and the retail landscape changes within a few minutes’ walk. This is where residents of the Bodeli agglomeration - the roughly 15,000 people who live around Interlaken, Unterseen and Matten - buy groceries, hardware, clothing and school supplies. Migros and Coop, Switzerland’s two dominant supermarket chains, both have branches near the town centre with prices identical to any branch in Bern or Zurich: no resort surcharge, because these are everyday shops serving everyday customers, not tourist retailers.

Manor, the Swiss department store chain, and various independent bakeries, butchers and pharmacies fill out the rest of the local high street. A loaf of bread, a coffee to go, or a chemist’s basics cost what they cost anywhere in the canton of Bern. This is also where the weekly market operates, selling produce, cheese and flowers at prices aimed at residents doing their weekly shop rather than visitors filling a suitcase. For a broader sense of market days and local produce across the region, see markets of the Bernese Oberland.

The practical rule: anything you can also buy in a supermarket - chocolate bars, cheese, basic toiletries, snacks for a mountain excursion - costs less at Migros or Coop than at a Höheweg souvenir shop selling the same brand in fancier packaging. Stock up here before a day trip rather than at a kiosk near the station.

Swiss retail hours, and why they catch visitors out

Switzerland’s shop opening hours are shorter and more rigid than in many countries, and cantonal law in Bern (which governs Interlaken) restricts Sunday trading tightly. Expect the following as a working guide, though individual shops vary by a half hour or so:

Day	Höheweg tourist shops	Migros / Coop	Unterseen / Matten local shops
Monday-Friday	~9am-6.30pm	~8am-8pm	~8.30am-6.30pm
Saturday	~9am-5pm	~8am-6pm	~8am-4pm
Sunday	Some open, shorter hours	Closed (except station branches)	Closed
Public holidays	Mostly closed	Closed	Closed

Station shops are the exception to Sunday closing. Swiss law allows shops physically inside or directly adjoining a major railway station to trade seven days a week, which is why the small supermarkets and bakeries at Interlaken Ost and Interlaken West stay open on Sundays and public holidays when almost everything else in town is shut. If you arrive on a Sunday evening and need basics, head to the station rather than the Höheweg.

This also matters for planning a day trip that starts early: if you need supplies before a 7am train, the station kiosk is your only realistic option, since neither Migros nor the Höheweg souvenir shops will be open yet.

Tax-free shopping: how the VAT refund actually works

Switzerland is not in the EU, so the VAT refund scheme here is separate from the one that applies once you cross into France, Germany, Italy or Austria. The mechanics:

• Rate: Swiss VAT is 8.1% (the standard rate as of the current schedule), included in the shelf price you see.
• Minimum spend: CHF 300 in a single shop, on a single day, on a single receipt. Combining receipts from different shops does not qualify.
• Who qualifies: Non-residents of Switzerland and Liechtenstein, provided the goods are for personal use and leave the country unused, in their original packaging.
• Time limit: The goods must leave Switzerland within 30 days of purchase.
• The form: Ask the shop for a tax-free form (Global Blue and Planet are the two schemes most widely used in Switzerland) at the time of purchase. You need your passport.
• The stamp: Because Switzerland sits outside the EU customs and VAT area but inside Schengen, the form must be stamped by Swiss customs before you leave Switzerland - not at your final Schengen exit point. In practice that means at Zurich or Geneva airport before you fly, or at the Swiss land border if you are driving or taking a train onward to Germany, France, Italy or Austria.
• Getting the money: Refunds are paid by card, bank transfer, or occasionally cash at an airport refund counter, minus a handling fee that the scheme deducts.

The practical effect for a Höheweg watch or jewellery purchase over CHF 300 is a refund of roughly 7% of the price once the handling fee is deducted, which is worth claiming and worth remembering to sort out before boarding a flight home. It is not worth the paperwork for a CHF 40 souvenir. For broader context on what a trip actually costs once accommodation, food and transport are added in, see Interlaken travel costs and Interlaken on a budget.

Regional shopping beyond Interlaken

Some of the more distinctive shopping in the region is not in Interlaken at all. Gruyères, a half-day trip away, combines a cheese dairy and a chocolate producer within walking distance of each other in a genuinely old medieval town, covered in more detail in Gruyères cheese and chocolate day.

Bern’s old town has arcaded shopping streets - the Lauben - that are worth an afternoon if you want a change from resort retail, described in the Bern old town walking guide. Lucerne, reachable in under two hours by the scenic Brünig line, has its own watch and souvenir trade aimed at a similar market to Interlaken’s, covered in the Lucerne day trip from Interlaken guide.

Combining a shopping stop with an outdoor day is also a reasonable way to see more of the region without a dedicated car. An guided e-bike tour out to Iseltwald and the Giessbach falls passes through Bönigen and the lakeside villages where prices at the local bakeries and shops are set for residents, not for the Höheweg trade. A similar e-bike route around Interlaken’s lakes and ruins works the same way, with stops in villages rather than the tourist strip.

If a Gstaad or Saanenland trip is on your itinerary, that valley has its own reputation for expensive boutique shopping, arguably pricier than Interlaken’s; the Glacier 3000 cable car roundtrip gets you there and back from the Gstaad side in a single day if you want to compare the two resort towns directly.

Food shopping and where to eat cheaply after you’ve bought it

Buying picnic food from Migros or Coop rather than eating every meal out is the single biggest saving available on a Bernese Oberland trip, and it doubles as a way to try Swiss products - cheese, bread, cured meat - at the price locals pay. The eating cheap in Interlaken guide covers this in more depth, including which bakeries sell day-old bread at a discount in the late afternoon.

For a sit-down alternative that folds shopping-adjacent culture into an outdoor afternoon, a guided winter walk finishing with raclette and tea gives a more honest sense of regional food culture than a chocolate tin bought on the Höheweg, and the market for good raclette cheese is the same one supplying the cheese counters at Coop and the weekly market.

What’s actually worth buying, and what to skip

Worth it: Victorinox or Wenger knives (genuinely Swiss-made, fixed pricing nationwide), cheese and chocolate bought at a producer or a supermarket rather than a souvenir tin, a watch if you were going to buy one anyway and can claim the VAT refund, and anything from the weekly market in Unterseen.

Skip or think twice: cuckoo clocks (not a Swiss product), printed T-shirts and mugs, cowbells sold as tourist souvenirs rather than working equipment, and any “sale” pricing on watches that isn’t meaningfully below the standard Swiss retail price. For a longer list of overpriced experiences and products across the region, not limited to shopping, see tourist traps and overpriced things.

Before you commit to a big-ticket purchase, it’s worth reading Swiss souvenirs worth buying for a category-by-category breakdown, and checking the travel tips hub and the currency tool if you need to convert prices before deciding what CHF 300 actually means in your own currency.

Frequently asked questions about shopping in Interlaken

What are the opening hours for shops in Interlaken?

Most shops on the Höheweg and in Unterseen and Matten open Monday to Friday roughly 9am to 6.30pm and Saturday 9am to 4 or 5pm. Migros and Coop supermarkets usually run a little later, often to 8 or 9pm on weekdays. Shops close on public holidays and most of Sunday.

Can tourists get a VAT refund on purchases in Switzerland?

Yes. Switzerland’s VAT is 8.1%. Spend at least CHF 300 in one shop on one day, ask for a tax-free form (usually Global Blue or Planet), keep the goods unused and sealed, and get the form stamped by Swiss customs before the goods leave the country, within 30 days of purchase.

Is it worth buying a Swiss watch in Interlaken?

Prices at Höheweg watch retailers match official Swiss list prices; you are not being overcharged, but you are also not getting a bargain. The VAT refund brings the net price roughly in line with what a resident pays before tax, which is often close to or below prices at home once duty is factored in.

Where can I buy food and everyday items at local prices?

Migros and Coop supermarkets, both with branches near Interlaken Ost and Interlaken West, sell food, drink and basic supplies at the same prices Swiss residents pay. The weekly market and the bakeries and butchers in Unterseen and Matten are also priced for locals, not tour groups.

Are shops open on Sundays in Interlaken?

Almost everything closes. The exceptions are shops inside or immediately next to Interlaken Ost and Interlaken West stations, which are allowed to trade on Sundays under Swiss retail law, plus a handful of souvenir shops on the Höheweg that open shorter tourist hours.

What should I avoid buying on the Höheweg?

Mass-produced cowbells, cuckoo clocks (a Black Forest, not Swiss, tradition) and printed T-shirts are marked up heavily and rarely made in Switzerland. Check country-of-origin labels on knives and chocolate, since a meaningful share of Höheweg souvenir stock is imported and repackaged.