Things to do in Meiringen and the Aare Gorge

Meiringen sits roughly 20 minutes from Interlaken Ost by train, and it's built its identity on two very different draws. The Aare Gorge (Aareschlucht) is a 1,400-metre walkway bolted to limestone walls that close to a few metres apart in places, open seasonally and typically priced around CHF 10 for adults.

Above town, the Reichenbach Falls made the village famous by proxy: a funicular first opened in 1899 carries visitors up to the ledge where Arthur Conan Doyle staged Sherlock Holmes's fictional death, and the Sherlock Holmes Museum in the village centre plays on that link with a reconstructed study.

Meiringen also claims to be the birthplace of meringue, a story the local bakeries lean on rather than prove. The Hasliberg gondola climbs from the valley floor to open pasture and winter pistes above.