Yes, I had the best hang gliding experience possible in Interlaken, Switzerland. It's actually the main reason I even went to Switzerland and Interlaken specifically. This location has the best hang gliding views over the Alps and alpine lakes.
I watched a Discovery show when I was a kid about hang gliding. I was instantly hooked on the idea that this unique sport could give me the experience of having wings and flying.
I took a risk going during shoulder season when the weather is still mostly cold and less predictable than the summer months. With a little flexibility and luck, I managed to catch the first thermal of the year with the most experienced pilot around.
How Much Does Hang Gliding Cost In Interlaken?
In my research, I found only two companies with licensed pilots for hang gliding in Interlaken: Hang Gliding Interlaken and Bumblebee. They both advertised the same cost. I went with the former.
For the flight plus a basic video and photos package, the total cost was 343 CHF (about $400 USD at the time) plus tip.
Hang Gliding Interlaken was my choice for a few reasons:
They've been operating for the longest in Switzerland at over 22 years.
They exclusively offer hang gliding and no other adventure type flight.
Business owner and pilot, Birdman Bernie, used to take his daughters tandem flying when they were little kids. Now that is safety and trust!
I called the company shortly after arriving in Interlaken. I'd been watching the weather all week, hoping either Friday or Saturday would be the nicest days to go. But I wanted to get the advice directly from the experts.
"Hi, I'm Rikka. I've just arrived in Interlaken and I'm interested in hang gliding either tomorrow or Saturday. Hopefully with Bernie?"
A thick Australian accent responded, "Hi Rikka. Why do you want to go with Bernie?"
"I heard he's the best! Am I talking to Bernie?"
"Yes, this is Bernie! We have one person going out tomorrow afternoon but the best conditions look like 12pm. I could see if she can go at noon with you instead. Could you do noon?"
"Does tomorrow look better than Saturday?"
"We could wait until Saturday but the conditions look great for tomorrow."
"Okay, I can do Noon!"
I was so happy to catch Bernie on the phone. Australian-born, Bernie's dad is Swiss so he moved to Switzerland over 20 years earlier to run the business. He's an adventurous Aussie but with Swiss roots and flight experience. Perfect!
Shoulder season is the best for booking last minute. Most people visit Interlaken in mid-June to late August. I was visiting in early May when most tracks were still closed and the weather tends to be rainier, colder, and snowier especially at altitude.
I was also lucky arriving on a weekday to book on a weekday so I wasn't even competing as much with local or regional weekend tourists.
I knew I could wait to book for optimal conditions. And it all worked out better than I could've imagined!
What Is The Difference Between Hang Gliding and Para Gliding?
People often mix these two up. Chances are if you've done one of them, you've done para gliding because it is way more common, takes less skill, and is more popular around the world.
Para gliding involves sitting upright in a harness below a non-rigid, lightweight, fabric wing. Air currents help you stay afloat after launching from a hill or mountain. The fabric catches the air and inflates after running down a hill or slope. You can glide far distances and climb to higher altitudes. Lines attached between the harness and wings help turn and change the speed of the glider.
Note: Para sailing is the same basic construction except you’re essentially a kite attached to the back of a boat!
Para gliding takes skill, but not quite as much skill as hang gliding. This makes it an especially attractive sport to those who want to learn quickly and begin piloting their own glider.
Hang gliding, on the other hand, is special. Hang gliding involves an unpowered, structured, fixed-wing aircraft. The hang glider, made of aluminum alloys or composites and a synthetic sailcloth, is controlled by shifting body weight along the control frame which is fixed below the wings. A set of wheels helps with landing, just like a real aircraft. You literally “hang” in the middle from the frame like a caterpillar in a cacoon.
Hang gliders have to run down a slope to catch an air current to get airborne. They then rely on thermals, columns of hot air, to get flying at higher altitudes. They can go for great distances and flights can last for hours. Experienced pilots can also flip and spin and do all sorts of acrobatics just like a bird in the air. In contrast, para gliding is just a sit-and-soar experience.
It takes longer to set up and break down the glider but once you do the flight is a more authentic-to-flying experience. With hang gliding, you're positioned flat like a bird or superman. The flight is faster, more dynamic, and feels like you'd imagine flying to feel in your dreams. I'll describe this sensation more when I give the play-by-play on my experience below.
What Was The Hang Gliding Set Up And Launch Like?
After I was picked up by the company van at my accommodation, we picked up the other woman who was also hang gliding that day. Driving the van was her pilot. We met Bernie, my pilot, at the landing site at Deltaclub.
The landing site had tons of para gliders—no surprise there! We were the only hang gliders. We picked up a couple extra hands and drove 15 minutes up and up the mountains side toward Beatenberg.
Their team set up the hang gliders on the road before taking the van back down. I was given a pack to carry and our pilots wheeled the gliders the rest of the way to the Amisbühl hang glide launch location.
The pack had our gear: two fly suits and helmets. It also held a parachute and parts of the hang glider—namely the fiberglass poles that needed to be inserted into it all along the length of the wingspan. I helped do this, instructed to take care not to break the delicate poles and to line them up correctly.
We set up the glider and then Bernie rolled the camera for some fun. Watch below to hear him reminding me of the safety rules for the day.
After gearing up, Bernie had me practice my launch run. He would say, "3-2-1-GO!" and I'd have to start running top speed at the "GO!" No hesitation. Just high knees immediately. It's a good thing short distances are no problem for me!
Once he seemed satisfied with my run, we did a pre-launch photo shoot.
During the shoot, Bernie called back to the other woman and pilot who were setting up their glider still.
"Hey, look at that! You see that thermal there?" He pointed just over the hill down below us.
I asked him about this. In May, the weather is usually still a bit too cool to catch a thermal. He confirmed that it was rare to see thermals at this time but if we were lucky this one might stick around.
I was hopeful but realistic about my expectations. I read online that I could expect a flight time of 20 minutes maximum. They say this because if you don't catch a thermal that's about the time it'll take to soar around a bit and then land.
The weather was already perfect. A clear, sunny day with minimal clouds in the sky. The views alone would be stunning. I was ready to embrace a maybe-20-minute flight time of epic 360-degree views. Maybe we'd even do a flip or two on the way back to the landing site.
Bernie asked me what my favorite band was. I said the Smashing Pumpkins. That would be our music for the flight.
He maneuvered the wings to the top of the hill and began setting himself up under the wings. Bernie told me to stand just to the left and behind him and then attached me to the frame with a few different heavy-duty carabiners. Bernie told me to hold onto a long, loose strap in the crook of my elbow. I'd have to release this in flight, get my feet hooked into it and then stand on it. He showed me wear to hold onto him for the launch—a handle on his upper right shoulder and at his left waist.
Looking down the hill, there were several wind socks and flags showing the light breeze coming up from below. He asked, "Are ya ready?" and picked up the wings, a camera floating and swinging on a pole extended out in front of us. After a minute or so, he put the wings back down. "Not yet."
Bernie repeated this several times. False starts, where the wind looked good at first but then died off. We repeated this at least a dozen times. He'd ask if I was ready, lift the wings up, hold, look at all the flags, sigh heavily, and put the wings back down. I have about 8 minutes of video alone encompassing the numerous false starts.
Watch the video below to see one of these false starts in action!
He explained that he was waiting for the wind to be perfectly straight on. "We want to run straight down the hill. Not on an angle."
Honestly? I could've waited all day. This was the master at work. I trusted he would pick the best moment—not just for my safety but for the best ride possible. I trusted him fully.
Finally, he lifted the wings and everything was just right. "3-2-1-Go!—RUN RUN RUN!" We were off down the hill.
I got maybe 4 or 5 jogs in before my legs were jogging on air. I could feel the wings catch the air behind me immediately giving a sense of security. Then we hit a big air current, we lifted and I felt the sensation I'd been waiting to feel since I was single-digits: a weightless upward soaring sensation.
What Hang Gliding Is Really Like
I gasped in awe. I was flying like in my dreams.
Snapping me out of my initial trance, Bernie told me to drop the strap from my elbow and stand on it. Easier said than done! The strap was short and I felt suddenly tall for 5-feet and 4-inches.
I struggled to get my feet hooked but he encouraged me to take my time. After about 20 seconds, I got one foot hooked and then I was all set. Now I felt super secure, like I was one with the wings behind me.
It was back to soaring.
By now we were making big arching circles to the right. I could see our shadow flutter across the green forest and fields below us—just like a bird. We were flying around and around, upward like you see birds circle in the sky into the clouds above.
I heard Bernie's variometer beeping and alerting us about the rate of our climb. "We're going up like crazy!" Bernie kept repeating. We had caught a thermal—the first of the year!
"We're up here with the birds!" Bernie said as various small and large bird species were catching the same thermal upward alongside us and above us.
Each time we circled around, I could look out across the Swiss Alps, seeing the full 360-degree views of the area including both lakes and the Harder Kulm lookout point where I was the night before. Eventually we were way higher than that point.
"It's almost like I don't even have to go on any hikes now. I'm seeing the best views I can get!" I said to Bernie and he confirmed.
I wore the right clothing for this. I had on long pants, a tank top, a short sleeve shirt and a thick collared sweatshirt. I also had thick socks and hiking boots and my own sunglasses which were tightly fitted beneath the helmet. Bernie, in a t-shirt, mentioned he was getting cold. He hadn’t expected to catch a thermal and gain such elevation today. The sun was bright but the air at these higher altitudes was chilly!
I started crying tears of joy pretty early on into the flight. I was feeling so grateful:
Grateful to this life I get to live.
Grateful for all the privileges I have that afforded me this experience.
Grateful for the good choices and luck I had that led to these perfect conditions.
Grateful to Bernie for his expert skills.
Grateful for our planet and all its beauty.
Grateful to the inventors of hang gliding.
Grateful for the birds who inspire us.
And grateful for things I was unable to name or describe.
Bernie told me to keep looking right as we turned right. He said this to keep me from feeling too nauseous but I felt fine so far.
"We're almost reaching the clouds, Rikka!" Bernie said as some para gliders joined us. To avoid them, he had to switch directions and start circling to the left to get in sync with their directional flow. As soon as he made this switch, I could feel my stomach churn for the first time.
We'd been circling for over 25 minutes. Yes, the flight was now well over the maximum time anticipated. We'd made hundreds of turns, gaining more and more altitude. But it wasn't until we switched directions that I felt any sort of sickness.
Regardless, I continued to take in the beauty of the views, enjoy the upward pull of the air beneath our wings, and reflect on how lucky I was to experience this.
"Alright! We've elevated to about 1900 meters [from 1200!]. We're going to go out toward the lake now and then eventually make our way down." Bernie straightened our course toward sparkling Lake Thun.
As soon as he righted, I felt the overwhelming sensation that I needed to hurl.
"I'm gonna upchuck."
"Okay! look left and let it allllll out!"
And so, I upchucked. I upchucked all across the forest and streets and homes below. My crappy cereal-based breakfast from my hostel mixed with orange juice and tea went billowing out of my gaping mouth, streaming across the skies, and cascading down on the landscape over 6000 feet down. I made sure to do exactly as he said and get it ALL out.
I felt immediately better.
I asked Bernie how often that happened. He said that with the amount of turns we were doing he'd be surprised if I didn't puke as a first timer. He was surprised I hadn't sooner! I don't know if he was trying to be nice, but I took that as a compliment anyway.
He pulled the pole in front of him inward to ask me how I was feeling for the video. "Feeling great! Better now!" He tried to save face for me and joked that I didn't get sick like others would. I told him after that he really didn't have to pretend for the camera. I didn't mind people knowing I puked.
I couldn't possibly feel embarrassed. I was laughing at myself. I was laughing at how much fun I was having and how much I didn't care that I got nauseous.
I was laughing at the thought of chunks of my breakfast slamming into some local's wind shield below, like, "Is that... bird shit?" Why yes. Yes, I am a bird and that is my shit.
What is a true bird-like experience if not aiming some bodily fluids onto unsuspecting passersby below?
What Acrobatics And Landing Are Like When Hang Gliding
Anyway, we were now gliding steadily and calmly toward the glistening, bright blue lake. The air was quieter moving in a straight line and my body felt more relaxed without the turns pulling us this way and that.
Bernie asked me if I wanted to hear any other music. I told him to play his favorite so he switched it over to his favorite Australian pop rock band, Lime Cordiale.
He described this as the kind of flight he would love to have every week. It was a top flight experience for him, too, and that made me even more excited. To know I was getting a five star flight on my first attempt? Golden!
After a few more brief conversations with the camera, he asked if I was ready for some tricks. "YES!" I consented. He shot the camera back out onto its pole and positioned the frame accordingly.
Then we dropped into a slight freefall and swung upward. You know that pit you get in your stomach when a plane loses a little altitude? Or when you go over a big bump in a road while driving fast? That's the feeling but smoother somehow. I said, "Whoa-oh!" The "whoa" was the pit-feeling and the "oh!" was the smooth, swooping motion we made into the flip.
Bernie did a few other funky twists and tricks. On one of them, he even uncontrollably let out a "Woo!" He said to me later that "it's a good flight if you even get a 'woo!' out of me!"
After a last trick, we descended downward toward the big green field we met in earlier. As we approached, he told me to stretch out my arm like superman.
He lined us up and we got closer and closer to the grass field below until we hit ground. It was expertly done—wheels down—but the grass definitely didn't feel like a smooth runway! As soon as we stopped, I was not glad to be back on the ground. I'd had such a good time.
I was overwhelmed with feelings. But we eventually got up and began bringing the glider closer to the road to pack it up. I began to take off the suit and stumble my way toward the rest room.
Being back on solid ground meant my stomach was unhappy again. I went straight into a stall and upchucked the remaining fluids left in my stomach.
As I emerged, the other pilot handed me a sprite. Perfection. He and the other woman did not have as successful of a flight. They took off maybe 10 minutes after us and never caught the thermal. Instead, they soared around for a little while and then eventually landed well before we did.
The pilot you go with REALLY matters!
Our flight time was somewhere near 45 minutes! I really got a bang for my buck with this one, at over twice the expected length.
Watch my edited flight experience below from launch to landing!
In Conclusion
I was still feeling a bit nauseous but my stomach was starting to settle after sipping my Sprite for a few minutes. We went back over to the hang glider and took a few more photos. I paid Bernie a nice tip and then we were taken back into town by van.
Before departing with the other woman hang glider, she gave me a few nausea pills. She happened to be a nurse! I felt much better within an hour.
I suddenly had a ton of energy! I was experiencing a high from the thrill of what I just did. Again, I was feeling so lucky and grateful for such a top notch flight.
After a few phone calls back at the hostel to gush about my experience, I was ready to squeeze in a hike before sundown and some rain was expected to come.
Hang gliding was such a beautiful and thrilling way to see the best views Interlaken has to offer. I'd recommend doing your research, waiting for the right conditions, and going with the best pilot you can to maximize your potential for the best flight possible.
The sensation of flying while hang gliding is second to none. I'm so glad I checked off this major bucket list item in Interlaken and with Birdman Bernie. I will truly never forget it.
I built up some vacation time at my new job in New Jersey—enough to take a week long trip to Bonaire in the Caribbean.
I took a direct flight there from Newark on a Saturday in June and returned the following Saturday. Staying in a room at a local’s home, I kept costs low and focused my energy and dollars on exploring the entire island and capitalizing on it being a major destination for SCUBA diving and other marine activities.
From experiencing my first self-guided shore dive to climbing Bonaire’s tallest peak, I share in this post the best parts of my trip.