Lake Brienz Three-Waterfalls Trail from Brienz to Iseltwald

Saturday April 26, 2025 -- As we had already walked the entire trail along the north side of Lake Brienz, we decided to do a section of the trail on the south side of the lake this day (something we don't want to do in winter due to the shadow from the massive mountain range on this side of the lake).

Having lived here now for 12 years, I had still never been to the famous Giessbach Falls and the small village of Iseltwald, in the meantime made famous by a Korean TV show called "Crash Landing on You". (Even though the story takes place in North Korea, many scenes were filmed in Switzerland, and one in particular, where the main male character plays a love song on a piano on a wharf in a lake, was filmed here in Iseltwald. Since the series came out in 2019, Koreans have been flocking to this site to take photos of themselves on this wharf, so overwhelming the small village that a turnstile on the wharf has been added, and tourists now have to pay 5 Fr. to go onto the wharf).

All along the south side of the lake is a 19-km themed trail called "Brienzersee Drei Wasserfälleweg" (i.e. "Lake Brienz Three-Waterfall Trail"), of which we did a 12-km section starting on the east side of the lake, passing via the Giessbach and Mülibach Falls (only two of the three waterfalls) and ending in Iseltwald, where we watched the Koreans do their photo-shoots on the wharf. From there we took a 50-minute boat to Interlaken east, and then a 2½-hour train/bus ride home, getting home just before 9 p.m.

On the way to Lake Brienz, we travel by train from Luzern southward to the Brünig Pass. The trip passes Lake Lungern, where we had done a lakeshore hike eight days earlier (photos are HERE). We left home at shortly after 8 a.m. for the 2¼-hour trip to Lake Brienz.  

Up ahead we see past the church in Lungern to the Brünig Pass and the beautiful snow-covered mountains of the Bernese Oberland. 

The regular way to get to Brienz is to continue by train over the Brünig Pass to Meiringen, and then along the valley bottom to Brienz. But where we wanted to start our hike on the east side of Lake Brienz, it was faster to transfer here at the Brünig Pass to a bus which went directly to the lake. 

Beautiful views from the bus ride (only a handful of people on the bus) via Brienzwiler toward the town of Brienz. 

We started at a bus stop on the road to Brienz at the east side of the lake. First stop for Urs is at a bakery!

Heading to the lakeshore, we discovered a graveyard for old cable-cars! It was actually interesting to look at. 

Near the cable-car graveyard was a display of old railway accessories, as well as the set-up for an outdoor model railway, which was also very interesting for Urs. 

At 10:50 we were at the lakeshore on the east side of Lake Brienz (with a view of the town of Brienz on the other side of this bay) to head south on the "Three Waterfalls Trail". 

The lakeshore trail heading south. 

As we head south, this is the fantastic view of the Mountains of the Hasli Valley. 

This was a long hike for us, almost 13 kilometers, but not very strenuous. This is part of Trail no.360: "Three Waterfalls Trail". Starting at shortly before 11 a.m., we got to Iseltwald at 4:15 p.m., and caught a boat to Interlaken (to the southwest) at 5:10 p.m. 

Description of the "Lake Brienz Three-Waterfalls Trail". We passed two of these waterfalls on the 12-kilometer section of this trail which we walked.

A view of the town of Brienz on the other side of the lake. We are having perfect weather for this walk, even though a layer of cloud covers the peaks of the north side of the lake.

Before heading up higher on the hillside, the trail passes next to (and under) the motorway. Here it looks like the passerelle just ends right here, with a drop at the end!

Higher up the hill we passed a farm where the highland cattle were just being let out into the pasture, and they were very happy about it!

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The Angus cows are happy to be out in the pastures now!

Continuing on, we pass trees that are still in blossom, so pretty!

Our trail heads up the hill on this footpath through another cow pasture. 

Perfect weather for this late April walk along Lake Brienz. 

Trail no.360 is the "Three Waterfalls Trail" along the south side of Lake Brienz. 

As we head down to the Giessbach Hotel, we get our first glimpse of the fabulous waterfalls!

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The Giessbach Falls "fall" over 14 ledges, for a total height of 500 meters!

A close-up look at the bridge over the waterfalls, where all the tourists go, and where we are headed to later. 

The Giessbach Hotel, originally built in 1875, was "rescued" from demolition in 1983 and restored by the efforts of a private individual name Franz Weber.

A closer look at the fabulous Giessbach Hotel, and the sunny restaurant terrace. 

A shadow of a flower on the path looks like a spider!

Next to the hotel is a cute little funicular which runs about 100 meters down to lake level, where a boat docks (and where there is a lakeside trail all the way to Iseltwald). The sign informs us that this railway line was built in 1879 and is Europe's oldest mountain cable railway.

We stood next to the funicular station for a while, to watch the next run which was to take place at 1 p.m. 

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The oldest mountain railway in Europe makes its way from the Giessbach Hotel, down to lake level about 100 meters below.

A nice view over the turquoise waters of Lake Brienz from the hotel grounds. A ship is just making its way to the Giessbach Hotel dock. 

At shortly after 1 p.m., we left the hotel to head toward the waterfall. 

The beautiful Giessbach Falls drop 500 meters in 14 levels to the lake below!

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Lower section of the Giessbach Falls

When we got to the bridge, we saw that there was another upper part of the trail, where people were walking on a cliff-walk beneath the waterfall, so we decided to go up there as well. 

Higher up is a large parking lot from where most of the "tourists" access the trail to the waterfalls, but we climbed up from below. (We actually had our picnic lunch near the parking lot earlier). 

A nice feature with the cliff bridge so you can walk under the waterfall

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Watching Urs squeeze past the other tourists to walk under the waterfall!

Fun feature, to walk under the waterfall!

As we continue on the trail heading westward, we look back at the beautiful waterfall and the people walking beneath the waterfall!

A large section of forest trail was a wide road like this, but pleasant to walk on. 

Along the way, we get many views of Lake Brienz, which has that famous turquoise colour! (From the Giessbach boat dock, there is another lakeside trail all the way to Iseltwald, which we had considered taking, but we prefer to walk higher up as you can see much more of the lake that way!). Here I had to put on my gloves as I had really cold hands!

A really neat property we passed by here. 

Like a mini-museum! Cute little display. 

We took a detour to a look-out point from where we could see the Giessbach Hotel high above the lake, and another ship on its way to the dock below the hotel. 

Across the lake to the north is the summit of Mt. Brienzer Rothorn, the prominent mountain in the range along the north side of the lake. There is a railway line all the way up there, a popular steam train to the summit. On this photo you can see the railway line to the station on the crest right in the center of the photo. We have done this trip twice, the most recent one was September 2023 (photos HERE). 

A bit later along the trail we spotted a group of three chamois grazing a little further down the hillside. It is always a treat to catch sight of these wild animals. (Across the lake is another summit called Augstmatthorn, from where we once walked along the crest to the left (those photos are HERE). 

We watched the chamois for a while before continuing on our walk. 

Lots of nice footpaths along the way. 

First view of the village of Iseltwald, where we are going to end our hike. In the background you can see Lake Thun, and the land mass between the two lakes, where Interlaken is located. 

Down below at the end of the promontory is a large castle-like villa. 

A close-up look at the little church in Iseltwald, which we passed later on when we got down to lake level. 

Enjoying the view

A wayside farmers' shop where Urs bought ice cream and some dried sausages. 

From higher on the hill we get the first glimpse of the boat dock down in the village of Iseltwald. (Zoomed view). The large wharf is for the large ship that travels on the lake, and the little wharf on the left is the famouns wharf which features in the Korean TV series called "Crash Landing on You". 

Continuing along the trail, we passed the second of the three waterfalls. This one is called Mülibach Falls. From here it was another 15 minutes to walk down to Iseltwald. 

Reaching the Mülibach Falls. 

The Mülibach Falls drop 160 meters into a small pool here. 

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Mülibach Falls

Crossing the main road above Iseltwald, a sign directs us to the famous "Crash Landing on You" Wharf (as if this was necessary!)

And another zoomed view to the famous little dock shows that the Koreans are already out there doing their photo shoots. In particular, this one is appropriate, because in the TV series scene that was filmed on this dock, the "hero" plays a piano on the dock, and this particular tourist is pretending to play that piano! 

And then we head down the narrow path into the village of Iseltwald. 

Heading to the little church we saw from above. 

Although it might look "old" from the outside, this church was built in 1937-1939 and is fairly new. The full-wood interior is pretty common for Reformed churches in the villages. 

This is quite the impressive villa, at the very far end of the promontory. 

As we were quite early (an hour early) for the 17:08 boat which we wanted to take to Interlaken, we had lots of time to meander through the alleyways and admire the old houses. Especially those with wooden carvings are interesting. 

Up ahead we spot someone on the balcony observing us..... We had a good laugh about this one!

The town hotel "Bären". There was a grocery store on the ground level. 

Looking up on the hillside we can see where we had walked along. At the arrow is probably where we had that view down onto the village. 

We then spent some time observing the tourists doing their photo shoots. They now have to line up at the turnstyle and pay 5 Fr. each to access the wharf. 

Photo shoot on the "Crash Landing on You" wharf. I would not have had the patience to wait, as each of these parties did a 15-minute photo shoot, all kinds of poses, with and without teddy bears (not sure why?), and with all kinds of camera equipment. But at least each party can get their own private shots, instead of sharing the wharf with strangers. 

And now our ship has arrived, and there are many people boarding!

As the ship leaves the Iseltwald dock, we observe continued photo shoots on the wharf. The girl taking photos is the same one that did a photo shoot an hour earlier! Did she pay twice to go on the dock?

The boat leaves Iseltwald and now heads toward Interlaken, a 50-minute boat ride for us. 

From Iseltwald (on the right), the boat heads westward toward Interlaken Ost. This is a view behind us toward the northeast, and we can see the Giessbach Hotel, and ultimately the hillside which as walked along to Iseltwald. 

The boat first heads to the north side of the lake to dock at Ringgenberg, with its beautiful castle which we visited on a hike in July of 2019 (photos are HERE)

From Ringgenberg, the boat then heads to Bönigen at the very southwest end of Lake Brienz, and the other end of the "Three-Waterfalls Trail". 

The boat then turns around and goes backwards under the railway bridge into the canal where the Aare River joins Lake Brienz to Lake Thun through Interlaken. The boat cannot travel on the canal, so it backs up in preparation of leaving forwards back into Lake Brienz. (And on Lake Thun, the boat does the same thing at Interlaken West). Also, right at this moment, a train crossed the railway bridge! 

On that hill is a tower which might be a bell-tower from a church, one we did not visit on previous walks here. 

Many different water birds were swimming around the reeds. 

Another boat parked on the dock at Interlaken Ost. After debarking the boat, it was a short walk to the train station in Interlaken Ost. At 18:04 we took a train back home via Meiringen, Brünig Pass and Luzern, getting home at about 20:45. 

All the hikes we have done around the area of Lake Brienz

And now the train from Interlaken Ost heads back toward Brienz along the north side of the lake, passing the castle at Ringgenberg again. 

Heading by train along the north side of Lake Brienz. The view is to the east of the lake. 

Across the lake we can see the Giessbach hotel, the waterfall, and the dock building on lake level where the funicular runs to/from the hotel. 

Past the end of the lake, the train continues to Meiringen. Lots of nice views of additional waterfalls coming down the mountain to the south. 

Across from Meiringen is the Reichenbach Valley, which leads to Grindelwald via the Grosse Scheidegg Pass. Those peaks are called the Engelhörner, below which we did a fabulous hike in September of 2022 (photos HERE). 

Location of Lake Brienz within Switzerland