10 Best Things to Do in Thun: 2026 Prices and Hours

The three things to do in Thun that earn the trip are the castle at CHF 10 (about €11, $12, £9), the two-level old town, which is free, and a boat on the lake, and together they fill half a day rather than a city break. The town sits where the Aare leaves Lake Thun, about 30 km (18.6 mi) south-east of Bern, and a direct train from Bern takes 20 minutes with departures every 30 minutes. Thun serves as the gateway to the Bernese Oberland and as a stop between Bern and Interlaken rather than as a two-night destination in its own right. All ten entries below carry their 2026 price, their closed day and how to reach them from Thun station.

How long Thun actually warrants

Half a day covers Thun’s core, and a full day covers everything with a lake trip attached. The three realistic shapes of a visit are listed below.

1. Three to four hours: the castle and the old town. Walk up from the station, do the museum castle, come back down the Kirchtreppe and eat on the Mühleplatz.
2. A full day: add the Thun-Panorama and a boat. The panorama sits in Schadau Park at the other end of town, and the BLS boats leave from the landing stage beside the station.
3. Two or three nights: use Thun as an Oberland base. Interlaken, Spiez, the Niesen and the Niederhorn are all short rides away, which is the only reason to sleep here rather than pass through.

Thun is small enough that its own attractions do not fill two days. Most visitors do better pairing it with Spiez, Oberhofen or Interlaken, all of which are reachable by the same boat. Room rates in the town are lower than in Interlaken in high summer, and Thun hotel prices are worth comparing on Trip.com against an Interlaken base before you book.

1. Thun Castle

Thun Castle costs CHF 10 (about €11, $12, £9) for an adult and is the one thing in town nobody should skip. Four corner turrets and a high keep stand on the Schlossberg above the roofs, and the museum inside runs over five floors, from the Knights’ Hall down to a collection of more than 17,000 objects covering the town and the Bernese Oberland. A non-profit foundation has run it as a museum since 1888.

Opening hours change five times a year, which catches people out. February and March are 13:00 to 16:00 daily; April to June 10:00 to 17:00 daily; July and August 09:30 to 17:30 daily; September and October 10:00 to 17:00 daily; and from November to January the castle opens on Sundays only, 13:00 to 16:00, plus daily from 25 December to 10 January. Last entry is 30 minutes before closing. Children aged 6 to 16 pay CHF 3 (about €3, $4, £3), a family card for two adults and two children is CHF 20 (about €21, $25, £18), and entry is free with a Swiss Travel Pass, a Swiss Museum Pass or a Raiffeisen Member card.

The walk from Thun station takes about 10 minutes. The step-free route runs through the old town to the City Ost car park, where a lift climbs to the Schlossberg; the quicker option is straight up the Kirchtreppe. How Thun Castle compares with the rest of the country’s castles, including the four others on this lake, is set out in the castles in Switzerland guide.

2. Thun Old Town

Thun old town is free to walk and unusual for one reason: the Obere Hauptgasse has raised pavements built on the roofs of the shops below, so the street runs on two levels. You walk along the upper terrace past front doors and shop entrances while the lower level carries the road and a second row of businesses. The arrangement is rare in Europe and it is the single most distinctive thing about the town centre.

The Obere Hauptgasse leads to the Rathausplatz, the town hall square, and on to the Mühleplatz, which locals call the Mühli and which sits on the bank of the Aare. Bälliz, the pedestrian shopping street on an island in the river, runs parallel and holds the markets. Nothing here costs anything, and the old town is a few minutes on foot from the station. Thun-Thunersee Tourismus runs public guided city tours if you want the history rather than a wander.

3. Lake Thun

Lake Thun covers 48.3 square kilometres (18.6 square miles) and is the largest lake lying entirely within a single Swiss canton. It formed after the last glaciation, when a single body of water called the Wendelsee later split into Lake Thun and Lake Brienz, and it is fed by the Aare from Lake Brienz and by streams off the Oberland, including the Kander. Five castles stand on or above its shores: Thun, Schadau, Hünegg, Oberhofen and Spiez.

Looking at the lake and swimming in it cost nothing, and Thun has public bathing sites along the shore. Paid activities start with the boats, covered below, and extend to paddleboards, kayaks and bike hire in town. On a clear day the view down the lake takes in the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau.

4. Thun-Panorama

The Thun-Panorama is the oldest surviving panorama painting in the world, and entry costs CHF 9 (about €10, $11, £8). Marquard Wocher of Basel painted it in 1814, a circular view 38 m (124.7 ft) around showing the small town of Thun and the Bernese Oberland beyond, packed with everyday scenes from 200 years ago. The painting is a deposit of the Gottfried Keller Foundation and hangs in a purpose-built brick rotunda in Schadau Park, extended in 2014 by the architects Graber and Steiger.

The season runs from 1 March to 29 November 2026, Tuesday to Sunday, 11:00 to 17:00, closed on Mondays. Children and young people up to 16 go free, students and pensioners pay CHF 8 (about €8, $10, £7), and an audio guide in German, English, French or Bernese dialect is included in the ticket. A small bistro in the park serves snacks and ice cream.

Reaching it from Thun station takes 20 minutes on foot along the lake or 5 minutes on bus NFB 1 towards Gwatt to the Scherzligen/Schadau stop. Combined tickets are where the value is: the panorama plus the Kunstmuseum costs CHF 15 (about €16, $18, £14), and the #visitthun card covering the panorama, the Kunstmuseum and Thun Castle costs CHF 22 (about €23, $27, £20) and stays valid for a year.

5. Kunstmuseum Thun

Kunstmuseum Thun shows contemporary art in the former Grand Hotel Thunerhof and charges CHF 10 (about €11, $12, £9) for an adult. The museum runs four to five temporary exhibitions a year rather than a permanent display of its collection, which has one practical consequence: it closes entirely between exhibitions, so check the current show before you walk over. A project room called Enter carries experimental work alongside the main programme.

Opening hours are Tuesday to Sunday 10:00 to 17:00, with Wednesday running until 19:00, and Monday closed. Students, apprentices, pensioners and Bernese Oberland Pass holders pay CHF 8 (about €8, $10, £7), and under-16s, school classes and teachers go free. Entry is free with a Swiss Museum Pass or a Museums-PASS-Musées.

The museum stands on the Aare at Hofstettenstrasse 14, 7 minutes on foot from Thun station or 3 minutes on bus NFB 21 towards Beatenbucht to the Thunerhof stop. Direct trains reach Thun every 30 minutes from Bern in 20 minutes and from Zurich and Basel in about 1 hour 25 minutes.

6. Thun’s festivals

Thun runs three annual events worth planning around, and two of them close streets in the old town. The Ausschiesset, the town’s cadet festival, ran from 20 to 22 September in 2026, and its central figure is the Fulehung, a masked jester who chases the crowd through the alleys with a bladder and a wooden mallet and hands sweets to children. Legend ties the Fulehung to the jester of Charles the Bold, captured by Thun fighters at the battle of Murten in 1476, though the festival’s own historians say no contemporary record confirms it; the jester reappears in the chronicles only in the 18th century, and the devil mask dates from 1864. The original mask belongs to the cadet commission and is kept in Thun Castle.

Thunfest is the town’s summer street festival and ran from 6 to 9 August in 2026, its 50th edition since 1974, drawing more than 30,000 people to five stages in the town centre. Tickets cost CHF 15 (about €16, $18, £14) on the door, or CHF 10 (about €11, $12, £9) in advance.

The Thunerseespiele stage a musical on a floating stage on the lake each summer, with the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau behind it. The 2027 production is Disney’s Aladdin, running from 7 July to 21 August 2027 and sung in German. Booking opens well ahead, and the show is the one Thun event that fills hotels. Other dates across the country are collected in the festivals in Switzerland guide.

7. Lake Thun boat cruise

A BLS boat from Thun to Interlaken turns a half day into the whole lake, and a day card for Lake Thun and Lake Brienz costs CHF 83 (about €88, $102, £76) in second class. The boats leave from the landing stage next to Thun station, call at Hilterfingen, Oberhofen, Spiez and Beatenbucht among others, and end at Interlaken West, which means you can step off at a castle or the St. Beatus Caves and pick up a later sailing.

A Swiss Travel Pass covers the Lake Thun and Lake Brienz boats outright, as do the Berner Oberland Pass, Eurail and Interrail with a dated travel day. With a Swiss Half Fare Card the day card drops to CHF 41.50 (about €44, $51, £38), and a child’s day card is CHF 15 (about €16, $18, £14) for ages 6 to 15. Single point-to-point fares are quoted only through the BLS timetable, so price your exact sailing there rather than assuming a round figure.

Thun is on the direct line from Bern, Basel and Zurich, and rail tickets into the Bernese Oberland are worth pricing on Omio alongside a pass if you are coming from outside Switzerland.

8. Schadau Park and Schloss Schadau

Schadau Park is free, open all year, and holds both the Thun-Panorama rotunda and Schloss Schadau itself. The park runs along the lakeshore at the southern edge of town, with lawns, mature trees and a straight view across the water to the Bernese Alps, and it is the obvious place in Thun for a picnic or an hour with a book.

Schloss Schadau is a 19th-century country house rather than a medieval castle, and it now operates as a hotel and restaurant with afternoon tea served daily by reservation. You can walk the grounds without spending anything; going inside means booking a table or a room. The park also holds the Scherzligen church on the water’s edge.

9. The Bälliz markets

Thun’s markets run on Wednesdays and Saturdays along Bälliz, the pedestrian shopping street on an island in the Aare, and they cost nothing to browse. Stalls sell fruit, vegetables, flowers and regional produce alongside clothes and household goods, and the setting between two arms of the river is the reason to come even if you buy nothing. Saturday is the bigger of the two days.

Bälliz is a few minutes’ walk from Thun station, which puts the market between the platforms and the old town. Regional cheese, bread and cured meat from the stalls make the cheapest lunch in town, and what those things actually are is covered in the guide to traditional Swiss dishes.

10. The Kirchtreppe covered stairway

The Kirchtreppe is a covered wooden stairway that climbs from the old town to the castle and the town church, and it is free to use. Gables roof the whole flight, so the climb works in rain, and it ends at a small pavilion near the Stadtkirche with a view over the roofs to the lake. It is the fastest way up the Schlossberg and the most photographed corner of Thun after the castle itself.

The stairs start off the Rathausplatz in the old town, about 10 minutes from the station. If stairs are a problem, the lift from the City Ost car park reaches the same level without steps, which is the route the castle recommends for step-free access.

Where Thun fits in a Bernese Oberland trip

Thun makes sense as a stop rather than a destination, and it pairs naturally with three places on the same lake. Spiez, 15 minutes away by train, has its own castle and a harbour. Oberhofen, reached by bus 21 or by boat, has the lakeside castle with the free park. Interlaken, at the far end of the lake, is where the Jungfrau railways start.

Bern is the other obvious pairing. A direct train takes 20 minutes, which makes Thun an easy half-day out of the capital, and the reverse also works if you are staying on the lake. What fills a day in the capital is set out in the Bern guide.

Frequently asked questions

Is Thun worth visiting?

Thun is worth half a day to a day, mainly for the castle, the two-level Obere Hauptgasse and the boat. It does not have enough of its own to fill a long stay, so treat it as a stop between Bern and Interlaken or as a quiet, cheaper base for the Bernese Oberland.

How do you get from Thun to Bern?

A direct train from Thun to Bern takes 20 minutes, with departures every 30 minutes. Driving takes about 30 minutes over roughly 30 km (18.6 mi), and the train is the easier option because Bern’s centre is largely traffic-restricted.

Is Thun expensive?

Thun is expensive by European standards and slightly cheaper than Interlaken, in line with Switzerland generally. Museum tickets sit between CHF 9 and CHF 10 (about €10 to €11, $11 to $12, £8 to £9), the boat day card is CHF 83 (about €88, $102, £76), and the town’s parks, markets, old town and lakeshore cost nothing. Broader costs are covered in the facts about Thun and Switzerland.

Can you visit the Swiss army tank collection in Thun?

The collection of historical Swiss army material in Thun is not a walk-in museum and has no regular opening hours. The HAM Foundation that looks after it runs free guided visits by appointment for groups of at least six people, plus bookable visits to the historic tank collection on selected published dates, and a new tank display is being built at its Burgdorf site.

What is there to do in Thun when it rains?

Thun Castle, the Thun-Panorama, the Kunstmuseum and the covered Kirchtreppe all work in rain, and the Obere Hauptgasse’s upper terrace is partly sheltered by the buildings. The panorama in particular suits a wet afternoon, because the whole visit happens inside a rotunda.

WonderfulWanderings Pro Tips

The four tips below come from checking Thun’s own 2026 opening calendars and ticket pages, and each one saves money or a wasted walk.

1. Buy the #visitthun card if you are doing more than one museum. It covers Thun Castle, the Thun-Panorama and the Kunstmuseum for CHF 22 (about €23, $27, £20) against CHF 29 (about €31, $36, £26) bought separately, and it stays valid for a year.
2. Do not turn up on a Monday. The Thun-Panorama and the Kunstmuseum both close on Mondays, which leaves the castle and the old town as the only paid and unpaid options in town.
3. Check the Kunstmuseum’s current exhibition before you walk over. It holds no permanent display and shuts completely between shows, so an open day on the calendar is not a guarantee that there is anything to see.
4. Show your Swiss Travel Pass twice. It covers Thun Castle entry and the BLS boats on Lake Thun and Lake Brienz, which is CHF 93 (about €99, $114, £85) of value in one day if you do both.

About the author. This guide is written and maintained by the Wonderful Wanderings editorial team. Wonderful Wanderings was founded in 2012 by Sofie Couwenbergh, and the team covers Switzerland for independent travellers, from Thun Castle and the Thun-Panorama to the Lake Thun boats and the Bernese Oberland beyond, including the tours, hotels and rail passes worth booking. We check each attraction’s own opening calendar and ticket page and update this guide when prices, seasons and closed days change.