4 Best Sights in Berner Oberland, Switzerland

A series of 10 glacier waterfalls hidden deep inside rock walls make up the spectacular Trümmelbachfälle, which you can access by a tunnel lift. Approach the departure point via a pretty creek-side walkway and brace yourself for some steep stair climbing. Be sure to bring along a light jacket—the spray can seem less than refreshing in the cool Alpine air. Children under age four aren't allowed access to the falls. You can reach Trümmelbachfälle by a five-minute post bus from Lauterbrunnen.

From the edge of Iseltwald, an idyllic forest walk of about 1½ hours brings you to the falls of the Giessbach, which tumble in several stages down rocky cliffs to the lake. They are easy to find, being right next to the 19th-century extravaganza that is the Grandhotel Giessbach. You can also get to the falls via the Brienzersee steamer, which departs from Brienz or Interlaken Ost.

Meiringen's one showstopper is the Reichenbachfälle, where Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional detective Sherlock Holmes and his archenemy, Professor Moriarty, plunged into the "cauldron of swirling water and seething foam in that bottomless abyss above Meiringen." This was the climax of the "last" Holmes story, "The Final Problem" (the uproar over the detective's untimely end was such that the author was forced to resurrect his hero for further fictional adventures). The falls, 2,730 feet up a mountain a little way outside of town, can be visited via a funicular. Buy your funicular ticket online or from the driver (cash only).

Magnificent waterfalls adorn the length of the Lauterbrunnen Valley, the most famous being the 974-foot Staubbachfälle, which are illuminated at night and visible from town. These falls draw you like a magnet through the village of Lauterbrunnen itself, past a bevy of roadside cafés and the town center (marked by a church and the small Valley and Legend Museum). Just opposite the falls is a centuries-old graveyard.