3-4 days in the Bernese Oberland, Switzerland

I'm going to be travelling around Europe for about 5 weeks with a friend and we're spending 6 days in Switzerland. Arriving in Zurich from Vienna in the morning (August 2nd) and leaving for Lucerne in the afternoon. We might stay the night in Lucerne or just go straight on to Interlaken. We'd be going to Bern from Interlaken on the 6th before leaving for Venice on the 7th. So we have 3 to 4 days to spend in the area Interlaken area. Would just like to have some help planning a rough itinerary and try to keep transport costs as cheap as possible. We'd have a 10 day Eurail flexipass and probably end up using a day or two of that in Interlaken.

Should we stay in a hostel in Interlaken and make day trips to places or Grindelwald or Lauterbrunnen etc? We'll probably want to go paragliding in Interlaken and go hiking a bit.. see Grindelwald, Lauterbrunnen, Gimmelwald and up to the Schilthorn. The Jungfraubahn is a bit too much for our budget. What else should we see or do there and roughly how much should we expect to pay for transport (with a Eurail pass)?

good choice
i was there June 07 for a week

Bern is definately only an overnight stop I stayed at the backpackers near the clock tower 'bern backpackers' i think
it was clean and adequate, i got to see the flags, bears, einsteins house and such like

lucerne i was meant to stop off at but i felt it would be similiar to zurich. although my workmate went a few weeks back and loved it.

interlaken.. now your talking the queenstown(NZ) of Europe

yes its expensive but well worth it.
If you have a look at

http://www.jungfraubahn.ch
www.balmers.ch hostel the oldest hostel in europe ?
www.grindelwald.com

http://www.interlaken.ch/index.php?id=235&L=0
has a great map of the area

also youtube or google 'interlaken'

I recommend the canyoning river jumping fun


sample train fares (full adult fair)
Basel-Bern 39.8CHF
Bern-interlaken 25CHF
grindelwald wilderswil 8.6CHF


My one regret not stopping up in gimmelwald or graindelwald at the mountain hostel with full on jacuzzi and mountain views

oh and not using suncream on a 6 hour walk, got lobstered