Jungfraujoch Tours
Jungfraujoch Tours › The Jungfraujoch, Level by Level: What Is Up ThereUpdated 2026-09-26

The Jungfraujoch, Level by Level: What Is Up There

Hours, prices and access verified by the Jungfraujoch Tours team — last checked 2026-09-26.

A tunnel carved into glacier ice, lit blue, with a handrail along its wall

The short answer. The Jungfraujoch is a station cut into the rock at 3,454 metres, with a signed circuit that links everything: Alpine Sensation, the Sphinx lift and terrace at 3,571 metres, the Ice Palace, and the Plateau outside. Each takes about 15 minutes. With lunch and a look at the snow, allow two to three hours.

Nobody arriving at the Jungfraujoch sees it all at once. The train stops inside the mountain, and the summit unfolds as a string of tunnels, halls, lifts and terraces, most of them indoors. Knowing the order saves you time and saves you missing the part you came for. If you want someone to walk you round, Jungfraujoch guided tours take you through the whole circuit. If you are going alone, this is the map.

Part of the summitHeightTime to allowIndoors or out
The station platform3,454 mA few minutesInside the rock
Alpine Sensation3,454 mAbout 15 minutesIndoors
The Sphinx terrace3,571 mAbout 15 minutesOutdoors, by lift
The Ice Palace3,454 mAbout 15 minutesInside the glacier
The Plateau3,454 mAbout 15 minutesOutdoors, on snow
The panorama cinema3,454 m5 minutesIndoors
Snow Fun Park3,454 mAbout 45 minutesOutdoors, summer only

The platform inside the rock

The Jungfrau Railway ends in a tunnel. You step off at 3,454 metres, Europe's highest railway station, and walk up into the Top of Europe building, where the circuit begins. Jungfrau Railways runs a digital audio guide, the Discovery Tour, that you can play on your own smartphone as you go.

Alpine Sensation: the railway's own story

Alpine Sensation is a lit corridor that tells the history of the railway, from the first plans to the day the tunnel broke through. Along the way, 30 memorial tablets remember the workers who died building it. The walk ends at a giant snow globe, made for a photo. Allow about 15 minutes; with a guide it is where the history gets told.

The Sphinx terrace, 3,571 metres

A lift climbs 108 metres in 25 seconds to the Sphinx, the observatory on its rock spur above the station. It is an international research station, and its terrace is the highest point you can reach. Look south and the Aletsch Glacier, the longest in the Alps, runs away between four-thousand-metre peaks: 22 kilometres long, 900 metres thick and 12 billion tonnes of ice.

Useful tip. Go up to the Sphinx first if the sky is clear when you arrive. Cloud can close in within the hour, and the terrace is the view you cannot get anywhere else. The indoor halls look the same in any weather.

The Ice Palace

Mountain guides cut the Ice Palace into the Jungfraufirn glacier in the 1930s, with picks and saws. Today artists carve the sculptures in its niches: an eagle, a penguin, a bear. The floor is ice as well, so walk slowly. It takes about 15 minutes.

The Plateau: snow underfoot

The Plateau is the open snow terrace outside the station, with snow and ice guaranteed 365 days a year. On one side you look north across the Swiss plateau as far as the Black Forest and the Vosges on a clear day; on the other, the glacier and the high peaks. It is the one place on the circuit where you stand on the snow itself.

The panorama cinema, for a cloudy day

If the cloud has come down, the 360-degree cinema is the answer. Its five-minute film, the Jungfrau panorama, surrounds you with the Alpine world whatever the weather outside, 365 days a year. It is also the easiest stop to fit in while you wait for a gap in the cloud before trying the Sphinx again.

Snow Fun Park, in summer

From late April to mid-October the Snow Fun Park adds activities on the snow, each paid at the top. As of September 2026 the prices are:

  • Zipline: 330 metres over the glacier, CHF 20 for adults and CHF 15 for children aged 6 to 15, from 24 April to 18 October 2026.
  • Sledging and tubing: a 125-metre run, CHF 20 and CHF 15, from 4 May to 18 October.
  • Ski and snowboard: CHF 35 and CHF 25, same dates.

The Mönchsjoch Hut, for the fit

A marked high-alpine path leads from the Jungfraujoch to the Mönchsjoch Hut at 3,658 metres, the highest serviced hut in Switzerland. It takes about 45 minutes on foot and climbs 200 metres. The path is open from mid-May to mid-October, but it closes at any time for avalanche, crevasse or storm danger, so check before you set out, and only go with good shoes and very good fitness.

Where to eat and shop

Lunch is not in the railway fare, so plan it. Aletsch Self is the large self-service restaurant; Crystal serves à la carte, with Swiss dishes and a wine list; Pikantus Lounge by Erdinger is the bar; and Bollywood serves Indian food, self-service, at 3,454 metres. The Lindt shop, the highest in the world, sells chocolate you can carry down.

Hidden details most visitors walk past

  • The memorial tablets in Alpine Sensation, for the 30 men who died building the railway.
  • The Eismeer window on the way up: some trains stop for 5 minutes at the station inside the Eiger, at 3,160 metres, though the stop is not guaranteed.
  • The observatory itself: the Sphinx's dome went on in 1950, and scientists still work there.
  • The border: the Sphinx stands on the Valais side, a few metres from the canton of Bern.

A route that works

This order works, with a guide or alone: Alpine Sensation, the Sphinx lift and terrace, the Ice Palace, then out onto the Plateau, with lunch at the end. Swap the Sphinx to the front if the sky is clear. For the history behind each stop, read the Jungfraujoch facts most visitors miss, and for the day around it, the things to do at the top.

Where these facts come from

Days with time for the whole summit

Next: plan how to get there in how to visit the Jungfraujoch. Every guided day, private day and railway ticket to the top sits side by side on Jungfraujoch Tours.