Fans of a hit Netflix series from South Korea are traveling internationally to meet the show’s breakout star: a lakeside pier in Switzerland.
Since “Crash Landing on You” debuted six years ago, devotees of K-drama have been descending on the village of Iseltwald, just outside Interlaken. The wooden T-shape dock on Lake Brienz played a brief but pivotal role in the Shakespearean love story of a wealthy South Korean executive and an enigmatic North Korean soldier.
Before the show aired, Titia Weiland, manager of the Bönigen-Iseltwald Tourism agency, said tourists typically visited the region during the summer, hiking in the Bernese Alps or boating in the lapis-blue lakes.
Because of the coronavirus pandemic, fans did not immediately come. Once borders reopened, however, Weiland said up to a thousand people a day began descending on Iseltwald, home of 400 residents, three hotels, one grocery store and the celebrity dock.
“It was an active boat pier, but it was used very little,” Weiland said. “It’s become very famous because of the series, and then you have another kind of fame — the people coming to see the people visiting the pier.”
In October, Stefanie and Caleb Rouse visited from Pittsburgh. The married couple waited nearly two hours to stand on the pier where Ri Jeong-hyeok (Hyun Bin), the male love interest, performed a piano piece overheard by Yoon Se-ri (Son Ye-jin), the female lead who happened to be cruising by on a boat. The pair passed the time by chatting with fans from South Korea and Japan.
To set the mood on the dock, the Rouses cued up the show’s soundtrack, which had been in heavy rotation during their three-week journey in Europe. Stefanie clutched a bouquet purchased in Paris.
“The music was playing, the sun was setting, and we were dancing around on the dock,” said Stefanie, 38, a relationship mentor and author. “It was such a sweet romantic moment.”
A fan’s itinerary in Switzerland
Miho Shiawase, a new convert to K-dramas, beat the crowds.
In 2021, the Swiss resident visited five film sites over two days, traveling by train, bus and boat from her home in Lucerne. She started with the traditional wooden home on Lake Lungern that appears in the show’s final scene, followed by the Iseltwald pier and a scenic cruise on the lake.
Her “set-jetting” tour also included the Panorama Bridge (Panoramabrücke) in Sigriswil, the Victoria-Jungfrau Grand Hotel & Spa in Interlaken and a night at the Grandhotel Giessbach, which appeared in the series as the music school that Jeong-hyeok attended.
“The Swiss scenes gave me such a nostalgic feeling, especially since some of the locations, like Zurich and Brienzersee [Lake Brienz], I had actually visited before,” Shiawase, 34, an office coordinator, said in an email. “It was surreal to stand in the exact spots where the movie was filmed — to think, this is where Captain Ri or Yoon Se-ri stood!”
With so few visitors, Shiawase said she could take her sweet time snapping photos of herself reenacting scenes, playing both roles. At the boat pier, she could count the number of visitors on one hand.
To help her fellow fans, Shiawase shared her itinerary on her blog, Miho’s Happy Life. She also compiled all the Swiss locales, organizing the dozen-plus sites by episode.
“What really surprised me was how many different places they used,” Shiawase said. “Zurich, Interlaken, Iseltwald, Brienz, Grindelwald. I honestly didn’t expect the series to feature so many stunning Swiss spots.”
In 2023, she visited South Korea and several film locations, such as Wolfgang’s Steakhouse, Acredo Seoul and BBQ Olive Chicken. She didn’t update her “Crash Landing on You” post with the Seoul stops.
Turnstiles and bus limits
Larger destinations such as Zurich and Interlaken can better absorb a high volume of tourists. Iseltwald struggled.
The surge started in 2022, when Weiland said up to a dozen tour buses a day would deposit 60 or 70 people by the pier. The visitors, often on a grand sweep of Europe, would quickly snap a photo before hustling back on the bus.
Most people didn’t stay long enough to hike to Giessbach Falls; paddle around Little Snail Island, where monks from Interlaken Abbey allegedly bred the mollusks; or sample lake fish in cream sauce at a local restaurant.
The pedestrian and vehicular traffic also frustrated residents on their daily commutes or leisurely strolls, Weiland said. Some homeowners discovered strangers poking around their residences and gardens.
“If your house is right on the village square, it’s a very different kind of living than it used to be,” Weiland said.
Municipal leaders eventually reached a breaking point and introduced measures to relieve the pressure on the infrastructure and help restore the community’s quiet way of life. They restricted the tour buses to two every two hours. During a months-long redesign of the square, which started on Sept. 1, the large coaches must park and unload passengers on the outskirts of town, a 10-minute walk to the center.
To handle the masses, the transportation company PostBus added 120-passenger double-decker buses on a new express route between Interlaken and Iseltwald in 2023. On peak days, the company said up to 2,000 passengers travel the 17 minutes between Interlaken Ost and Iseltwald’s Dorfplatz.
The same year, the municipality installed a turnstile at the pier, charging 5 francs (about $6.50), and the public toilet. Previously, Weiland said one person would pay to unlock the bathroom door and would keep it open for the busload of passengers. Now, each user pays a franc. In 2024, the town collected about $307,000 for pier access and about $7,542 for the restroom. The funds help pay for garbage disposal, restroom cleaning and other maintenance.
On Switzerland Tourism Tipps, a Facebook page dedicated to Swiss travel, members were split on the pier fee. Some opposed it, sharing tips on evading it.
“A lot of the visitors don’t go on the boat pier now. They just take their pictures right beside it,” Weiland said.” So it’s not an amazing amount of money coming in.”
Many people supported the charge, describing a sense of responsibility to contribute to the village’s economy and upkeep.
The Rouses were pro-turnstile. They said the barricade instilled a sense of civility. Hordes of visitors didn’t rush the pier but patiently waited their turn.
Facing forward, eyes on the lake, they said they felt as if they were the only two people there.
‘Set-jetters’ want their selfies
A cottage industry within travel has bubbled up around such pop culture classics as Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, “The Sound of Music” and “Emily in Paris.” Fans can sign up for tours that often incorporate souvenir shops.
The set-jetting culture for “Crash Landing on You” is more grass roots. Enthusiasts typically cobble together their own itineraries. In true fan club fashion, they often post their routes online, sharing with the wider K-drama community.
As the owner of Jungfrau Tours, Robertus Laan arranges hotel and train packages throughout Switzerland. In 2022, he started hearing about a surge of Asian travelers in Iseltwald inquiring about the dock. Soon after, he began receiving requests for a “Crash Landing on You” excursion.
He assembled a tour with about eight sites spread over two days, which was too long for the set-jetters. So he shortened it by half, cutting the historical and cultural sections and stopping at each attraction just long enough for the participants to snap a photo.
“The first time I guided them myself, I was ready to tell them about how the little town of Iseltwald has very beautiful old houses with engraved writings,” Laan said. “They said, ‘No we need to go. We have made our selfie, and we are ready for the next thing.’”
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