Torn: Bellinzona + castles or day trip from Luzern
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We have essentially only 3 days in Switzerland and want to see and experience a bit of character, beauty, charm, and history.
The details set hard are: Day 1–Arrive Zurich Friday a.m. Relax (adjust to time) local sightseeing, hotel.
Day 4–Monday 11:51 train from Chiasso to Venice.
We plan to take an early train from Zurich to Luzern on Saturday (Day 2) and stroll through some local landmarks (bridges, Old Town, etc) and then hopefully take an excursion to Mt. Rigi. I was thinking to maximize what we experience on the Mt. Rigi excursion we could take the boat to Vitznau and Cog to Rigi Kulm, then return by way of cable car and/or cog to Arth-Goldau and take a train back to Luzern. Is that even realistic in an afternoon? We have combination Saver Day Pass and Half-Fare Card so I believe all would be covered, correct? Can we just board with our passes or do we have to pre-book?
Our dilemma is whether to do a train to a village for an afternoon sort of thing from Luzern on Sunday, thus staying in Luzern 2 nights and making the journey from Luzern to Chiasso on Monday, or to stay in Luzern only one night and head down to Bellinzona mid-day Sunday, take in the castles, and stay there Sunday night. I think that would mean that we could catch the 10:50 #15 train in Bellinzona and not have a change en route to Venice (nervous about missing that connection).
We will only have light raincoats and a sweater so do not plan to spend serious time in the mountains. As much as we would love to see them, warmer climes are choice! That said, we do want to see some of the countryside charm. Will we see much from the train routes and the area surrounding the castles that can be accessed via bus and foot if we decide to do the Bellinzona stop-over?
Thank you for sharing your wealth of experience!
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