Review of an inn in Sachseln, near Luzern

In a thread in “Miscellaneous”, we discussed inns that might interest Swiss11, a traveler who wanted to experience more of the countryside of Switzerland, as well avoid the high prices of the cities:

http://www.myswissalps.com/fo rum/topic/travelling-to-the-swiss-alps-in-sept-2019/page/6#lLPYxqDW9m qS6v8AAFcRTQ

Maybe it can have a shorter link:

http://www.myswissalps.com/fo rum/topic/travelling-to-the-swiss-alps-in-sept-2019

One need was for an inn with good access to Luzern, in a nice village, and at lower prices than in Luzern.

We considered the Gasthof Engel, in Sachseln. There is some discussion of it in that thread, linked above.

http://www.engel-sachseln.ch/en/

When I wrote that recommendation, I had eaten 2 or 3 times at the inn with a friend who lives in Sachseln, and I had a very positive impression, but had never stayed overnight. I like the village, but it does not have the charm of the old Emmental villages. I have now stayed there, and here are some comments. They are influenced by the fact that I stayed there on “Pfingstmontag”…the Monday after Ascension Day in the Christian calendar…. which is a holiday. The inn closed its kitchen that night. Staff were on hand; the hotel was open. The second night of my two night stay, Tuesday night, they were fully open.

Closure of the restaurant gave me a chance to check the excellent train connection to Luzern, where I ate at an old favorite, the Restaurant Schiff. Excellent kitchen at the Schiff. Trains run three times per hour…. a couple of through trains and one short line that terminates in Sachseln. The inn is a 5 or less minute walk, slightly up hill, from the train station. Very convenient arrangement.

I arrived expecting to use a key-box with an unlock code on the outside of the doorway, since it was a “closed” day (der Ruhetag) for the restaurant, but the door was open. I got a nice welcome, and Herr Wey-Felder carried my bag up two floors to my room. He is the owner and the cook, and, though friendly, was rather busy and businesslike. No elevator. The room was large, well furnished, well maintained with some aspects…such as window designs and construction…. going back to the 19th or early 20th century. Some of the bathroom fixtures had been there a while, but they were well maintained and in perfect working order. The place is everywhere well-maintained, and they were adding a suite or room in one corner of the building as well as painting the exterior of the building. The Wey-Felders invest in their inn. The room was very comfortable, good-sized and clean, of course. ( I checked some other rooms which were smaller….an old inn, after all). Some of the staff did not speak English, but others did. No problems with the ones who did not…they could figure what a Chinese guest wanted with out any help, even though she did not speak German. I watched that happen at Breakfast, where the older staff member did not speak English.

The restaurant is rated by Gault-Millau, which speaks to its quality. I’d call the cooking good or very , with some nice details, but not anything special. There were two or or three explicitly vegetarian dishes, and a couple of of fish dishes. There was a very good wine list. On the night when I ate in the restaurant, I saw a wine I really liked, but it was only available in a full bottle. I was thus looking at half-bottles of good but lesser wines. I commented to the waitress how much I liked that particular wine ( from Obrist, in the Bündner Herrschaft), she went away, came back a few minutes later, and said that they would give me the full bottle at half-bottle price. That is an example of the excellent service, focused on the customer’s interests.

The family is proud of their inn… They can be busy, so there may be less time to chat than I had at Gasthof Bären Ranflüuh, reviewed in an earlier post. But, they were all very eager to help.

On occasions when I choose not to pay super high prices to stay in Luzern and see the view in the attached image from my room, this inn in Sachseln will be where I go. It works well.

Slowpoke