Doing the free walking tours in Zurich/Luzern/Bern
A traveler is visiting Zurich, Lucerne, and Bern in July and is looking for advice on walking tours, particularly on which city tour to prioritize based on the need for a guide. They want to know if they should stay in Zurich for a walking tour the next day or head straight to Lucerne and how to fit it all in their schedule.
- Choose Bern for a guided walking tour as it has rich history worth exploring with a guide.
- If you miss the tour in Zurich, consider exploring the city on foot with self-guided walking routes available online.
- Check if audio tour apps for Lucerne are available to enhance your self-exploration experience.
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Hi there,
We will be visiting Zurich, Lucerne, and Bern during our trip to Switzerland in July. I have read a lot about the free walking tours and they seem excellent, though there seems to be the most information about the one in Zurich. The times for the Lucern and Bern tours I have not been able to find online yet. We will definitely explore all the cities by foot and walk around ourselves visiting the main scenic areas, but I was wondering, if we choose one free walking tour, which one would you recommend? In other words, which city would need the most explanation from a guide, and we wouldn’t necessarily be able to enjoy as much on our own? The free walking tours are usually only offered one time a day, so I am wondering how worthwhile it is to work the tours into our schedule. For instance, we arrive in Zurich the first day at 10:30am. I don’t think we will make the free walking tour in Zurich at 11am that day. So it is worthwhile to stay the first night in Zurich and make the free walking tour the next day, before we go to Luzern? I have heard many people say to just skip Zurich and go directly to Luzern as well.
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Hi seru!
There are several free walking tours available in each city, so I’m not sure which ones you’re referring to. Each of these towns has a beautiful old town center that is absolutely worth it exploring on foot. That includes Zurich in my opinion. And information from a personal guide will be very interesting in each town too.
If I’d necessarily had to pick one city in which I’d like a guide’s information, I think it would be Bern. Being Switzerland’s federal/capital city, it has a rich history. But Lucerne and Zurich are full of history too :-).
Note that you can also explore these towns on your own. We’ve created hiking routes that include many “must-sees” and that allow you to explore the cities at your own pace and at any time of the day. I’ll include the links below. This might be especially helpful for Zurich, if you’d like to explore it on your arrival day but can’t find a guided tour at a time that suits you.
Thank you Anna! I will look into those. The freewalk Switzerland site has a tour calendar for Zurich listed, but no calendar for Bern or Lucerne, so I am not even sure if they still have the free walking tours in those cities.
Hi seru,
There’s an audio tour Lucerne app you can download for free here: http://www.luzern.com/en/things-to-do/guided-city-tours/official-audio-tour-lucerne/
With the app you can explore the town yourself and not miss out on all the important historical information.
Regards,
Anna
Thank you! Just downloaded it.
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