How to get from Lucerne to Mount Pilatus
A traveler named malraj wants to know how to travel from Lucerne to Mount Pilatus and back, particularly looking for transport options for a trip planned in late March. The discussion provides various travel routes and suggests using the Swiss railways timetable for accurate planning.
- Use the Swiss railways timetable to find the best routes and times for your trip to Mount Pilatus.
- If traveling in late March, take the cable car from Kriens, as the cogwheel train will be closed until mid-May.
- Start your journey from the Lucerne railway station; the boat pier is conveniently located nearby.
- Consider buying your tickets at the Tourist Information center at Lucerne station to avoid long queues at Alpnachstad.
- Check the operational status of the cogwheel train before your trip to avoid wasted travel.
AI-generated summary-
How can one go from Lucerne town to Mount Pilatus and return back.
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Hi malraj and welcome to MySwissAlps!
Are you looking to do this on a tour or on your own?
You can read about how to get there on our Mt. Pilatus "getting there" page
& use the Swiss railways timetable to plan the trip on your date of travel.If you are looking to join a tour, look here.
>> How can one go from Lucerne town to Mount Pilatus and return back.
The options will differ according to the time of the year.
Sometimes you can go up by cogwheel train from Alpnachstad to Pilatus Kulm, and down via cableway to Kriens, from where you catch a bus to Luzern railway station. You can also do that trip in reverse.
However, at various times of the year, the cableway or cogwheel train will be closed, either for maintenance, or because of the weather:
- Cableway Kriens-Pilatus Kulm: closed for maintenance 22 Oct–9 Nov 2018
- Cogwheel train Alpnachstad-Pilatus Kulm: operates only between the beginning or middle of May (depending on weather) until 18 Nov 2018. From 19 November 2018 until early/mid-May 2019 it will be closed for the winter.
Whenever you ask questions about travelling in Swizterland, providing travel dates will assist us to provide information that is relevant to the time of year at which you are travelling.
Alpenrose
Hi
I am planning to take this trip on
28 March to Mt pilatus
so what will be the route
thnks
Hi aptuae,
You can find all details on this route on my first reply to malraj above.
Cheers!
Yes
That means cogwheel train will not be available.
I will have to go thru Kriens only and not Alpenstaad.
Regards
Yes, exactly. The cable car from Kriens is the only option before mid-May. 🙂
You can use the Swiss railways timetable to plan the trip – it’ll give you the available options on your travel date.
Thanx Alpenrose. But from where do we start from Lucerne. From the station or there is a bus stop from where take a bus or some spot on the Lucerne lake from where one takes a boat.
You can start from the rail station of Lucerne. Please read also the earlier post from Lucas where he refers to the timetable and more information on our website.
>> But from where do we start from Lucerne. From the station or there is a bus stop from where take a bus or some spot on the Lucerne lake from where one takes a boat.
You haven’t told us when you plan to do this trip, but if you are doing it when the cogwheel train from Alpnachstad to Pilatus Kulm will be operating, you can get to Alpnachstad by boat or train from Luzern. The boat pier is just outside Luzern railway station.
At Alpnachstad, the boat pier and railway station are adjacent to the cogwheel railway station.
You can look everything up on Google Maps, and see how close the stations and piers are.
If you come down on the cableway, you have a short, well-signposted walk (about 6 minutes slightly downhill) to the Zentrum Pilatus bus stop, from where you can get a bus back to Luzern railway station. There might be more than one bus that goes back to Luzern station from there, but Bus #1 definitely does (direction: Luzern Maihof). I have attached a map showing the route from the cableway valley station in Kriens to the bus stop Zentrum Pilatus.
If you have any more questions, please tell us your travel dates to ensure you receive advice appropriate to the time of year you are travelling 🙂
Alpenrose
Attachments:
Thanx. I shall be in Lucerne around 1 or 14 May
13thor 14th May
What is the fastest way to do this trip – is the bus/train faster than the boat? Any idea of the travel times? I am looking for July so the cogwheel should be running? Thanks.
>> 13thor 14th May
There’s a pretty good chance the cogwheel train will be operating by then, but to save yourself a wasted trip to Alpnachstad, I would recommend checking operational status online before heading out to Alpnachstad:
http://www.pilatus.ch/en/nc/l ive/
Alpenrose
>> What is the fastest way to do this trip – is the bus/train faster than the boat?
Taking a boat to Alpnachstad instead of a train usually takes about an hour longer.
>> Any idea of the travel times?
You can find out travel times by using the Swiss Timetable:
http://www.myswissalps.com/ti metable
Routes to and from Pilatus are described here:
http://www.myswissalps.com/pi latus/gettingthere
The Swiss Timetable automatically provides the fastest connections. If boat connections don’t come up, you will need to search for the boat sector separately – by using advanced search and limiting the Transport type to Ship. Ships are indicated in the timetable by BAT (ship) or BAV (steamship).
>> I am looking for July so the cogwheel should be running?
Yes. Queues at Alpnachstad can get very long in peak season. You might prefer to buy your tickets at the Tourist Information centre at Lucerne railway station beforehand (but not until you know the weather will be clear).
Alpenrose
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