15471 posts
Hi Glovermicki,
Welcome to MySwissAlps! Lucerne is a wonderful town close to the Alps, but not “in” the Alps. I’d rather recommend a day trip to Mount Rigi or Mount Pilatus, and may be visit Lucerne en route. Please see:
17 posts
Thank you for your response. I was planning on Mt. Pilatus, is that the better choice than Mt. Rigi?
72625 posts
I would argue that neither Pilatus nor Rigi are ‘in’ the Alps either, they are both on the very edge, just as is Luzern!
As Sursee is very close to Luzern (20 minutes by non-stop train), I would suggest Engelberg / Titlis (https://www.myswissalp s.com/titlis) as the more ‘in the Alps’ experience easily doable in a day from Sursee
280 posts
We went to Rigi and Pilatus last year. Of the two, we liked Pilatus better. Better facilities at the top (hotel, restaurant, large deck terrace, gift shop, etc.). I can’t comment on the relative views since we rode through a heavy cloud cover that covered the middle half of each mountain on the way up, so what we could see once we got to the top was a sea of clouds in both locations with multiple mountaintops peaking through. Which in fact was pretty scenic in its own right.
One nice thing about going to Rigi is you can hop a boat from Luzern, and enjoy a scenic ride on the way. We returned to Luzern by taking the cogwheel train down to Arth Goldau & catching another train back to Luzern (quicker).
For Pilatus, it is a 20 minute train ride to the base at Alpnachstad from Luzern. I would not recommend taking the boat back from Alpnachstad, its one hour at best via boat.
280 posts
1960man offers a great idea. Mt. Titlis is on our list for the next time we go. A lot higher than either Rigi or Pilatus.
17 posts
I was just looking into mt titles, it looks great. So would I need some type of pass for train and trip up mt
7103 posts
Hi Glovermicki! I think rail pass options are discussed in this thread, right: http://www.myswissalps.com/fo rum/topic/winter-tell-pass-1? Let’s continue any follow-up questions on rail pass and tickets there :-).