Details about the Three Lake Cruise in Neuchâtel

Happy Easter to everyone. Hope you are all keeping safe and well and are not going crazy staying at home and not travelling.

I continue to do further planning on my now postponed holiday. I prefer to call it postponed (even though I don't know when we will be able to travel) rather than cancelled. For those of you who haven't seen my previous posts my husband and I were planning to travel to Europe for just over 2 months, with about three and a half weeks in Switzerland, and were originally scheduled to leave in just over a week. I am now spending some of my time at home doing more planning, which of course has resulted in me adding more days to my itinerary.

I have read that there is a 3 lake cruise in Neuchatel but cannot seem to find out any specific information. If anyone could help me with information that would be great.

Thanks for your help.

We stayed in the lovely walled village of Murten last May and only took the cruise from Murten to Neuchatel. We found it to be very pleasant, especially along the canal between the two lakes where we were delighted to observe (from a distance) numerous storks nesting in trees. When we arrived in Neuchatel, a tower displayed a giant man-made storks' nest at the top! I believe you could go online to view some photos of the nest in Neuchatel. If you'll be staying in Neuchatel, a trip to Murten would be a great day trip, exploring the village and visiting the great museum documenting the very important battle that helped give the Swiss a sense of unity. The ferry ride is about an hour and a half then it's only about a 20 minute train ride back to Neuchatel.

Hello Marggy,

Happy Easter to you and to all the forum members! Yes, it's quite frustrating not being able to travel but this gives us more time for planning our future trips, doesn't it?
You can find detailed information and timetables about the Three Lakes Cruise on the shipping company's website: navig.ch/index.php
Please bear in mind that the cruise operates from April to October on a daily basis, and during winter only on Sundays. However due to the current situation the cruise has been temporarily suspended until further notice. The cruise is indeed covered by the Swiss Travel Pass.

Hope this was helpful!
Sara

Thank you both so much for your help. The shipping company's website is in French and German so thank goodness for Google translate. This website was really useful. Eiger Tyger thanks for the information about the Murten to Neuchatel cruise. After looking at the shipping company's website and the length of the different cruises, I think we will take the option of cruising from Neuchatel to Murten.

Hopefully it won't be too long before we can start travelling again. Thanks and stay safe.

Hi Marggy,

Glad we have been of help! Please don't hesitate to ask here for further assistance in case you might have doubts about the translation made by Google. Always better to double check than getting the wrong information.

Happy planning!

Hello Sarah,

It too me a few seconds to realize that your handle is "NewModerator".

I am encouraged that you will be on this forum to provide information about the Neuchâtel/Fribourg/Jura Bernois area as well as (no doubt) the Ticino. Visitors to the 3 lakes navigation (LNM) web-site will find that it is in French and German only and, of course, that all service is suspended until new directives are issued by the federal government (conseil fédéral). Although this area is much less "touristy" than others in Switzerland, perhaps they will consider adding English at some point in the future. In normal times, they operate 10 boats (ships) of varying sizes and transport about 300,000 passengers a year, and I would guess that 99% of these passengers are Swiss. I attach a photo of my favourite boat, the D/s Neuchâtel, not the largest (the M/s Fribourg is larger), but the oldest in the fleet (built in 1912). It is only 48.2 metres long and 11.2 metres wide, and its stack folds down to the horizontal position so that it can pass under the railway and road bridges that go over the Canal de la Thielle (Zihlkanal). I also attach a map of the Thielle Canal area (c/0 Swisstopo), showing the canal connecting Lac Neuchâtel with the Lac de Bienne (Bielersee).

In the photo, just to the right of the stack, you can discern the line of the funicular that runs between La Coudre and Chaumont, with its observation tower. It's dark right now so all you can see now are faint lights of the city below along the edge of the lake, but if you check out the Roundshot camera mounted on this tower chaumont.roundshot.com/ during daytime you will hopefully be rewarded with the view from there. It is a quick ride by bus from the Neuchâtel train station to the funi station in La Coudre. By the way, there are about ten other Roundshot cameras in the canton.

I am so glad I saved this to Notepad because once again, everything was lost when I initially tried to save.

Hello Marggy,

Below page in English by the Swiss Tourism Office may help to get some details in English:
- www.myswitzerland.com/en-ch/experiences/three-lakes-cruise-lake-biel/

You will also be able to use the timetable (which I believe you're familiar with) to figure out details. You can choose "only boat" in the advanced search options, e.g.
- www.myswissalps.com/timetable

Best,
Steph

Hello again,

<< . . a trip to Murten would be a great day trip, exploring the village and visiting the great museum documenting the very important battle that helped give the Swiss a sense of unity. >>

Yes, this was the Battle of Morat of 1476 which was commemorated by a set of four Swiss Post Pro-Patria stamps in 2010 (see attachment). The scenes on these stamps are taken from a circular panorama painted by Louis Braun in 1893. The panorama is 10 metres high by 100 metres in length. Check out the following to actually look all over this amazing panorama. www.murtenpanorama.ch/spezial/zoomify/index_fr.php You can go back and forth, go up and down, and also zoom in on any part that interests you.