Easiest route to Mt Pilatus from Luzern

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    1 September 2017 at 14:17:11 #813141

    Hi,

    what is the easiest route to Mt Pilatus from Lucerne and back. I have only few hours to spare (first half of the day) to do this journey and return to Lucerne. Travelling with a very young family.

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    1 September 2017 at 14:44:11 #869262

    Hi GB123,

    I am assuming by easiest you mean the quickest option to Mt. Pilatus? The Swiss railways timetable will give you the fastest option automatically.

    There are only 2 routes up to Mt. Pilatus – the cogwheel train from Alpnachstad or the Gondola from Kriens. They both take about 1 hour and 15 minutes so most people do a round-trip, going up on the train and down on the gondola (the train is just slightly faster).

    It will be about 2.5 hours round trip plus the time you want to spend on the top (usually two hours is sufficient if you have no planned activities to do).

    Lucas

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    1 September 2017 at 14:58:02 #869263

    Thanks and would the swiss rail pass work on all of these or do we need to buy separate tickets?

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    1 September 2017 at 15:31:39 #869264

    The Swiss Travel Pass covers Mt. Pilatus – you can read about the coverage area for it here.

    Lucas

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    1 September 2017 at 16:33:14 #869265

    Dear Lucas,

    Is prior reservation required for pilatus from luzern?Where can I find the time table for cogwheel train and gondola?Should half day be sufficient?And is it better to go to pilatus in the morning to noon part of the day or noon to evening?I wish to visit pilatus and take the voralpen express both on the same day.Can you also advise on where to get the train time table for voralpen express?

    Thanks in advance.

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    1 September 2017 at 17:23:44 #869266

    Hi Pooja64,

    No reservations are required to Mt. Pilatus. You can use the timetable link in my prior post to find the train and gondola times to Pilatus. Or use the link for the Mt. Pilatus website here.

    It takes about 3 hours to get to and from Mt. Pilatus from Luzern, then probably 2 hours at the top (for most people). The Voralpen Express runs from Luzern to St. Gallen (and on to Romanshorn). The Voralpen Express is denoted on the timetable as VAE and the one-way trip to St. Gallen is about 2.5 hours. So you could do both options but this makes for an extremely long day!

    Lucas

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    2 September 2017 at 17:26:18 #869267

    Thanks again Lucas.I am trying to find time tables for boat trip from Luzern to Alpnachstad and cogwheeel train from Alpnachstad to Pilatus Kulm but can not figure out.I suppose boat trip is on lake luzern.Similarly for cable car down to Frakmuntegg and gondola to Kriens is it easy to find once I reach pilatus?Is there any time table for these rides?

    The train stations are common for regular trains and scenic trains?

    Thanks in advance.

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    3 September 2017 at 7:24:13 #869268

    Hi Pooja64,

    There is a timetable for these trips on the Pilatus website. You can find the link under “more on other websites” here. It will be easy to find the gondola options down from Pilatus yes.

    There are no special, separate train stations for scenic trains (if you mean the Voralpen Express).

    Lucas

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    3 September 2017 at 10:22:31 #869269

    Thanks Lucas.Just one more quick question..as there are short forms for trains ,like VAE for voralpen,BAT for boat,is there any such for cogwheel trains so that its easy to differentiate it from regular trains?What is IR(inter-regional?),what is meaning of richtung?

    Thanks a lot once again.

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    3 September 2017 at 11:22:54 #869270

    No there isn’t a specific symbol or short form for cogwheel trains – they are still trains so they classify them as such. You will see there are symbols for gondolas and boat trips as well on the timetable. The short for is just for special train names: VAE (Voralpen) BEX (Bernina Express) GEX (Glacier Express) etc.

    Yes, IR stands for Inter-regio (regional) trains.These trains typically connect Zurich and Geneva with cities across Switzerland. IC (Inter-City) trains link major Swiss cities and typically have fewer stops than IR trains.

    Richtung means “direction” in German. If it says Richtung: Geneva then the last stop is Geneva.

    Lucas

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    5 September 2017 at 8:41:42 #869271

    Thanks Lucas.

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