Lucerne itinerary suggestions for 2 days in June

Hi there,

First of all, I would like to thank your website which helped and helping me greatly in planing my Swiss trip this month!

My wife and I are coming to Switzerland on a 8 days 7 nights trip and have booked hotels in Lucerne (2 nights), Grindelwald (3 nights) and Zermatt (2 nights) and would like to have your suggestions for a rough plan I came up with for Lucerne. I will be reaching Zurich by overnight train at around 8 AM on 16 June, but not planning to spend any time here and catch a direct train to Luzern, hoping to reach hotel between 10-11 AM. I will try for an early check-in at the hotel and after some rest, lunch etc. will start for my first destination, Mt. Pilatus. around 1-2 PM. I am planning to go there via Alpnachstad station by the cogwheel train.

Thereafter spend around 2 hours at Mt. Pilatus. For the return I am planning to go by the cable car and Gondola ride via Frakmuntegg and Kriens.

By the time I reach Lucerne back, I guess it will already evening, so probably a great time to spend at Lucerene Casino (Dinner at 79CHF/person 3 course meal, 1 glass of sparkling, free admission to casino, 25CHF gambling chips)!

For day 2 (17 June), I am planning to take the 'Majestic Round Trip' as recommended in your website i.e. boat from Lucerne to Vitznau and then cogwheel train to Rigi Kulm. For the return, the cogwheel train down to Arth-Goldau and change to the regular train to Lucerne. One question I have here is that I was not able to locate the Boat time schedules on sbb.ch or may be it is from Luzern Bahnhofquai at 9:12 at 1 hour intervals... but I am not very sure.

As the retrun from Rigi Kulm to Luzern will take almost 1.5 hours, I guess we will only reach back in the evening again. And this leaves us with the option of Chapel Bridge (Kapellbrucke) which I hope will be nice to wrap up the day. Alternatively I can swap this with casino option in day 1.

I know there is more to see in Luzern but as I need to take a morning train in order to reach Grindelwald by noon, this is the best plan I came up with. Will love to have your suggestions that if any tweak or addition is possible to make it even better.

Besides, for all my excursions above and future, I am planning to use 8 days Swiss Travel Pass but I have heard that few hotels provide "William Tell pass", which is valid for Lake Lucerne Region. If my hotel provides me with the same, would I be better off buying a 4 days Swiss Travel Pass?

Thanks in advance!

Hi Vishals-

I don't comment on travel passes - I leave it to the experts - Arno and Annika.

For the rest-

I am impressed by how well you have organized your trip.

This may help:

www.lakelucerne.ch/en/ timetable-fares/timetable/

Check the dates...various schedules for different seasons.

It is easy to walk around Luzern for a few minutes, if you are staying anywhere near the center of town ...the Bahnhof.

Slowpoke

Hi Slowpoke,

thanks for your response and providing me the relevant link, I'll have a look and figure it out. I am facing trouble planning for the Grindelwald and Zermatt though . I will post separately and would be grateful for your advice.

Thanks, Vishal

Hi Vishal,

Good to hear our website has been useful for you!

You can get boat timetables by using the advanced features of the timetable and selecting your mode of transport (boat only). It is explained on the timetable page. Alternatively you can use the separate timetables like the one Slowpoke gave you. You can find such links on all of our attraction pages. In this case it's on myswissalps.com/ boatlakelucerne under "More on other websites".

Some hotels provide a free Tell-Pass in Winter, but not during the rest of the year. Please see here.

The 8-day Swiss Travel Pass seems the ideal choice for your plans. Details can be found here. You can get it by visiting www.swissrailways.com/ en. After filling out your address, they will show the delivery options. Pick "Online Ticket" from the bottom of the list. They will e-mail the pass within 1-3 business days (no delivery fees), so you can print it at home.

Hi Arno,

Thanks for the further advice. For the Swiss Pass, I was planning to buy from Zurich itself and thereafter take my train to Lucerne. I hope this is also feasible, right? Online is certainly convenient as I will need not to join a queue, but I think if they do not send the email soon (I start my travel from 10th), I may miss out.

Thanks, Vishal.

Hi Vishal,

Indeed you're too late to buy online for the 10th. You can buy it at the station instead. Be sure to bring all passengers and all passports. It may take some time but it's certainly feasible. Be sure to buy a Swiss Travel Pass. A Swiss Pass is something different and definitely not what you need.

Have a good trip!

Thanks Arno again. Understood the difference now and I'll be sure to buy a Swiss Travel Pass :)