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We will be traveling to Lucerne this week and are planning to visit Mt. Rigi, Pilatus and Titlis. Assuming that the weather will cooperate, can you do any two of those three mountains excursions within one day? Or will we be spreading ourselves too thin doing that?
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Hi Keepfaith-
I do not know what it means to “do” a mountain.
However, you can visit some portion of the Rigi plus Pilatus in one day.
Titlis is further away.. The timetable will help.
http://www.myswissalps.com/ti metable
Look for Engelberg and Klein Titlis as destinations.
http://www.myswissalps.com/ti tlis
Slowpoke
I think the average time on a mountain top is about 2 hours. But 1 or 1.5 hours is sufficient to enjoy the views move on to the next mountain if you want to do two in 1 day. You can use the Swiss railways timetable to plan the trips to mountain and between them. 2 is possible with an early start.
Hi Slowpoke,
From my perspective “do” means visiting the top to enjoy the view. Of course with two destinations in one day it’s mostly not possible to see and do everything a mountain has to offer (hikes/walks, restaurants, mid-stations to explore).
Thank you so much. By “do” I meant to visit the peaks and take in the views and touristy activities at the top, being our first time to Switzerland. I don’t know if Rigi and Pilatus were possible in one day or Titlis and Rigi, etc.
You can do any two in a day I think. 🙂 Just keep 1.5 hours as about the time you’ll want to plan to be at the top. Titlis and Rigi have the most activities to do at the top and both mountains could each keep you busy all afternoon if you wanted. Pilatus has just a little hiking basically and could be a quicker visit.
Hi Keepfaith –
Sorry I was so abrupt in my first response. As the thread has developed, it has touched on the issues that have to be considered.
Will you definitely visit all three? If so, you don’t have to trade off time on top for travel to the next one. You’ll simply make time.
Check the three links that Lucas posted.
You will see that there varying degrees and different types of “touristy activities” at the different mountains.
On the Rigi, you could spend the whole day or most of it hiking, if you include that in the activities that you intend to do. There are trails to get to different viewpoints, and some nice restaurants here and there on the mountain.
At Pilatus, space is limited…there is bit of walking and some restaurants. But, the views are amazing, so if serious photography is included in your list of “touristy activities”, you could spend a few hours up there. Especially, if you choose to eat there.
A major feature for Pilatus is also a benefit for you if you have a special in trains, as many tourists to Switzerland do. The cograil up from Alpnachstad is remarkable, but does take time. The other route, via cableways from Kriens, has a faster journey, but there are some activities at an intermediate stop on the way up or down. Kriens is accessible by bus, but Alpnachstad is on the train route to and from Luzern.
That train route has a branch at Hergiswil (between Alpnachstad and Luzern) that leads eventually to Engelberg and Titlis.
A train from Luzern to Engelberg ( at the base of Titlis) takes 43 minutes. then you walk 10-15 minutes the cable way which goes up via two intermediate stops. At the first one, Trübsee., there are some nice hiking trails, including some easy ones.
Titlis has a number of activities., and they cover a fair amount of territory (in contrast to Pilatus), as you can see from the link that Lucas provided. It also has snow all year round.
So, realistically, you could fill part or most of a day with a trip to any of them, perhaps a bit less at Pilatus, and more on the Rigi (if you hike a lot) if you take advantage of all of the activities.
So, answering your question, as Arno points out, requires knowing which of the activities you wan to partake of. is key. If you use his definition – <<“From my perspective “do” means visiting the top to enjoy the view.”>>
As soon as you add “activities” to “enjoying the view” it becomes difficult to give you an answer unless you and we know what “touristy activities” means with regard to what is available, differing at each mountain.
Add the uncertainty of August crowds at the cograil for Pilatus, too
So, Lucas has a practical suggestion:
Fix the time you will spend on each in an arbitrary manner. One and 1/2 to two hours.
That will work for any two, with perhaps more of a stretch to combine either of the others with the Rigi.
That then decision gets you to the timetable, which I linked in my first post.
You can use it to figure out how long it gets from one to the other. For example, there are hourly boats to Vitznau connecting well with the pleasant cograil train up to the top of the Rigi – “Rigi Kulm.” That adds 32 minutes.
Transport down from the mountains does not run very late in the eveningt, so it helps to look at the end of the day, and sometimes I actually work backwards with the time table to see when I must start.
I hope you have clear weather!
Slowpoke
The ussue is waht
Ooops- a few typos and a need for a bit of editing in that post-
at one point I meant to write “if you have a special interest in trains”
And, I did not delete an editing error at the very end. ” the ussue….”
Oh well.
Slowpoke
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