Nov 6, 2010 - 4:40 AM
Hello akshits. Mt Pilatus and Mt Rigi can be done within the same day, although I wouldn't really prefer it. It's nice to take your time and enjoy the view once you're up there. How long it takes, depends on travel scheme and the time you want to spend at both viewing points. Take at least an hour for strolling around, taking pictures and simply enjoying the view. If weather is great though, you can indeed profit from this and visit both on one day. This means that you'd have to start quite early. You could get up to Mt. Pilatus first, then head back to Lucerne and take the boat to Vitznau there, from which a mountain train will get you up to Mt Rigi. This boat trip takes a bit less than one hour; boat time tables can be found at the
Lake Lucerne website. If you want to make a true round trip out of this, you could choose to take the other route down from Mt Rigi, heading for Arth-Goldau (an impressive train ride as well!) and then back to Lucerne again.
If you have only one day or half a day to spend in the Bernese Oberland, my advice would be to visit the Jungfraujoch, as you have planned already. If weather is bad, please reconsider this though, as it would be a waste of your money to make the (quite expensive) train ride and then ending up in the clouds. Nice alternatives are visits to the beautiful valleys of Lauterbrunnen/Wengen and Grindelwald. If you're getting up to the Jungfraujoch, try to get to Kleine Scheidegg via one valley and down from Kleine Scheidegg via the other valley, as I suggested before. This will give you a good impression of the beauty of the Jungfrau region. Alternatives for real bad weather are the
Trümmelbach falls and the
Aare gorge.
From pretty much each town, easy hikes can be made which don't require special equipment. Good, water proof hiking shoes can always be recommended though, as even easy trails may be wet and slippery in autumn. Your travel scheme doesn't seem to leave much room for hikes, but you could take a look at the
Bernese Oberland hiking tips and
this topic on hikes in the Lucerne area.