Trips for kids around Lucerne

Hi,

We would be travelling with the 3 day Swiss Travel Pass and staying in Lucerne for 2 nights. Planning to do Mt Rigi. Is that a full day or half day trip ?

Since we are travelling in the last week of July I assume that it would be very crowded on either Pilatus or Titlis. So what other options available around Lucerne to do with kids aged 9 and 7 years. Weather permitting we can opt to do Titlis ( unable to decide and keeping our options open for now).

Any suggestions please.

Here are some sources of information.

www.myswissalps.com/ti metable

Enter Rigi Kulm as your destination.

Depending on when you catch the not-so frequent trains up from Arth-Goldau, the trip to the top from Luzern takes 1 hr and 29 minutes.

The return trip can leave as soon as about 10 minutes after you arrive.

So, if you can "do" Rigi in 10 minutes, your round trip would be a minimum of just over 3 hours.

I suggest to "do" Rigi adequately once you have reached the top, you should spend more than 10 minutes.

The time table shows the fastest connections. , by default.

There are other ways to make the trip, including lake boats, that can take hours longer. Use the "via"box and enter Weggis, for example. (Note that the letters "LSB" in the time tablestand for "Luftseilbahn" and represent the cable car ( gondola car lift.)

Around Luzern -

www.myswissalps.com/lu cerne

You'll save time going up Pilatus instead of Titlis, because it is closer to Luzern. Check the timetable.

The transport museum (Verkehrshaus) might interest the kids, although it is not a sure bet. There are some interactive exhibits. Also, a lot of historical Swiss locomotives..

See the Lion

My 8 year old granddaughter and my 18 year old grandson and several different adults were both pleased by and interested in the Bourbaki Panorama. Very impressive and well done.

www.myswitzerland.com/ en-us/bourbaki-panorama-luzern-luzern.html

www.bourbakipanorama.c h/en/

Also,

www.luzern.com/en/inde x.cfm

The traffic museum is indeed a good one, please see myswissalps.com/ museumoftransport. Kids also like the open air cable car to the Stanserhorn I think.

The Mount Rigi trip can take a whole day if you want to. You can combine it with a boat trip and some easy hiking. Details can be found on myswissalps.com/rigi.

Mount Pilatus has a lot to offer for families. Please see myswissalps.com/ pilatus and pilatus.ch/en/pilatus-active/summer/families -children/.

Thanks a ton Slowpoke and Arno ! The links have been extremely helpful in finalizing the itinerray...

Going to the Transport Museum for sure. Now the other two questions I had was :-

a) Whether we could travel on the high speed trains like TGV with the Swiss Travel Pass ?

b) Which is the more convenient station to go to the Rhine Falls from Zurich .. ... Neuhausen or Schloss Laufen am Rheinfall. Am asking this because we will be keeping our luggage in the lockers at the station and from there return to Basel in the evening so wanted to know which of the two is a better option.

Thanks a lot again

I can't give you the details, but others can.

I'm sure that you'll get answers, but, just in case-

This web site gives an info contact that should be able to help you.

www.myswitzerland.com/ en-us/rhinefalls.html

I recall the we came to the falls after first going to Schaffhausen.

Schaffhausen has left luggage.

Scroll down to Gepäck for hours:

www.sbb.ch/content/sbb /de/desktop/bahnhof-services/am-bahnhof/standort/bahnh offinder.html?_charset_=UTF-8&stationname=schaffha usen

Another route is through Bülach. Bülach has luggage services.

www.sbb.ch/bahnhof-services/am-bahnhof/bahnhof/bahnho f-finden.posid.3400.html

Neuhausen does not have luggage service. Neither does Schloss Laufen am Rheinfall. It is possible tha they have some coin-op lockers, but I'd not bet on it. Especially if you have big bags.

All trains on the routes of the Swiss Travel Pass map are free, regardless of the train type. Seat reservations are not included, but they're not required for TGV trains within Switzerland.

Additional Rhine fall information is available through myswissalps.com/ rhinefalls.

Slowpoke .. that bit about the luggage facility is indeed helpful !!

Once again about the trains ... just to be sure... we booked our tickets from Frankfurt to Basel Bad Bahnhof on ICE and our next connection is from Basel SBB. Now with our Swiss Pass can we just continue on the same train and get off at Basel SBB ?

<<"Once again about the trains ... just to be sure... we booked our ticketsfrom Frankfurt to Basel Bad Bahnhof on ICE and our next connection is from Basel SBB. Now with our Swiss Pass can we just continue on the sametrain and get off at Basel SBB ?">>

You are wise to ask. I cannot tell you about your specific train. I can tell you to keep digging. It may not be possible.....or, it may be OK. ;-(

Arno and Annika know everything, so they may have the answer.

Some trains from up north come into Basel, let you off, and permit you to walk a few hundred yards to get on a Swiss train. It may well be that some go straight through...no change of trains required....just don't know.

I shall tell you that one time we came from Frankfurt airport to Basel on a train that was running well behind schedule, expecting the situation I describe above. That is the way it worked for me more than once.

However, the German train was running over one hour late. It dumped us in the German station for Basel, with an incomprehensible announcement explaining what was going on. After the fact, my weak German allowed me to figure out that they were telling us to take a shuttle train across the border. We missed it. Ended up taking a cab from the station where we got off, across the border to the Swiss station, where we just barely made our connection on to Zürich.

Don't know how to give you a good answer, but I suggest you spend some time learning about the arrangements at the Swiss and German Basel stations. Hopefully, you won't need it.

Perhaps an e-mail to the SBB, with your train details?

Slowpoke

Hi Mol123,

You can stay seated until Basel SBB. Just make sure your Swiss Travel Pass is validated before you reach Basel Bad Bf. Ask the train staff to do so if you have a pass that requires their stamp.