My wife Maureen and I have been traveling to Zürich for many years, and every once in a while, we will take a perfect sunny day and go up to one of the most beautiful cities in Switzerland, Lucerne.
Lucerne is a very quick 45-minute train ride from the Zürich Main Train Station (Zürich HB), with trains departing every 30 minutes or less. The cost round-trip is approximately $73.00, and connections from the Zürich Airport are also extremely easy.
Typically, once we arrive in Lucerne, we immediately proceed to the boat tours on Lake Lucerne, which are directly to the right of the train station. There, they will offer you either a one-and-a-half-hour tour around the lake, or during certain times of the year, you can use commuter boats that sail from downtown Lucerne to the other side of Lake Lucerne (Burgenstock) and return within the hour. The extended tours of the Lake are absolutely gorgeous with spectacular views of both the city and the mountains. The commuter boat tour costs approximately $30.00 per person round-trip. A cog railway up the mountain at Burgenstock may be added to the boat tour.
Arriving back in Lucerne, our first stop is the old city called the Altstadt. We consistently stop here and have lunch and a beer outdoors on the Reuss River. We equate this area to eating at an outdoor restaurant in Venice near the Rialto Bridge; it is just that beautiful. This area of the old town overlooks the Chapel Bridge, which is a large wooden bridge that Lucerne is famous for. Chapel Bridge, along with several others crossing the river, is a delight to walk across from the old town to the central part of Lucerne. Walking the Old Town in Lucerne is wonderful and should not be missed.
There are several beautiful hotels in Lucerne, including the Grand Hotel National, the Montana Art Deco Hotel, the Burgenstock Hotel (5 miles away), and the Mandarin Oriental Palace Hotel. There are also many smaller, more economical hotels located throughout the city.
During one of our visits to Lucerne, we continued on to a series of connecting aerial gondolas to Mount Titlis, which has breathtaking views of Lucerne as you reach the top of the mountain. Most of these cable cars are free, as long as you use a minimum three-day Swiss Rail Pass.
We absolutely recommend using a Swiss Rail Pass for a minimum of three days. These passes give you all types of transportation options, including all trains, trams, buses, boats, and gondolas throughout Switzerland. There are very few forms of transportation that are not fully included in the Swiss Rail Pass. The pass also includes all museums and several excellent discounts all over the country.
There is a train going anywhere in Switzerland every 45 minutes. We have crisscrossed Switzerland many times from the German-speaking areas of Zürich to the French-speaking areas of Geneva and all of the beautiful cities in between using the Swiss Rail Pass.
The Swiss Rail Pass is also very flexible in that it can be bought for 3, 4, 6, 8, or 15-day durations and may be paused during your trip to Switzerland to extend the value of your ticket.
