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Travel guide
Lucerne
5 days · 8 things to do
Best time to go: May to September
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Welcome
Lucerne, in a few days
A town of 82,000 at the end of Lake Lucerne, built around a covered wooden bridge from 1333 and a nine-towered city wall. Two mountains, Pilatus and the Rigi, are each an hour away by cog railway or paddle steamer.
- Day by day
- D1 Day 1 2 things
- D2 Day 2 2 things
- D3 Day 3 2 things
- D4 Day 4 1 thing
- D5 Day 5 1 thing
- Worth sorting before you go
- Words that help
- The practical page
- Packing checklist
The trip
Day by day
Map of the sights (numbers follow the suggested order). It prints with the base map.
D1
Day 1
2 things to do · at your own pace
- Morning · Chapel Bridge and the Water Tower free · about 30 minA 205-metre covered wooden bridge built across the Reuss around 1333, with seventeenth-century painted panels under its roof.
- Afternoon · Rosengart Collection · about 1 h 30An art dealer's collection in a former bank: 125 works by Paul Klee, 32 paintings by Picasso, who painted her five times, and more.
🛏️ Where to sleep · Hotel Continental Park ↗ · All places to stay by budget →€160 a night
D2
Day 2
2 things to do · at your own pace
- Morning · Paddle steamer on the lake · half a dayFive paddle steamers built between 1901 and 1928 still sail the lake, with their engines visible at work from a gallery inside.
- Late afternoon · Musegg Wall free · about 1 h870 metres of fourteenth-century town wall and nine towers above the old town, four of which you can climb and link along the wall walk.
🛏️ Where to sleep · Hotel Continental Park ↗€160 a night
D3
Day 3
2 things to do · at your own pace
- Morning · Lion Monument free · about 30 minA dying lion carved into a sandstone quarry face in 1820 and 1821, for the Swiss Guards killed defending the Tuileries in August 1792.
- Afternoon · Swiss Museum of Transport · half a daySwitzerland's most visited museum, by the lake: steam locomotives, suspended aircraft, a space capsule, vintage cars and a walk-through rail tunnel.
🛏️ Where to sleep · Hotel Continental Park ↗€160 a night
D4
Day 4
1 thing to do · at your own pace
- Morning · Mount Pilatus · half a dayA 2,128-metre massif reached from Alpnachstad on the world's steepest cogwheel railway, with a maximum gradient of 48%, running since 1889.
🛏️ Where to sleep · Hotel Continental Park ↗€160 a night
D5
Day 5
1 thing to do · at your own pace
- Morning · The Rigi · half a dayThe Queen of the Mountains, 1,798 metres between three lakes, where Europe's first mountain cog railway opened from Vitznau in 1871.
Before you go
Worth sorting before you go
📶 eSIM data
Online the moment you land, no roaming bill.
Get one · Holafly
Online the moment you land, no roaming bill.
Get one · Holafly
🛡️ Travel insurance
Health, luggage, cancellation.
Cover it · Ekta
Health, luggage, cancellation.
Cover it · Ekta
💳 Fee-free card
Pay at the real rate, with no exchange markup.
Open one · Revolut
Pay at the real rate, with no exchange markup.
Open one · Revolut
🚐 Airport transfer
A private car at a fixed price from the moment you land.
Book it · GetTransfer
A private car at a fixed price from the moment you land.
Book it · GetTransfer
Some links are partner links: we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you.
Good to know
Flavours & local habits
🍽️ Worth tasting
- Fondue: melted cheese in a pot, shared and stirred.
- Raclette: cheese melted off the wheel over potatoes.
- Rösti: grated potato fried into a golden cake.
- Swiss chocolate, sold by weight in every town.
- Birchermüesli, devised by a doctor around 1900 and still the standard breakfast.
⚠️ Best avoided
- Everything costs: buy lunch at a Coop or Migros and eat it outside.
- Validate your Swiss Travel Pass before the first journey if you are chaining trains.
- Trains leave at the stated minute, not a moment after. Be early.
- Take mountain weather and mountain kit seriously, even in July.
Getting by
Words that help
English ↔ German
| English | German |
|---|---|
| Hello | Hallo |
| Thank you | Danke |
| Please | Bitte |
| Yes | Ja |
| No | Nein |
| Excuse me | Entschuldigung |
| Goodbye | Auf Wiedersehen |
| Do you speak English? | Sprechen Sie Englisch? |
| I don't understand | Ich verstehe nicht |
| How much is it? | Wie viel kostet das? |
| Where are the toilets? | Wo sind die Toiletten? |
| The bill, please | Die Rechnung, bitte |
| Help! | Hilfe! |
| Cheers! | Prost! |
The essentials
The practical page
CurrencySwiss franc (CHF)
BudgetAbout €200 a day, mid-range
Best seasonMay to September
PlugJ/C · 230V
Tap waterSafe to drink, and among the best in Europe
TippingService is included, round up
Emergency112 / 144
EntrySchengen area: an ID card or passport for EU citizens, 90 days visa-free for UK, US, Canadian and Australian passports.
HealthNo specific vaccination needed. Check that tetanus, polio and MMR are up to date.
Scan to open this guide online, always up to date.
https://offwegooo.com/en/guides/lucerne
Don't forget
Packing checklist
Have a good trip.
Guide made on offwegooo.com · Photos via Pexels · Details are indicative, check before you leave.