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Itinerary
Day 1 – Reached Lucerne Railway Station. Hotel Checkin and then toured Lucerne with kids.
Day 2 – Mt Pilatus Day trip from Lucerne – AMAZING!
Day 3 – Day trip from Lucerne to Interlaken to Lauterbrunnen to Grustscalp to Murren to Gimmelwald to Stechelberg and back to Lucerne by evening. Click here to know how we did it and if it is possible with kids.
Day 4 – Lake Lucerne and afternoon train to Venice
Places Covered
- Lucerne – Lucerne is insanely beautiful and 5 minutes walk out from the railway station to almost all the extremely scenic spots. It is very easy to go around by bus as well since we used that to go back to our Hotel. The most popular attractions here are completely free.
- Mt Pilatus – http://www.pilatu
s.ch/ . A scenic mountain with a gondola ride. The views from Gondola are spectacular. - Bernese Oberland Region – Involves a most scenic train ride if you are visiting from Lucerne
Our trip
Day 1
We reached Lucerne Railway Station in the morning, checked in to our hotel and started exploring. Watch our Lucerne video here. Here is a list of things to do in Lucerne
Chapel Bridge – Kapellbrucke
This is stated to be the oldest covered bridge in all of Europe. It was destroyed by fire in 1993 however they restored it to look just like the original.
I can say that is it one of the most beautiful bridge I have walked on. Its covered, wooden, decorated with flowers boxes on either side and old triangular paintings on the ceilings, the majestic swans swirling in the water and the amazing views. You cant go wrong walking here to get to the other side. Eat at one of the restaurants or if on a budget head back to the station for the restaurants or COOP there.
This is a 5 minutes walk from the station.
Old Town – Alstadt
Old town has plenty of places to eat or just stop for a coffee. This is the medieval town of Lucerne and has some cobbled streets to wander and places to admire.
Lake Lucerne
Oh! So beautiful – Lake Lucerne. Our favorite lake is Lake Crescent in Olympic National Park and when we went on our scenic train journey from Lucerne to Interlakern we saw a lot of lakes we wanted to get off at. We told ourselves that this CANNOT be our last visit to Switzerland. There are a lot of ways to enjoy a cruise on the lake. Mt Pilatus, Mt Rigi are excursions that are easily done from Lucerne. We did Mt Pilatus another way and that is for Day 2 blog.
Lucerne Railway station
HAHAHA! I loved the railway station. Great places to eat. Great desserts. A good provision store COOP. Their hot spinach empanadas were delicious and we bought a lot of fresh fruits and chocolates from here.
Day 2
Day trip from Lucerne to Mt Pilatus
Mt Pilatus is spectacular. We made lots of memories and we absolutely recommend going to Mt Pilatus if you are in Lucerne.
This is how we went with our 2 kids age 2 and 7.
Cost – Approx 72 Francs for adults and 36 Francs for kids age (6-16)
1. Lucerne to Kriens- Bus 15 mins
2. Kriens Bus stop to Gondola ride in Kriens – Walk ~10 mins
3. Gondola ride from Kriens – via the Krienseregg to the Fräkmüntegg summit terminus – 30 mins.5 minute aerial cableway ride to Mount Pilatus with breathtaking views!
5. Return the same way down and stop at Fräkmüntegg restaurant and then at Krienseregg to spend hours at the park.
There is a Silver Round Trip and Golden Round Trip as well.
Golden RT – Boat from Lucerne to Alpnaschad (90 mins) and then Cogwheel train (40 mins)
Silver RT – Train to Alpnaschad and then Cogwheel (40 mins)
We took bus number 1 from Lucerne bus stop to Kriens and got down after 10 minutes at Mt Pilatus bus stop. We bought an icecream and started walking. There are directions to Mt Pilatus and it is an uphill walk for 5- 10 minutes. We took our stroller and the little one slept off and woke up only when we reached Mt Pilatus. He loved the Gondola when we went down and wanted to do it again.
The views from Gondola are spectacular. We have to get off Frakmuntegg and change to take the aerial cableway to reach Mt Pilatus. This aerial cableway, also called Dragon Ride, goes up from 4600 feet to approx 7000 feet and the views are out of this world. Once you reach Mt Pilatus, you walk into a closed viewing area where you can buy some hot chocolates or buy some trinkets. We walked to the Dragon Cave. It is believed that Dragons lived here in 1400’s and this just fascinated my kid. After some quick hot chocolates we set out to see the panoramic views and play with some snow that was kept there for kids. We climbed a few steps to hear the amazing music being played by 2 talented musicians. We then went on a hike to ESEL and saw astonishing views. My kid couldn’t get enough of the climb and said that hiking was his favorite thing to do and looked really happy with the experience.
We went down to Frakmuntegg. Frakmuntegg has a restaurant where we ate during our descent and it also has alpine slide that was closed that day. We then took the gondola to Kriensregg to the Pilu Land. We spent hours at the playground and let our kids enjoy playing in the beautiful scenic location. We then took the gondola down to Kriens and walked down to the bus stop , took the bus to Lucerne and spent time in Lucerne before heading back to our hotel room.
What an amazing day trip!!! We were looking forward to our Day 3 – a day trip from Lucerne to Bernese Oberland Region. Most scenic train journey to Interlaken and travel to Lauterbrunnen, Murren, Gimmelwald and more in one day!!!
Day 3
The most wonderful part of our decision to stay in Lucerne was the train journey from Lucerne to Interlaken to the Bernese Oberland Region. It was the most scenic train journey I have ever experienced.
Day trip from Lucerne to Bernese Oberland area with our two kids age 7 and 2.
Trip Cost: Approx CHF 50 one way.
Lucerne to Interlaken OST(Scenic train 1hr50 min)
Interlaken to Lauterbrunnen (20 mins train)
Lauterbrunnen to Grutscalp (5 mins cable car ascent)
Grutscalp to Murren (15 mins Mountain Train)
Murren – walk in Murren village to reach the cable car stop (20 mins walking with lots of restaurants) This is car free village.
Murren to Gimmelwald (Walk or cable car descent)
Gimmelwald to Stechelberg (Cable car descent)
Stechelberg to Lauterbrunnen (Public Bus)
Lauterbrunnen to Interlaken (20 mins Train)
Interlaken to Lucerne (Scenic train 1hr50 min)
Lucerne Railway Station:
We bought the ticket at the Lucerne train station from an automatic Kiosk. It was 1 hour 50 minutes of scenic blasts. Beautiful beyond words. The lakes, mountains, waterfalls with quaint Swiss houses, you cannot get tired of it. Get snacks/fruits for the kids and they will enjoy the train ride. Lot of tourists from Asia and all over the world traveled with us!!!
Interlaken – We got off from the train station to see Interlaken. We crossed the road and saw a coffee shop by the lake and cruise boat waiting to depart. We had hot chocolate at the open cafe. We enjoyed the wonderful views, took a restroom break and let the kids run for a while. We went back to the station to buy our onward ticket to Lauterbrunnen.
Interlaken to Lauterbrunnen – There is a train every 30 minutes and it takes 25 minutes to reach Lauterbrunnen. We opted to go to the Swiss villages which is quintessential Switzerland and we wanted to experience the scenic walks and spectacular views from the cable cars and trains.
Lauterbrunnen to Grutscalp
From Lauterbrunnen, walk across the street to the cable car station, up the stairs and we took the cable car to Grutscalp (5 minutes) and from there we took the train to Murren (20 minutes).
Grutscalp to Murren to Gimmelwald
As soon as you get to Grutscalp the train for Murren is waiting for us. We were high up in the alps and the scenary was amazing. We walked a lot in Murren and had lunch on the way. We then reached a stop for the cable car up to Schilthorn or cable car down to Gimmelwald. We decided to walk to Gimmelwald and we walked for around 15 minutes and it was drizzling and we saw the cable car go past us and kids wanted to go in that cause it looked fun and so we decided to go back up and take the cable car to Gimmelwald. Cable car was really amazing though crowded. We got down at Gimmelwald and that village was empty, secluded and so pretty. It has a mountain lodge. It was quiet and very peaceful. Kids enjoyed at the park with the mountain and valley views!! I could live here, it was that beautiful.
Gimmelwald to Stechelberg to Lauterbrunnen
We then took the cable car down to Stechelberg. This was a huge descent which amazing views of the valley and water fall. We then walked towards Trummelbach falls. We had time before the bus comes to drop us back to Lauterbrunnen. The bus ride was smooth and beautiful. I cant use the word beautiful enough to describe Switzerland. This country is so well planned for tourists. Its simply magical.
Lauterbrunnen to Interlaken to Lucerne
We reached Lauterbrunnen, bought our tickets and bought food at COOP (grocery store) and were off to Interlaken and then train to Lucerne. We reached Lucerne at night and since sunset happened only at 10, there was still daylight. We took the bus to our hotel. Little one had slept for 2 hours in the train. All the running around in Murren and Gimmelwald and excitement about the cable cars must have exhausted him!!
SO WORTH IT
Was this worth it… every little bit. Was it tough.. not at all. We went with the flow without planning too much. Keep ample water, snacks and warm clothes for all. They will love it! We wanted to go to Mt Rigi the next day before we took our train to Venice however since we got up late, we just enjoyed Lucerne a bit more !!!
Next day
Train to Venice from Lucerne in the afternoon – Both kids slept in the train after we played games and ate. More about Venice in the next article.