Lucerne, also called Luzern, is a beautiful city in Switzerland situated on the edge of the lake with a striking alpine panorama as a backdrop. It is conveniently accessible from Zurich by train or car. If you fly into Zurich airport, take the train to Zurich hbf and then take the train to Lucerne.
We checked the weather, and it showed a 50% chance of rain, but when we arrived in Lucerne, it was cloudy but not rainy, so we decided to go to Mt. Pilatus.
How to get to Mt. Pilatus from Lucerne
Mt. Pilatus is a mountain massif overlooking Lucerne in Central Switzerland.
There are several ways to get to Pilatus mountain; the most popular tours are the silver and Golden tours. We got the silver tour package, including a train from Lucerne to Alpnachstad (Pilatus Bahn), then a cogwheel railway to Pilatus, a cable car, and gondola from Pilatus to Kriens, and then a bus to Lucerne. The Golden tour includes the cruise from Lucerne to Alpnachstad instead of the train and is costlier than a silver tour and takes more time. If you have a swiss travel pass, you get discounts on both packages. You can do both packages in either direction.
Here is the official Pilatus site to get all the information https://www.pilatus.ch/entdecken/luzern
Alpnachstad The station where you get the cogwheel railway.
Cogwheel Railway is the steepest railway in the world, with more than 45 degrees radiant.
Beautiful scenery en route.
At Pilatus Kulm, there was a restaurant where we purchased some snacks.
There were a couple of viewpoints you could climb to, and they offered breathtaking views. Below us were a few patches of clouds, causing visibility to vary.
Tip: If it is too cloudy or rainy, there might not be any visibility, so check the weather before going up to Mt Pilatus.
Map of Mountain Pilatus showing the major stops including Alpnachstad ,
On the roof, they were playing alpenhorn.
After we had had our fill of the vistas, we took the cable car(dragon ride) to get back to Lucerne.
Beautiful views from the Cable car on our way back to Lucerne.
We can see Lucene lake from here. It was cloudy, so visibility kept changing.
We switch to gondola from cable car at Fräkmüntegg. We also saw people on rope courses and zip lines here.
Things to see in Lucerne
In the evening we walked to the old town. It was very walkable.
There were excellent restaurants next to the river.
Views from the Chapel Bridge.
We crossed the Chaple bridge (Kapellbrucke) to walk along the river. It is the oldest wooden covered bridge in Europe.
The monument of a dying lion is carved in a rock face.
Jesuit church St Francis Cavier
The medieval walls and towers of the old fortress
Beautiful city views from the bridge.
Additional things to see in Lucerne
You can also visit Mt. Rigi and Mt. Titlis from Lucerne if you have more time. We enjoyed our visit to Mt. Pilatus due to the cogwheel railway, which was a different experience.