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Day Trips from Luzern

If we purchase a 3 day Swiss Travel pass and use Day #1 for the GPE from Lugano to Luzern, what would be the best use of our remaining 2 days? If it made a significant difference in what we could see and do, we could bump up the pass to 4 days. We plan to base in Luzern for 4 nights with hotel points at the Holiday Inn Express Luzern-Kriens. From Luzern, we plan to take the train to Frankfurt with an overnight stop in Heidelberg before our flight back to the U.S.

We are in our late 60's, good health. We have traveled quite a bit but this will be our first experience in Switzerland. Our interests are beautiful scenery and quaint towns with less focus on big cities, museums, etc. My husband will not agree to do much hiking.

Any input is gratefully welcomed. Thank you!

Posted by
3279 posts

A “back door” town that’s less than a 2 hour train trip with some beautiful views and loooong tunnel, is Bellinzona in the Italian-speaking Ticino canton. Three castles worth seeing, a Saturday market in the old town, few tourists, very manageable on foot. I still have my goat bell from my first visit there in ‘89!

Posted by
6462 posts

From Luzern, we took a daytrip to Bern. We found the city very enjoyable, but one day was about enough. We liked the clock tower, the fountains, the interesting old town and the Einstein museum within the larger history museum. Also, there are three mountain trips that you can do easily from Luzern. The Swiss Travel Pass completely covers the trip to the top of Mt. Rigi. It includes a lovely boat road and then the cog wheel train. There is also an option for the gondola. In Luzern we enjoyed the small art museum (Rosengart) that is included in the Swiss Travel Pass.

Another option might be Basel. We liked it very much. It's colorful and a beautiful setting on the Rhine. It has a large, wonderful art museum. However, it is not in the mountains, and I would only go there if you feel like you've "covered" Luzern area.