Fortress Furigen vs Festung Vitznau?

I don't have a comment on either place since I will be in Luzern for the first time in September. But you comment about websites are not translating for you - if you copy the website address and then go to Google Translate - put the website in the box of items to translate and hit enter. Google will do it's best to tranlate the site. It's not 100% accurate but you can at least get an idea of what it is saying on the site.

Festung Vitznau looks more interesting to me. They are open to the public for visits each Friday at 17:00. Tickets are required, cost 15 CHF, and can be purchased at the tourist info point in Vitznau.

There is a limited English translation here:

http://www.festung-vitznau.ch/. (I hope that links to the information page)

Edit: click on the green "Öff. Fuhrungen on the left, or the green "Offentliche BesichtIgungen in the first paragraph, and you will get a page with the English information---scroll down to see it.

Festung Fürigen is near Stansstad and only open on Saturday and Sunday, 11:00 to 17:00. Cost for adults is 7CHF. Students are 4CHF but I don't know if US students qualify.

http://www.nidwaldner-museum.ch/museum/lokalitaeten-zeiten

Thanks so much for you help. I am actually amazed that we will be in Luzern for both Fri and Sat. when these sites are open. I am leaning toward Festung Vitznau in the afternoon after seeing Rigi in the AM if weather permits. Thanks again!

Nice that you can see both! The timing for Vitznau should work out fine if you do the "Rigi loop" clockwise ( boat to Weggis, cablecar up to Rigi Kaltbad, cogwheel train down to Vitnnau. You should have time at Rigi Kaltbad for either a summit ride on the train (to Rigi Kulm) or a nice walk. Make sure you have the schedule for the train down to Vitznau to get there in time to buy tickets for the Festung visit.

Just a warning if you follow Lola's itinerary for the Rigi trip. From the boat dock in Weggis to the cable car is a VERY steep hike up, taking about 20 minutes. (I did it in the reverse direction, and it took 10 minutes; even going downhill, it was so steep in parts that it was uncomfortable). If you can't do this, go both ways via Vitznau, where the transition from the dock to the train is both short and only slightly inclined.

I have to admit I do prefer the counter-clockwise version--that is a steep (albeit relatively short) hike the other way.

Luzern to Vitznau is a great ride on the boat (or steamer if you can schedule it).

Here is a link to another post in these forums about doing it the other way:

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/transportation/luzern-to-rigi-kaltbad-via-vitznau-not-weggis

I'm not sure that they intentionally took the Weggis option, but they did get off there ;)

Also some hotels (PM me if you need to) offer the ticket at a discount--and their tickets are good for a year versus the tickets from the station that are only good for a day. Seriously.

I had very good luck with Google Translate doing the entire site for me. Of course there are some awkwardnesses, but the translation was very readable, and I could click around the site without entering a new URL in Google.

I suppose the Festung is an interesting artifact. But since there was so little combat in Switzerland, any fortress would be kind of like visiting a battleship that never saw combat, or a U.S. Space Shuttle that never flew into space (we have one of those in NYC.)

It's wise to check the weather or the mountain-top TV camera for viewing conditions, as even on a nice day, Swiss mountains can be fogged in. We also started our summit trip with the railway in Vitznau. We stayed in a luxury hotel in Vitznau, rather than Luzern, because we had a car and wanted to see some of the lake area. I think we took the boat one day to visit Luzern itself, using a Swisspass.