Is EVERYTHING closed on Sundays?

Trains are running. Many restaurants and cafes are open. Grocery stores and some other shops in small villages may have limited hours or be closed on Sundays.

But Luzern is a busy tourist town, and some shops should be open, especially the ones which want to attract tourists. I checked several stores in the Oldtown area (Swatch, H&M, and 2 others and all were closed on Sunday. But all the stores and services in the train station are open 365 days a year if you need anything.

I also check 5 restaurants and all but one were open with regular hours on Sunday.

As is often the case, your friend (or brother-in-law, or guy in the office, etc) is misinformed. Yes, things like department stores, hardware stores, etc will be closed. Restaurants will be open. And large train stations like Luzern and Zurich HB are virtual shopping malls, open on Sundays.

Great, thank you so much, @sam and @lola. That makes sense and is similar to what I’ve experienced in other European cities on Sundays. Cheers!

Large train stations are always your salvation when travelling

one nice thing about Switzerland is that public transit does not run on a reduced schedule on Sundays, like in other countries. So getting around and doing day trips is easy. In fact, lots of people will head for the mountains on Sunday.

Luzern is a nice place to spend some time.

One nice thing about Switzerland is that public transit does not run on a reduced schedule on Sundays, like in other countries.

Of course many of our public transport system runs to Sunday schedules...