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Luzern - Mt. Pilatus & Gotthard Panoramic to Lugano: Tours vs. purchasing tickets separately

Posted by on

We will be touring Switzerland in Sept. and are considering the advertised Tours vs. just purchasing tickets separately (with the Half Fare Card).

Luzern day trip to Mt. Pilatus:
The all-in-one day Golden Round tour is priced at 125CHF (No HFC applies)
Pricing for the Steamer towards Mt. Pilatus is 51CHF (I assume 50% off this price with HFC?)
I'm unable to find pricing for the cable car/cogswheel train/bus up to Mt. Pilatus & return to Luzern by land as everything online brings you back to the tours.
Is it even possible to book this separately or are we just better off going with the tour?

Gotthard Panoramic:
We will be taking the Paddleboat from Luzern to Fluelen - but from the reviews I've read, the Panoramic Train portion is not too favorable: "Overpriced, travel too fast for pictures, a lot of tunnels & a rip-off".
Am I better off just booking my own train ride from Fluelen to Lugano saving time/$$$?

Wondering if any travelers have taken these tours and would do it differently now. Thank you.

Posted by
21145 posts

Sure you can do it on your own, but you will not have panorama cars on normal trains. BTW, in order to ride in panorama cars on the Gotthard express, you must travel 1st class.

To just take the boat to Fluelen is 23 CHF w/HFC, Fluelen to Lugano is 23 CHF with HFC (change trains at Erstfeld), then a direct train to Luzern via the new Gotthard Base Tunnel is 30.50 CHF with HFC. So it is 76.50 CHF with a Half Fare Card. 2nd class all the way.

To Pilatus with the lake boat to Weggis, it is 35.60 CHF with HFC, and 19.80 CHF with HFC return via train.

Posted by
16895 posts

Rick's Switzerland guidebook states that the Golden and Silver roundtrip tickets for Pilatus don't save any money over buying full fare as you go. I would use the Half-Fare Card.

Posted by
3 posts

Yeah, I kind of thought that the tour packages are for the hand holders out there and could be figured out on your own. I imagine you can skip cable car /tram waiting lines with a tour - but I prefer the flexibility.

I'm still trying to decide if the Gotthard Panoramic train is worth the extra $$ (or CHF). We're heading to Italy from Luzern and had this idea that the Panoramic train was something really special. But as previously stated, a lot of reviews say it was not worth the extra cost and to just go through the newer tunnel route. Any thoughts?

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