Luzerne, Switzerland

Ibis Budget Luzern has the cost .
http://www.ibis.com/en/hotel-6782-ibis-budget-luzern-city/index.shtml

My budget is limited and would like to keep the cost at no more than 125.00 for 1 person.

CHF 125 per person per night should be easy (I assume you are talking Franks), CHF 125 for 3 nights is not possible.
The Luzern tourist site is here: http://www.luzern.com/en/index.cfm This has listings of all hotels so you can compare locations and prices.

Details on the lake Luzern boats are here: http://www.lakelucerne.ch/en/
There are 3 mountains you can go up as day trip from Luzern:

• Pilatus: https://www.pilatus.ch/en
• Rigi: https://www.rigi.ch/en
• Titlis: https://titlis.ch/en

Pilatus and Rigi you can combine with a boat trip. Both have round trips where you get a boat, go up one side of the mountain, back down the other and get a train or bus back.
Titlis is bigger, and the only one with permanent snowcap, a small Glacier you can go in (ice cave) or on.

I have stayed at the Ibis budget in Luzern. It is 1.5 blocks from train s5a5ion in a residen5ial area. Very safe to walk to. Luzern is an expensive town but the Ibis budget worked great for us. It is no frills but clean with a hearty brfast available.

I've stayed at the Hotel Stern several times and would certainly recommend it. The rooms are clean & comfortable and it's in a good location (only about a 10 minute walk to the station).

Three nights will only provide about two days of touring. One trip that you could consider is to take the boat to Alpnachstad, the Funicular up to Mt. Pilatus and then the cable cars down to Kriens. Stop for lunch at Pilatus and enjoy the views.

I stayed at the Hotel des Alpes in Luzern, and would certainly do so again. At least in 2014, I got a room for your price range by e-mailing them directly; their website booking did not have the single room I needed. They are in the old town, a short walk from the train station (just across a flat bridge).

https://www.desalpes-luzern.ch/en/About-us/About-us

With a limited budget, you will want to get food from the supermarkets. There's a Coop and a Migros in town, as well as a smaller Coop and and an Aperto in the train station. The Aperto is more basic, but is open Sundays when the others are closed. Supermarkets have various prepared foods, including sandwiches and salads, as well as one I haven't seen in other countries. That would be "picnic eggs," which are hard-boiled eggs, not refrigerated, that are dyed bright colors to prevent them being confused with uncooked eggs (which are also sold un-refrigerated). I'm also fond of trail mix, since it keeps and doesn't get crushed or spoil quickly.

If you want a sit down meal, you will want to eat at Manora. This is a very high-end cafeteria on the top floor of the Manor department store. The food is cooked fresh to order; it's not sitting on steam tables. Delicious, and half the price of any other sit-down restaurant. The only issues are that it's always packed (locals know it's the best deal in town), and it's only open department store hours, which means early dinner Monday to Friday (I believe they stop serving at 7, but you can stay until 8), lunch only on Saturdays, and no meals on Sundays.

If you need a reasonably priced, sit down meal on a Sunday, go to Tibits. It's on the top floor of the train station (the other train station eateries are on the bottom floor). This is a vegetarian buffet; you pay by weight. They're open for lunch and dinner every day, and again, they're affordable.

You'll notice I'm harping on meal prices. Once you see them for yourself, you'll see why. While the restaurants I went to in Luzern were fine, they were not memorable enough to pay double the price of Manora.

Harold - do you remember if Tibits (also one in Bern) is vegan or just vegetarian? I can't remember....

Nigel - looking at their website, they are vegetarian, but many items are vegan. Here's a sample menu; note the preponderance of items with a V next to them, which are vegan: http://www.tibits.ch/tl_files/content/file/menu/winter_insert_2017_UK_web.pdf

Their London restaurants have totally vegan Tuesdays: http://www.tibits.ch/en/food-drink/vegan.html

neat - didn't know about London (x2) ;-)

Nigel, Tibits in Bern told me they were vegan on Tuesdays when I was there in 2016. I happened to go to the Luzern Tibits in 2017 on a Tuesday, and they were vegan then, too. I believe they're vegetarian the other days of the week. By the way, the Luzern Tibits had expanded to breakfast, too, when I was there last July.

When we went to Switzerland in 2012, we stayed at the Tourist Hotel. I think we got the info from Rick Steves book. We are always on a budget ! I was nervous about this hotel because they said they are a hostel....but we found it delightful, and one of our favorite stays. We had a simple but clean, modern room that had a balcony overlooking the river and looking up at Mt. Pilatus. Eating out IS expensive, so we walked to the nearby Coop and had a wonderful " picnic " on our balcony.....it couldn't have been better. I don't know what the prices would be now, but check it out. Ask for a room overlooking the river. Oh....and it included breakfast.