Questions about planning a trip to lucerne, switzerland from Frankfurt over a weekend

I suggest you consider more than one mountain, and bookmark their summit-cams so you can check for fog before setting out. Do you understand how expensive Switzerland is? Just warning you.

• Getting from Zürich to Luzern is easy. 7 am is not early, there are trains through the night. There are trains at 07:09, 07;35, 08:09, 08:35 etc. But "cheap" and Switzerland do not mix. The full fare is CHF 25. You may be able to find some cheaper advance purchase fares on the SBB (Swiss Railways) website, but that involves committing to a specific train, and if your bus is late, hard luck. You can look this all up on the SBB site: http://www.sbb.ch/en/home.html
• Luzern to Titlis is just another train to Engelberg, then the cable car up the mountain. You can look it all up on the SBB website, just put in Zürich HB to Titlis, date 24/9/16, time 07:00. The 07:35 train from Zürich, change at Luzern and Engelberg, will get you to the summit of Titlis at 09:55
• After Titlis, possibly spend a few hours in Engelberg, then return to Luzern. It will get dark about 7 pm, so you won't have many hours.
• Cheapest hotel in Luzern will be about CHF 100. Do an internet search for "hostels Luzern" if you want something cheaper. You will have to ask them if you can leave your luggage there. Or you could leave it at Luzern station.
• On Sunday, you could take a boat on the lake. And spend some time exploring Luzern.

One problem is the weather. It is not worth going up a mountain if the top is in cloud. The usual advice is to be flexible. Decide on the day if the weather is good enough, if not wait a day. But you don't have that luxury, as you only have one night in Luzern.

You just bought a cheap ticket to the single most expensive place in Europe. So throw any thoughts of saving money away right now. The round trip cost from Engleberg to Titlis is 89 CHF. The round trip from Luzern to Engelberg is a 35.60 CHF for a Passepartout 7-zone day pass. Of course that will give you free use of the transport in that area for the rest of the day (except mountain rail/cable cars). There is a Tell Pass for 170 CHF for 2 days that will cover everything out of Luzern, but if it is an inclement weekend, it will all be wasted.

Alright i take your advice and prepare for a heavy expense. Now i am thinking of optimizing as much as i can.
I am looking for budget accommodation in lucerne or engelberg and i don't know if i should be booking in advance whatever deal i see online or go there and negotiate a better price. In case i stay in lucerne, i am not sure they will let me check in so early in the morning and still let me stay through the night counting it one day. I will have to first take a train to lucerne and then to engelberg and back on the same route. Is there any optimized package for this ? I mean something i can buy at zurich which will take me to lucerne first and then to engelberg-titlis and back ?
Can you please tell me more about this 2 day pass as i need to go somewhere else on sunday and then back to zurich ?

I am not sure what you mean by "optimised package" or "which package to buy" in your original post.
You just buy a ticket from A to B. If you are staying in Luzern, buy a ticket in Zürich to Luzern, and a return in Luzern from Luzern to Titlis. Return tickets are only valid for one day. On the Sunday buy a ticket from Luzern to Zürich.
If you are thinking of doing other travel in and around Luzern, for example boats, then investigate the pass Sam mentioned. If just doing A to B travel, they probably are not worth it.

You can leave your luggage at Luzern station (pay).

I would book your hotel ASAP, do not assume you can get one when you arrive, if you try that you may only find expensive hotels.

Another possible timesaver. Most of the buses from Germany to Switzerland stop in Basel then Zürich. Basel is as nera to Luzern as Zürich. You might save time (but not money) by getting off the bus in Basel and taking the train from there to Luzern, and vice-versa on the way back.

or go there and negotiate a better price

This is Switzerland. Not likely.

This site gives details on the Tell Pass, as well as a hotel search engine. Looks like the Jailhotel in Luzern has bunk beds for 75 CHF. Buy the pass at the Luzern train station when you arrive.
http://www.myswissalps.com/tellpass

Add cost of 25 CHF for the train from Zurich to Luzern, same for the return. This is cheaper than the price from Basel. Looks like you could save a small amount by buying nonrefundable Supersaver tickets in advance. With these, you must be on the exact train and time on the ticket or it is worthless. http://www.sbb.ch/en/home.html

I believe the Zurich bus station is at Sihlquai terminal, a short walk from Zurich main train station. Check your bus ticket to confirm.

You may also want to consider staying in Lucerne. You can take the cable car/cog wheel train to the top of Mt. Pilates. There are really nice boat trips on the lake, the Swiss transport museum is there and many museums. There is also Mt. Riggi.

I echo everyone else is that Switzerland is not cheap. It would be sad to go to Engleberg and not be able to see anything from the top of Titlis. If you stayed in Lucerne there would be other things to do if fogged or rained in.

Tell summer pass and it looks fascinating. With just 170 CHF i can travel all around lucerne for 2 days. Here is what i plan to do: (as many as possible)

• Lucerne - engelberg - titlis (including all cable cars and gondolas)
• Mt rigi
• Mt pilatus
• local sightseeing around lucerne (bridge, church, old town)

So my questions:
- tell pass covers everything above ? Anything i might need to buy somewhere ? I just take the transport with the pass in my pocket right ?
- Possible to cover it all in two days ?
- how much time i should spend in rigi and pilatus ?
- Explore lucerne after 5 PM ?

On website I posted, there is a downloadable pdf with a map and 2 pages of highlighted sites including Titlis, Rigi, and Pilatus, all boats on Lake Luzern (Vierstaettersee actually I believe), trains and buses.
With one day at Titlis, you probably have time on Sunday for either Rigi or Pilatus. Doing both maybe gilding the lily so to speak. Pick one, also check the weather that morning.
Yes, just carry the pass with you along with your ID and show it when official people ask to see it.

Thank you everyone for the information. I returned back today morning and it was a great trip. Everything went according to plan :)
Feel free to ask any questions or anything regarding above plan and i will be happy to help.
Some little information i would like to add here which might be applicable for above itinerary -

• If you plan to buy tell summer pass, make sure to buy only extension tickets to and from Zurich rather than full tickets.
• If you are trying to save money on food, Migros is your friend.
• The cheapest water would be again from Migros (only the bigger store, not smaller ones) and free of cost from public fountains.

So, what DID you do? :)

Places, good/bad (be nice), accomodations, etc.

Good trip!