Hi everyone,
I have kept 1 day free to explore something near Lucerne. I explored Rigi or Pilatus for hiking (I have a 6 year old so not too strenuous). Which one would you recommend, Rigi or Pilatus? I'm open for other options as well if there is not a lot of travelling time involved.
You people have been great and I appreciate your help.
Thanks!
The walk from Rigi down to the cable car lift is easy and downhill.
Pardon my ignorance but I find transport in Swiss very confusing with all trains, buses, cogwheels, gondolas n boats.
so I will go from Luzern to Vitznau by boat and then Vitznau to Rigi Kulm and then while returning walk down till gondola, where does gondola take you?
https://www.suisse-view.com/360/rigi/summer-map-en/
https://www.rigi.ch/en/Information/Mountain-railways
https://www.rigi.ch/en/Information/Mountain-railways/Timetable-tickets/Online-Tickets-Rigi-Bahnen
You didn't give the month of the year. In any case, it's wise to try for flexibility of the day, since the summit-cam may tell you they are fogged in when you are hoping to go up. Of course, conditions can change as the day warms up.
From Luzern I would take the ferry boat to Weggis. From there walk to the gondola station. Then there's a little train to take you to the summit. You can walk back down to the train station or keep going.
You dont have to decide until you get there and know what the weather will be at either place. The hotel can help you out with that info. We chose Pilatus because it was faster to get there by train than the ferry to Rigi. Yes the return by bus via Kriens was a bit tricky but you can figure it out.
There is a third mountain you can go up from Luzern: Titlis
This is higher that Rigi or Pilatus, and has a (small) permanent glacier at the top you can go in (ice cave) and across (chair lift and bridge)
See website: https://www.titlis.ch/en/adventure?c=60692
Your 6-year-old might be old enough to really enjoy that.
For Titlis, you get a train from Luzern station to Engelberg, then a 10 minute walk to the bottom of the cable car.
And definitely choose the clearest weather day to go up a mountain. No fun if the top is in cloud.
"I find transport in Swiss very confusing with all trains, buses, cogwheels, gondolas n boats."
Before you go there, you're right, it is confusing - all those unfamiliar Swiss-German place names, and the need to keep changing modes of transportation. But when you actually are there, I promise it's easy. Unless they've blasted a tunnel, transit can't go through mountains - only up, down, or around them. So, to get from Luzern to Rigi, you take a boat on the lake, then a train or cable car up the mountain. You can't get lost when you can actually see it in 3-D. Plus, there's lots of people around to ask for help, and just about everyone will speak enough English for the task.
One thing to be aware of: You can ascend to Rigi from either Weggis or Vitznau (on the same boat from Luzern). At Vitznau, it's a short and only slightly inclined walk from the boat dock to the train. But at Weggis, it's a VERY steep uphill climb to the cable car. I walked it downhill (from the cable car to the boat dock) and it took me 10 minutes; it would have taken at least twice as long and been quite unpleasant if I had tried it in the reverse direction. So, if you have any mobility impairment, knee problem, etc, go up and down via Vitznau, not Weggis.
I went to Rigi because it was fully covered on my Swiss Travel Pass, while Pilatus and Titlis would have been only partly covered. I enjoyed it very much, but can't compare it to the other two.
I do agree that you should check webcams before any mountain excursion, and to help you decide which one to do. There's no point in going if the top is solid white out, particularly if another excursion option has better visibility.
