Lucerne Is One Hour From Zurich Airport (But Americans Still Skip It)
Most Americans land in Zurich, spend a day or two, and head south to the Alps.
Lucerne sits right in the middle of that route, about an hour from Zurich by train, and a lot of people skip it entirely. That’s a mistake.
Zurich is a fine city, but Lucerne is the postcard version of Switzerland: the lake, the mountains, the medieval bridges, all of it.
And it takes about 65 minutes to get there from Zurich Airport for around $30.
Getting There
The train runs directly from Zurich Airport to Lucerne roughly every 30 minutes. The whole trip takes just over an hour and costs about $30 each way.
You clear customs, find the train platform, and you’re in Lucerne before jet lag has time to fully kick in.
If you’re flying into Zurich and heading somewhere else in Switzerland afterward, Lucerne makes a logical first stop instead of staying in the city.
The Bridge
Lucerne’s Chapel Bridge (Kapellbrücke) is the oldest covered wooden bridge in Europe. It was built around 1333, which means it’s been crossing the Reuss River for nearly 700 years.
In August 1993, a fire caused by a discarded cigarette destroyed most of it in a single night. Lucerne rebuilt it in eight months, using traditional construction methods, and reopened it in April 1994.
Some of the original 17th-century triangular paintings that line the roof survived. Others didn’t. You can still see the scorch marks on some of the beams.
The bridge is free to cross. It’s about two minutes on foot from the train station. And the Water Tower standing at its bend, even older than the bridge itself at around 1300, once served as a prison and torture chamber.
A detail the tourist brochures tend to bury.
The Mountain
Mount Pilatus is Lucerne’s local mountain. You can see it from the city center on a clear day, and you can be at the summit in about an hour.
The classic route is the Golden Round Trip: a boat across Lake Lucerne to Alpnachstad, then the steepest cogwheel railway on the planet up to the summit at 2,132 meters.
Then a cable car and gondola back down to the suburb of Kriens, and a trolleybus back to the city. Five different types of transport in one day.
A cable car round-trip ticket runs CHF 64 for adults (about $72), and the cogwheel train up from Alpnachstad costs CHF 5 per segment.
If you have a Swiss Travel Pass, you ride at 50% off. With a Lucerne Travel Pass, Pilatus is free.
There are two hotels at the summit if you want to wake up above the clouds, though the rooms aren’t cheap:
What It Costs to Stay
Lucerne is Switzerland, so it’s not going to surprise you on price. Budget hotels run around $130 to $180 a night.
Mid-range options with lake views and breakfast included average around $300. Peak summer (June through August) pushes prices up sharply. May and September are worth considering if you have flexibility.
A hostel dorm bed at Backpackers Lucerne runs around $53 a night, which is reasonable for Switzerland.
The Lucerne Visitor Card, included automatically when you stay in any registered accommodation, gives you free use of city buses and trams. That covers getting to Pilatus, the old town, and the lake ferries without touching your wallet again.
Where to Stay
Hotel des Balances sits directly on the Reuss River in the old town, steps from the Chapel Bridge. It’s ranked number one in Lucerne on TripAdvisor.
Most travelers agree the location is hard to beat, the river terrace is one of the better breakfast spots in the city, and the staff puts in the work.
Rooms on the river side are small (often mentioned) but the views from the upper floors more than cover for it.
Art Deco Hotel Montana is on a hillside above the lake. It has a private funicular that runs 24 hours a day from the lobby down to the waterfront.
Travelers who book a lakeside room almost universally say the balcony view of the Alps across the water is worth the upgrade.
It’s a 15-minute walk along the lake to the old town, and hotel guests ride city buses for free.
Hotel Schweizerhof Luzern has been open since 1845 and sits right on the lake promenade, about five minutes on foot from the train station.
Mark Twain and Tolstoy both stayed here, which the hotel leans into – each of the 101 rooms has a small book telling the story of a famous past guest.
Lake-facing rooms with a balcony are the pick. People who book a city-side room occasionally mention street noise from the quai below.
Recommended budget hotels:
Barabas Hotel Luzern is a former city jail converted into budget accommodation. The rooms are actual converted cells, so small is part of the deal.
Guests consistently point to the staff, the location (a 10-minute walk from the train station and the Chapel Bridge), and the cleanliness as above average for the price.
Rooms on the street-facing side get noise, so it’s worth requesting a room in the original prison wing when you book.
Ibis budget Luzern City has clean, compact rooms about 15 minutes on foot from the station, at prices that are about as low as Lucerne gets for a private room.
Reviewers say it’s a place to sleep before a full day out, but not more than that. The free Lucerne Visitor Card is included here too, which takes some of the sting out of the nightly rate.
The Old Town
The old town on both sides of the Reuss River is easy to walk in half a day. The covered Spreuerbrücke bridge, a little further downriver from the Chapel Bridge, has its own set of 17th-century paintings and gets about a tenth of the foot traffic.
The Lion Monument is a 9-meter sandstone carving of a dying lion commissioned in 1820 to honor Swiss Guards killed during the French Revolution.
It takes about 90 seconds to find and about ten minutes to stand in front of. Mark Twain called it the most mournful piece of stone in existence. It’s free to see.
Crowds ?
Lucerne is one of the most visited cities in Switzerland, and in July and August it shows.
Tour buses unload at Schwanenplatz, the square just north of the Chapel Bridge, in rotating shifts throughout the afternoon.
By 3pm on a summer weekday, the old town pedestrian zone is shoulder-to-shoulder. By 4:30, it’s worse.
The bridge is accessible 24 hours and free to cross any time. Go before 8am and you’ll have it nearly to yourself.
The crowd pattern works in your favor if you stay overnight rather than doing Lucerne as a day trip from Zurich. Day-trippers arrive mid-morning and clear out by early evening.
If you’re staying in the city, the old town after 7pm is quiet enough that it feels like a different place.
September is the practical answer if you have flexibility. Pilatus is still fully open, the weather holds, hotel prices drop from their August peak, and the light on the lake in the afternoon is better than anything summer produces.
Lucerne vs. Zurich
Zurich has better nightlife, more museums, and the airport. Lucerne has the lake, the mountains, and the kind of scenery that people come to Switzerland specifically to find.
The two cities are 41 minutes apart by direct train, and there’s no reason you can’t do both.
If you only have time for one and you want to see what Switzerland looks like, Lucerne tends to be the answer travelers arrive at after the fact, wishing they’d made it the priority.