Lucerne Day Tour from Zurich

I enjoyed the tour and we had plenty of free time in Lucerne to enjoy the city. The itinerary said that we would have a brief tour of the city and we did not. This was a disappointment.

I did the Lucerne "city tour" without the Mount Pilatus component because I had just done a Matterhorn trip the previous day and had had enough of mountain trips for a while. The Old Town area is fun to wander around in. The "Tour" isn't really a tour--the bus drops you off with a paper map that points out possible places to visit. As I am reasonably fit, I hiked up to the steep Musegg Fortification Wall. It was a great place to take photos of Lucerne, as well as see a few animals like buffaloes and jackdaws, which I normally don't encounter. Certain areas have electrified wire, so don't back up into these areas when walking backwards to get a landscape shot. For those people who continued up to Mount Pilatus, probably all they had time to see while in Lucerne itself was the Lion Monument, and the Chapel Bridge. As I had 6 hours, I did these plus the Jesuit Church, Rosengart Collection, and Transport House, as well as eat venison sausages and rosti at a fine Swiss Restaurant (Café Le Ville--since the bragged-about Pfister Restaurant was closed)--sort of as a "culture enrichment" day. As long as one is good with a map, you'll find these places. If you use your cell phone to find places-- as you will see dozens of people robotically do with eyes glued to their cellphones- get an international plan, because otherwise you would have to pay heavily if you don't have such a plan. The ride to Lucerne provided many chances to see the unique designs of farm houses in what you pass, so you do see more than if you were taking a train, say from Zurich (which was my base) to Lucerne. If I were to do this trip again, however, I would add Mt. Pilatus. as there aren't enough things that fascinate me for 6 hours in just this one city.

Loved Lucerne was a pleasure to walk around and boat cruise was awesome The only negative would be we thought 6 hours a bit long before bus picked us up again

Wonderful day trip. The bus ride is great and comfortable. Our guide, Antje was PHENOMINAL!! We have 6 hours free in Lucerne before heading back to Zurich. Well worth the money and time, but bring more money, cause shopping is endless and expensive in Switzerland!

It was a nice comfortable drive from Zurich with guide/driver. He gave us a lot information about Switzeland during the ride. We have about 5 hours to explore Lucerne on our own. Nice small town with a lot of sightseeing.

Bus guide had to speak in two languages so spoke nonstop. Once in Lucerne too many people in tour group all herded into Harry’s watches. No one could hear. Bus guide explained where to meet in one language only. We left the city tour after 10 minutes as a few people were dominating the guide who was focused on getting one person to a restaurant. Again in two languages. (If have more than one language you should have two tour groups) at the end of a long day the bus was extremely late arriving. Would never recommend this tour

Excellent tour. Be prepare to walk. We did the walk on the back wall and it was pretty good. You must be fit since there is lots of stairs.

This was a wonderful day with plenty of time to explore Lucerne . The town is picture postcard material with lovely restaurants medieval history and the beautiful lake I would not recommend this tour on a Sunday as the shops are closed and there is 6 hours to fill in without shopping but apart from that highly recommend this tour

Great day trip out of Zurich. Plenty of time for looking around, sightseeing, taking in the sights and shopping too. Enjoyed the visit to Lucerne and look forward to a return visit. The meeting spot for the return journey is convenient and easy to find near the train station. I recommend the day trip for those looking for opportunities to explore Switzerland.

Took this tour in December. Our guide Jorge gave commentary along the way in Spanish and English. Good story and he pointed out interesting spots as well as history. The first stop at the Lion Monument was very brief, but adequate. We were then dropped off at their offices in old town, which turns out are a series of watch and souvenir shops owned by a single company. There you can use the bathrooms without paying a fee. Then we were turned loose for 6 hours on our own. This is both good and bad - if you like a lot of time you can take short 1 hour or long 3 hour cruises on the lake and wander around, or you can get bored. We elected to head back to Zurich on own own by train rather than wait for the bus because the latter was our case, even after taking a one hour lake cruise. Check your vouchers because we had prepaid for the lake cruise but were not given the tickets at the starting point in Zurich which we should have, so Jorge needed to call back and then issue us tickets on location. If you go in December as we did and are looking for Christmas markets, don't settle for the little one in the train station. There is a much larger and more traditional market in the Franziskanerplatz just a few blocks away from the station. All in all a pleasant trip, but we found six hours to wander Lucerne on our own was too long.