In a nutshell
- Lucerne, set between mountains and lakes, is one of Switzerland’s most rewarding cities — and totally doable as a weekend trip.
- In this article, local insider Pascal shares his best tips for things to do in Lucerne: top attractions, hidden favorites, and what to skip.
- Foodies, rejoice — Lucerne has a seriously good restaurant scene, from award-winning pizza to the best burger you’ll find in the city.
- Pascal also covers the best viewpoints, quiet escapes, photography spots, and rainy-day activities around Lucerne.
- Plus: honest hotel recommendations for every budget and a straight-talking take on where to stay (and where not to).
Tips and Information for a Vacation in Lucerne
Before we get to our interview, here’s the most important information you need before heading to Lucerne.
Where is Lucerne?
Lucerne sits in central Switzerland on the shores of Lake Lucerne.
The city is only about 50 kilometers from Zurich, 100 kilometers from Basel, and you can reach the capital Bern in under 1.5 hours.
For a day trip to one of the country’s most beautiful river landscapes — the Wasserschloss der Schweiz — you won’t even need an hour’s drive. Go a few more minutes and you’re already in Germany.
The beautiful Lake Constance isn’t far either. Hegau am Bodensee and Konstanz are each only about 130 kilometers away.
Our Hotel Recommendations for Lucerne
Here are our hotel picks in Lucerne for every budget:
Travel Guides for Lucerne
Want even more information for your trip to Lucerne and the surrounding area? Here are a couple of travel guides worth checking out:
111 Places in Lucerne and Lake Lucerne That You Must Not Miss: The books in this series give a great overview of both well-known and lesser-known spots in the region — really useful for first-timers and repeat visitors alike.
Glücksorte in Luzern: This guide introduces you to the most beautiful places in Lucerne and the surrounding area. It’ll lead you to the city’s most charming corners and help you discover some great day-trip destinations.
Interview with a Local: The Best Insider Tips for Lucerne
Our Lucerne Expert
I’m Pascal and I live in Lucerne. I didn’t grow up here — but honestly, that’s not a disadvantage at all.
I settled in Lucerne a few years ago and have been discovering the city and the surrounding area a little more every day since. As a “newcomer,” you often see a place through a completely different lens than the people who grew up there. By now I know the city so well that I’ve been able to give even locals a tip or two.
On my blog pascalfertiglos.ch I focus on smartphones and especially smartphone photography.
Lucerne in Three Words
Kitschily beautiful fairy-tale city.
Why Visit Lucerne?
Lucerne is a genuinely cozy, manageable city sitting right in the heart of Switzerland’s mountains and waterways — and it’s a fantastic destination for curious travelers.
You’ll find trendy cafés, hipster shops, and well-known brand stores, yet within a short time you can be right in the middle of the Alpine world to unwind. It’s that combination that makes Lucerne so special.
Lucerne is also a great base for exploring the wider region. Within an hour you can reach famous spots like the Rigi railway or Pilatus. And if you want to take a day trip to Zurich or Bern, both cities are reachable by train in under an hour.
There’s even a direct connection to St. Gallen via the Voralpen-Express — a stunning panoramic route that lets you visit one of the oldest cities in Switzerland and still be back in time to cool your feet along the shores of Lake Lucerne.
To the tour: Classic Rigi Round Trip
To the tour: Lucerne’s Famous Mountain — Trip to Pilatus
Places in Lucerne You Won’t Find Anywhere Else
The Chapel Bridge with its Water Tower. The bridge is made of wood and completely covered. At nearly 700 years old, it’s the oldest wooden bridge in Europe — even though it had to be almost completely rebuilt after a fire in 1993.
If you consider that cheating, there’s also the Spreuer Bridge. Built in 1408 and preserved ever since. Both bridges are seriously beautiful structures and offer wonderful photo opportunities.
Things to Do in Lucerne: Sights and Activities
Must-Sees in Lucerne
As already mentioned: the Chapel Bridge and the Spreuer Bridge are non-negotiable.
If you love sculpture, make time for the Lion Monument. It’s over 200 years old and depicts a lion dying from a spear in its back — carved to commemorate the Swiss Guards who fell during the French Revolution. It’s genuinely moving.
Beyond that, I can only recommend wandering through Lucerne’s historic center. Anyone who loves historic architecture will be utterly amazed. And even if that’s not really your thing, you’ll almost certainly stumble across a charming café or an interesting specialty shop in the sometimes narrow alleyways.
Just skip the tourist shops you’ll keep passing — they’re easy to spot, plastered with Swiss crosses. They sell only clichéd souvenirs that hardly anyone in Switzerland actually has at home.
Things to Do in Lucerne When It Rains
There are various museums, cafés, and several movie theaters. If you’re into arthouse cinema, head to the Bourbaki. The building is circular and used to be a rotating parking garage — the middle floor now houses a restaurant that still rotates occasionally, thanks to the original mechanism still being in working order.
If you enjoy paintings, the upper floor of the Bourbaki is home to a massive 360-degree panoramic painting from the 19th century. Ten meters high and 112 meters in circumference — it’s seriously impressive.
If you’re into airplanes, trains, construction equipment, cars, ships, or space travel, you absolutely have to visit the Verkehrshaus Luzern — the Museum of Transport. You’ll find everything here related to transportation in Switzerland and around the world. There are many one-of-a-kind exhibits you can actually step inside, including a submarine that once sailed Lake Geneva, plus various helicopters and fighter jets.
As a bonus, the Verkehrshaus also has an IMAX theater with a small exhibition on film history. Wonderful documentaries run during the day, while evenings are mostly devoted to feature films. You can book your admission online in advance.
Book tickets to the Verkehrshaus Luzern online
Lucerne and the surrounding area also have a huge number of escape rooms — they’ve been popping up everywhere in recent years.
Or consider a special boat trip that works even in bad weather: there are wine tastings on an old steamship, for example, or a murder mystery dinner. You’ll usually need to reserve in advance, though.
Panorama boat trip on Lake Lucerne
Lucerne with Kids
Go to the Verkehrshaus. Trust me: they’ll love it.
If you want to explore the city with your kids, you can also do a Foxtrail — a scavenger hunt with special routes for children. It’s a really fun way to discover Lucerne’s old city walls, for example.
Quiet Spots Around Lucerne
Not the Rigi or Pilatus. They’re beautiful, but usually very crowded. And taking the train up costs so much that even us Swiss feel the pinch.
A very easy walk leads up to the Sonnenberg — more of a hill than a mountain, but the views are wonderful. If you’d rather not hike, you can drive to Kriens and take the Sonnenbergbahn cable car up.
The smaller villages of Meggen and Vitznau are also lovely. But if you really want to be out in nature, there are countless spots nearby. Almost every mountain has a cable car — you just have to choose.
A Place in Lucerne to Breathe and Unwind
If you’re willing to get up a bit earlier, I recommend Melchsee-Frutt. The journey takes a little while, but it’s easily doable by public transit.
It’s a truly beautiful spot where you can hike to your heart’s content or simply spend the whole day wandering between the various small alpine lakes.
Best Viewpoint
It depends on what you’re after. If you want to look out over the city of Lucerne with its iconic wooden bridge, head up to Schloss Gütsch.
If you prefer nature and the lake, walk from Lucerne into the Bireggwald forest and keep going until you’re looking toward the Bürgenstock. The panorama there is breathtaking.
The easy hiking trail from Lucerne up to the Sonnenberg or the Dietschiberg also delivers some really beautiful vistas.
Cool Spots for Photography in Lucerne
It always depends a bit on what you like to photograph. For architectural photographers, the facade of the University of Lucerne is seriously exciting — and it’s conveniently located right at the train station.
Otherwise, I recommend Steinenstrasse. It’s lined with colorful building facades, and at the end of the dead-end street there’s a wall painted with a giant mural that makes it look as though the street and its buildings just keep going. Super cool effect.
Craziest Activity in Lucerne
Hmm, that’s hard to answer without knowing what you consider crazy.
There’s a historic night watchman city tour that actually begins at nightfall — for some people, that might already be wild enough.
There’s also someone who takes you around Lucerne and the surrounding area by rickshaw. Definitely not an everyday sight in the city.
Then I once heard about a beer tour where someone shows you the secret spots in Lucerne while making sure you always have a cold beer in hand. I’ve never tried it myself, but apparently it’s a lot of fun.
Best Event of the Year
The Lucerne Festival. There’s music all over the city — some stages charge admission, but there are also dozens of spots where (often up-and-coming) musicians perform for free, usually right next to cafés. So you can sit back, enjoy a coffee or something else to drink, and just soak it all in.
If you love a fairground atmosphere, come when Lucerne hosts the Määs. In addition to a large Ferris wheel right on the lakeshore, there are countless other rides and plenty of market stalls.
Best Museum in Lucerne
The Verkehrshaus — yes, again. But I’ve already gone on at length about that.
If you’re into modern art, it’s worth checking out the KKL. That said, it’s really more for connoisseurs and art lovers.
Much more exciting is the concert hall at the KKL, where film classics are regularly screened with the entire score performed live by an orchestra. It’s a pretty unique and impressive experience. You can’t really just drop by on a whim, though — plan your visit around the showtimes and buy tickets in advance.
Best Neighborhood for a Stroll
Tough call. I love the old town — cobblestones, narrow alleyways, the lakeside promenade, the banks of the Reuss with its cafés. It’s just really pleasant there.
But I also love the new town. It’s less touristy, with lots of interesting cafés and shops, a youthful energy, and a sense of something new always happening.
Food and Drink in Lucerne
Local Culinary Specialties
Birewegge. A sweet pastry you can find pretty much everywhere here — I could eat it all day long. But buy it from a bakery, not a supermarket.
Quick heads-up: In Lucerne, you’ll feel like there’s a confectionery on every corner selling handmade chocolate, often stacked in giant slabs in the shop windows. But it’s almost entirely a show for tourists. Sure, the chocolate is delicious and looks amazing — but locals rarely buy it.
If you want typical Swiss chocolate that you’d actually find in Swiss households, just head to Migros or Coop. Even in the smaller supermarkets, the chocolate aisle is enormous. Classic Swiss brands are of course Lindt and Toblerone. Very popular locally are also Frey, Cailler (Frigor), and Ovomaltine chocolate.
My personal tip: Pick up a Ragusa. Best chocolate ever!
Three Favorite Restaurants
Wolf — the burgers there are unbeatable. If you’re asked whether you want a light or dark bun, go for dark: you’ll literally receive a burger on a jet-black bun. It looks incredible.
La Bestia — a pizzeria that had only been open a year when it already ranked among the very best in Switzerland. The pizzaiolo won the Pizza World Championship in Rome in 2018, and readers of Switzerland’s largest daily newspaper voted La Bestia the best pizzeria in the country in 2019.
Everything is made completely from scratch by hand — you can even choose between different types of flour for the dough. And no, there’s no Hawaiian pizza. The best pizza is probably the house pizza “La Bestia.” At 32 francs (about 30 euros), though, it’s also seriously expensive.
Then there’s Drei Könige — I don’t have a specific dish to recommend since the menu changes fairly regularly. But honestly, I don’t even need to give you a tip, because the food is simply always good whenever you eat there.
Make a reservation at all three restaurants.
Best Burger in Town
Already answered that one. Definitely at Wolf.
Best Ice Cream in Town
The best ice cream is right next door to Wolf — a tiny little counter called Gelateria dell’ Alpi.
They serve incredibly delicious homemade ice cream. In addition to the classic flavors, adventurous eaters will find some pretty unusual options too — I’ve spotted beet ice cream and pineapple-basil there before.
Alternatively, head to Amorino in the old town near the lakeside promenade. The ice cream there is good, though not quite as good as dell’ Alpi’s. That said, it’s so beautifully presented that you’d almost want to buy it just for the looks. Amorino is a chain found almost everywhere in Europe now — but it’s still very tasty.
Breakfast
A lovely spot with great food is Mill’Feuille, right on the Reuss river. It’s nicest when you manage to snag a seat outside directly by the water — but that’s extremely difficult. Reserve ahead of time, as it’s always very busy.
Nightlife
Honestly: I’m not much of a night-out person, so I can’t be of much help here. The clubs in Lucerne are fairly spread out — there’s no big, typical club strip.
Your best bet is to start at the train station and stroll up Pilatusstrasse. There are a few clubs, bars, and a movie theater along the way.
Where to Stay in Lucerne
This is actually a pretty tricky question — as a local, I’ve never had to book a hotel in Lucerne. So how am I supposed to give good advice?
What I can say is this: if you’re traveling on a budget, you can go ahead and forget about all the hotels along the Reuss riverbank and the lakeside promenade. They’re pretty expensive, even for us Swiss.
As far as I know, there are some very nice vacation apartments in Lucerne. Hotel owners probably won’t be happy to hear this, but hey, I’m just being honest: I’d check there first, since it’s likely the most affordable option.
