Holidays to Switzerland Travel Podcast Episode 105 Transcript
The best day trips from Lucerne. Top Swiss mountain excursions and charming towns to visit.
You can see the full show notes and listen to this episode > here.
Intro
Are you dreaming of visiting Switzerland? Planning a trip to Switzerland is very exciting, but it can also be overwhelming. How do you choose which of the many scenic cities, towns and villages to visit, which mountain top excursions should you take? And what’s the best way to get around Switzerland and of course, how much of the country can you realistically see within your time frame? If you’ve asked yourself any of these questions, this is the podcast for you. This is the Holidays to Switzerland travel podcast. And in each episode, your host Carol and schola finger chats with Swiss travel experts to answer your most commonly asked questions, provide practical tips and take you on a virtual visit to the most popular destinations, and, of course, some hidden gems to help you plan your dream trip to Switzerland. And you’ll hear plenty of conversations about Swiss cheese and chocolate too. Are you ready to plan your trip to Switzerland? Well, let’s get started.
Carolyn Schönafinger
Hello and welcome to Episode 105 of the Holidays to Switzerland travel podcast. Lucerne is one of the most popular cities in Switzerland for international tourists, and it’s not surprising, because it really is such a charming medieval city with so much to see into, and its location right on Lake Lucerne and surrounded by mountains means that there are plenty of opportunities for exploring beyond the city as well. One of the questions that I hear very frequently in the Switzerland travel planning Facebook group is ‘Which mountain should I visit from Lucerne.’ Most people who are planning to visit Lucerne have heard of one of the mountains, such as Mount Pilatus, Mount Rigi or Mount Titlis, and they’re just unsure which one they should visit. So I’ve invited Céline from Lucerne Tourism to come on to the show today and chat to us about some of the different day excursion options that there are from Lucerne. Céline was on the podcast back on episode 57 when we chatted about the city itself and the many, many things to see and do in Lucerne. So today, she’s here to share with us some of the excursions that you can easily do in either a half day or a full day visit from the city. Welcome back to the Holidays to Switzerland travel podcast Céline.
Céline Deplazes
Thank you, Carolyn. Good to be here again.
Carolyn Schönafinger
Well, it’s great to have you back. What is it about Lucerne that you think makes it such a special city?
Céline Deplazes
I think for me, it is really this combination of the city, the lake and the mountains, which you won’t find anywhere else in Switzerland. I grew up in the countryside. I lived in New York for one year. I did an internship there with Switzerland Tourism. So I’ve got the experience of living in a big city. Then I moved back to Zurich. Now I’m living in Lucerne, and for me, that took the best of all those worlds. I’m still close to the mountains, but I have the offer of culture. We have a lot of festivals happening in the city, so yeah, that’s where my heart belongs, and I love it Lucerne, not just because I work for Lucerne tourism. It’s really I love living here.
Carolyn Schönafinger
No, that’s so great to hear. Now, when you were on the podcast last time, we chatted mostly about things to do in the city itself, and you just mentioned a few of them there. But today, I wanted to focus more on some of the day excursions that visitors can do, because I think a lot of our listeners won’t just be coming to Lucerne for one day, or they’re probably coming for two or three days. So it can be a bit tricky to know which is the best excursion to do and what’s the difference between them all. So I’d like to focus on that today, but just one question I have for you. When we initially were chatting about recording this episode, you mentioned to me that you would like to focus on some of the excursions that people can do outside of the peak season, so in the shoulder season or in winter, why did you want to focus on those particular times of year?
Céline Deplazes
Because I want to be honest, right now the city is very full. So the hotels are very well booked. There’s lots and lots of tourists. Of course, there’s always places where there’s fewer tourists, but in the city center, it’s packed at the moment. And in my opinion, I think the city is beautiful in all the four seasons. Of course, it always depends what you want to do and what you want to see, but it’s really an all year round destination. The mountain excursions we want to talk about in a minute, 90% you can do all around the year. It doesn’t matter when you visit. Same for the city, the sites seeing, the museums. They’re all open all year round. So I think it’s really in people’s minds, it’s that Switzerland is seeing in winter and in summer we go to the city, but in my opinion, or my favorite time of the year is actually like September, October or April, May, when it’s not too hot, it’s beautiful to do some hiking, boat excursions, go to the mountains in the evening, it cools down, but you can still sit outside. So I think it’s like, in some people’s mind, it’s still like you can’t visit a city in winter or on in the shoulder season. But it’s not true. It’s really an all year round destination, not like in the mountain resorts, where you have hotels closed from like April, May and then again, October, November, in December, it’s all open.
Carolyn Schönafinger
Okay, that’s great to know. And you mentioned there that at the moment, the city is very busy. We shouldn’t just let everyone know that we’re recording this episode right at the end of July, so smack bang in the middle of the peak summer season. So if people don’t like crowds, it’s definitely a good idea to visit outside of the summer season.
Céline Deplazes
And I mean also hotel prices, of course, because the demands are much higher than when coming in December, when we have beautiful Christmas markets, or in chandri when we have a light festival, that’s also an aspect to consider when traveling to Switzerland.
Carolyn Schönafinger
Okay, everyone likes to save some money, that’s for sure. Yeah, all right, so let’s start talking about some of these popular day excursions, and we might start with one that’s very close to Lucerne, Mount Pilatus. Can you tell us a bit about the excursion options to Mount Pilatus and what people can see and do when they get there?
Céline Deplazes
Yeah. So as I already mentioned, Mount Pilatus is open all year round. So no matter what day you’re in Lucerne or in the region, you can visit Mount Pilatus. There is just a difference in how to get to the mountain in summer, from April to end of November, which is not summer anymore, but it’s reachable by cogwheel train and by gondola. And also, until mid October, there’s a boat running, so you can do the golden round trip. The Golden round trip is a boat ride to Alpnachstad and then up by cogwheel train to the top, and then down by gondola and back into Lucerne by bus. So that’s possible from May to October, and then during winter, meaning December, January, February, March, April, May. There is the cogwheel train is closed, so you have to go up and down the same way, by gondola, but it’s open every day, and perfectly doable from Lucerne, because we call Mount Pilatus, also our house mountain. So when you arrive in Lucerne, let’s say from Zurich. It’s one of the first mountains that you can see. It’s not like the Matterhorn, but it’s also like no other mountain around when you look at it from Lucerne. And for me, this excursion is really if you want to have an Alpine experience, Mount Pilatus is about 2000 meters above sea level, so you already have those rocks and this Alpine feeling. There’s beautiful activities in the middle station at Strachman deck. I think your husband did the dragon glider and the Rope Park, right? Carolyn, when you were there? Yeah, yeah.
Carolyn Schönafinger
Oh, I did the dragon glider as well, but he did the rope park that was a little bit high up in the air for me.
Céline Deplazes
So, yeah, there’s lots of activities in that middle station. You can grill your own sausage over the open fire. There’s a little shop where you can buy a sausage and some bread and then grill it over that barbecue. So it’s a beautiful excursion for the whole family. There’s some hiking excursions on top, like one hour hikes, more like loops. There’s beautiful viewpoints where you have a great view, or the city and the lake. And a highlight is, of course, if you have the chance to stay up on Mount Pilatus, there’s two hotels, a three and a four star hotel. They’re also open all year round, and the sun sets and sunrises are just spectacular up there. So really, if you have time, I highly recommend to spend the night up there.
Carolyn Schönafinger
Yes, I have stayed the night, and I can definitely agree that the sunset and the sunrise was amazing. So for people that are going perhaps in winter, are there, obviously some of those activities that you mentioned at the middle station aren’t operating. So what sort of things can people do at Mount Pilatus in winter?
Céline Deplazes
In winter, there’s the option to do snowshoeing or tobogganing. So they have call them toboggans, right?
Carolyn Schönafinger
Or sledding? Yeah.
Céline Deplazes
Yeah, exactly. Sledding. You can rent them and. Then there’s the option from also from the middle station to Koreans, where the valley station is, there’s a latching piston, or snowshoeing. There’s, I think, three snowshoe trails that you can do. And the hotels are open. There’s snow on top of the mountain because it’s about 2000 meters above sea level. So also beautiful excursion to do in winter. And they have the highest Christmas market in Europe. So over a weekend, end of November, they also have a Christmas market on top.
Carolyn Schönafinger
Okay, that would be something very special. So how long should someone allow for a visit to Mount Pilatus from Lucerne?
Céline Deplazes
I would say you need at least half a day, meaning, like four to five hours. If you do the golden round trip, we always, we recommend five to six hours, because the boat ride itself is a bit more than an hour already. And then it’s about half an hour to go up by cogwheel train. You want some time on top, and then you head back, which is about again, one hour, one and a half hours till you’re back in Lucerne. So at least half a day. I think in general, it’s always a bit it’s too much if you want to do two mountains in one day.
Carolyn Schönafinger
Yeah, yeah. Okay. So speaking of doing more than one mountain, another one that people like to visit is Mount Rigi. So obviously they should do it on a separate day to mount Pilati. But what’s different about Mount Rigi compared to mount Pilati?
Céline Deplazes
I get this question a lot, and first of all, Mount Rigi is lower. It’s about 1800 meters above sea level. So when you visit in winter, there’s not as much snow as on Mount Pilatus, and also on Mount Rigi, it’s all about trains. So you get there by train. It’s Europe’s oldest mountain railway, and it’s also reachable by boat all year round, which is already a difference to Mount Pilatus. And on Mount Pilatus, for example, you have this Dragon World, which is digitally made in a way, whereas on Mount Rigi, you don’t have any artificial installation or attraction. It’s really all about nature. So lots of hiking trails in summer, lots of house flowers, green meadows. They also call it the three generation mountain, and that’s mainly because it’s a beautiful excursion to visit for elderly people, as well as for toddlers or kids, because it’s not so high. So there’s no issue with the altitude and the hiking trails they have. Some of them are paved, so even with a stroller, it’s perfectly fine to do some hiking or walking. So the main difference is really the landscape. So on Mount Pilatus, you have those rocks with Alpine feeling. On Mount Rigi, it’s more green meadows house flowers. So that’s, I would say, that’s one of the main differences.
Carolyn Schönafinger
Okay, and Mount Rigi, you said that the boat goes all year round, so I presume that the trains go all year round as well.
Céline Deplazes
Yes, exactly. And in winter, it might be a nice option to include a visit in their spa. So they have a hotel including a spa in the middle station. Diggy codbaut, and this is also open all year round. And very important, Mount Rigi is included 100% with the Swiss travel pass, the boat ride, plus the trains on the mountain are all covered with the Swiss Travel Pass.
Carolyn Schönafinger
Fantastic. So would that be a minimum half day as well from Lucerne?
Céline Deplazes
Yes. So Mount Rigi again, you have a boat, which is 40 minutes, then you go up by train about half an hour, 45 minutes. Then you want to spend some time on top having lunch, do some hiking or walking, yeah, at least half a day. But Mount Rigi is also a great mountain excursion to combine when you’re coming from Zurich, for example, because it’s sort of a peninsula in a way. So when coming from Zurich, you can take a train to art goldao, and then you can go up by train to the top and down the other side of the mountain to Vitznau, and from Vitznau, you can take a boat. So instead of going by train directly from Zurich to Lucerne, there’s the option to include this mountain excursion already on the way into Lucerne. So that could be an idea of how to make an arrival day in Lucerne, or when you leave Lucerne, include another mountain, and then, since it’s covered in your Swiss Travel Pass, it’s very easy to do that.
Carolyn Schönafinger
So if people were thinking of doing that, and they were traveling with luggage, what would they do with the luggage? Can they leave it somewhere at the bottom station of Mount Rigi? I mean, they would have to, obviously, then come back down the same way, wouldn’t they?
Céline Deplazes
Yeah, exactly. So the best option would be to use the luggage transfer that with travel system offers. I’m not familiar with how it works, but I’m sure Carolyn, you have a contact, or you can refer to someone. Otherwise I can send you that contact, and that will be an option, probably the best. Otherwise, they have to carry their luggage all the way to the top, and then it’s a bit of a hassle the luggage transfer.
Carolyn Schönafinger
Yeah, okay, I have got some details about that, so I will put those in the show notes for this episode. Probably the third mountain excursion that people consider from Lucerne is Mount Titlis. Now it’s a little further away, but it’s also very popular. So what are the differences for Mount Titlis?
Céline Deplazes
So Mount Titlis is reachable from Engleberg. Engelberg is a 40 minute train ride from Lucerne, direct train, and the difference is to the other two mountains that we’ve just talked about, Pilatus and Mount Rigi. Titlis is the highest of the three of them, so there’s snow all year round, and there’s also glacier. So no matter whether you’re coming in summer or winter, you can see snow on the top in winter there, Mount Titlis is a ski resort, so it has the longest ski season in Switzerland. They open in October, and it ends in not 100% tour, I think end of April or even May. So quite a long ski season. And it’s definitely the most Alpine mountain because you’re surrounded by other mountains, you don’t see the lake, you don’t see the city, which you do from Mount Rigi and Pilatus in the middle station of Mount Titlis. There’s also a big playground for kids. There is a small lake with rowing boats in winter, or actually all year round, on top, since there’s snow, there’s a snow park and the glacier cave. So you have this experience of snow in Switzerland. So this is the excursion. If you want to see snow, you want to have this Alpine ceiling, maybe. And what I really recommend combining it with a stop in the village of Engelberg. There is a beautiful monastery and newly opened cheese diary in the monastery. So it’s more of a day, it’s really a full This is the full day excursion if you want to do the village of engelberg as well, and up to Mount Titlis is probably about half an hour. They would also have a hotel in the middle station where you can sleep. And otherwise, you go up by gondola, and then you change into a bigger gondola, which is a revolving cable car, so you can enjoy the view already while going up to the top.
Carolyn Schönafinger
Very good. So you mentioned there that it’s a very popular ski resort in winter. If someone was visiting just as a day tourist, and they’re not intending to go skiing. Are they going to be in the road of all the skiers? Or the ski part is sort of not where the day tourists go.
Céline Deplazes
I mean, you go up the same way where the skiers go. So you will be with the skiers when going up to the top. But then the skiers, they have different options. But yes, if you want to go to the top, you will be queuing with the people going skiing.
Carolyn Schönafinger
Yeah, obviously the skiers won’t be going to the snow park or the glacier cave because they’re just wanting to go and hit the ski slots.
Céline Deplazes
Exactly. There’s also a suspension bridge that you can visit on the top, a Cliff Walk. That’s the main Cliff Walk. And the skiers, they won’t go there as well. So it’s mainly for the gondola, where you have to wait and queue with the skiers.
Carolyn Schönafinger
Yeah, okay. Now I guess, because it’s reached only by cable car, I guess there’s a short period of time when that is closed for maintenance or or not.
Céline Deplazes
Yeah, yeah. There is a short maintenance period, as far as I remember, it’s in November, but they’re currently building a new cable car and the new station, so quite an impressive construction site right now, on top of the mountain, and when the new cable car or the new station is running. So the cable car will run all year round, because they still have the old station and cable car to use. So it will be open 365, days a year.
Carolyn Schönafinger
Okay, yeah, that’s great, yeah. Let’s talk about a mountain that I visited very recently. I was super impressed with it. It’s probably a little more under the radar than the three that we’ve already talked about, Stanserhorn. So can you tell everybody all about Stanserhorn, please?
Céline Deplazes
Yeah, as you’re saying, it’s really a bit under the radar, but I think it’s a beautiful excursion. Also 100% included. The Swiss travel pass, and it’s more of a mountain to enjoy. So there is not so many hiking options on top, there’s not too many attractions. It’s really the way you reach it is quite special. I’ll talk about it in a minute. And then on top, you have this great view of the mountains, and again, the lake and the city. You can see it from Mount Stanserhorn. What’s quite special, or you have to take it into account when booking or coming to Lucerne, is that Mount Stanserhorn is open from mid April to end of November. So it also closed during winter time. And the unique way of arriving on Mount Stanserhorn is first you have a small funicular, and then you change into an open air cable car. And it always sounds a bit frightening, but Carolyn, you were there and you were a bit afraid of heights, but you were fine, right?
Carolyn Schönafinger
Absolutely, yes, I am quite afraid of heights and cable cars. Well, yes, I do them, but, yeah, I don’t enjoy them. But I must say, when you’re standing on the top deck of the Cabrio Stanserhorn, it’s just so smooth. And yeah, it was a wonderful experience.
Céline Deplazes
Yeah. So it’s, as I said, beautiful expression to really enjoy. In my opinion, they have the best. We call them Älplermagronen. It’s like a cheese macaroni. They have the best on top of Mount Stanserhorn. And also they operate until late in the evening. So every Saturday, from beginning of May till the end of November, they operate until 11pm also Thursday and Friday, but there’s different dates, so you have to check on their website, and my personal recommendation is to enjoy one of their candlelight dinners every Friday from June to October, and every Saturday from May to October.
Carolyn Schönafinger
That was what we did, and it was a very, very enjoyable experience. They use as much sort of locally grown produce as they can, and on the menu, it even tells you which farm it has come from to the ingredients. So it’s a really special experience. I think you’re right that there’s not a lot of so called attractions up there, but the views are what making it. It’s really amazing,
Céline Deplazes
Yeah, and it’s also very close to Lucerne. So you have a train 20 minutes that goes to Stanserhorn, and then from there you just follow the signs to the valley station.
Carolyn Schönafinger
Yeah, it’s very, very easy to reach. So a half a day, if people are pushed for time, half a day is enough for a Stanserhorn excursion. But obviously you can stay longer, if you like.
Céline Deplazes
What we did once was after work, we went up there and we had dinner. You can bring your own picnic. You enjoy the view the sunset, and then you go back down. Could also just be an evening activity, yeah, after a day sight seeing in the city, you go there for dinner, for example.
Carolyn Schönafinger
What a great idea. Okay, can we talk about one more mountain excursion? This is one mountain that I haven’t visited. I’ve seen lots of photos all over social media about it, and it’s a really unique mode of transport to get to this mountain, which I think is pronounced Stoos.
Céline Deplazes
Yes, we cut Stoos. That’s in in Schwyz. So Schwyz is about 45 minutes by train. Or you can also get there by boat. So you take a boat from Lucerne to Brunnen, and then from Brunnen, which is a beautiful Lakeside village, you can take a bus to the Valley station, and from the Valley station a new funicular, the steepest funicular in the whole world will bring you up to Mount Stoos. Stoos is a car free village, and that funicular, again, is fully included with the Swiss Travel Pass. If you want to go further, because there’s a couple of chair lists, you have to buy a ticket, but you can do that at the Valley station, and you’ve probably seen a lot of pictures of that famous Ridge hike. So it’s a peak to peak hike where you have an amazing view of Lake Uri. Lake Uri is part of Lake Lucerne. It’s one of the bigger fjords of Lake Lucerne. I’ve done the hike once as well, because I seen so many pictures and I wanted to do it myself. And it’s really, really impressive. I mean, I grew up on the stories of Lake Uri and seeing it from above with the Mount Pilatus, Mount Titlis in the background. It’s so impressive.
Carolyn Schönafinger
And is that hike suitable for for most people, or do you need to be an experienced hiker?
Céline Deplazes
I mean, I’m also a bit afraid of heights, so I was. Like, Oh, should I do it? Because it’s a ridge hike. Then I asked my cousins, they’re six and eight years old, and they did it as well. So it’s perfectly doable for all kinds of hikers. It’s mainly flat. There’s a few up and down, but not too many. So it’s doable even if you’re a bit afraid of heights.
Carolyn Schönafinger
Okay, that’s good to know. So if people sort of not that keen about hiking, is there anything else that they can do from Stoos?
Céline Deplazes
So if you don’t want to do that ridge hike, my recommendation would be to take the funicular and then the chair lift to Fronalpstock. There is a wonderful restaurant, and you also have these great views of Lake Uri and the whole Lake Lucerne, with the city in the background, and Mount Pilatus and Mount Rigi. For kids, there’s playgrounds as well. Lots of fire pits, so you can bring your barbecue or your own sausage and grill it there. And if you have more time, or if you want to spend the night on Mount Stoos, there’s fairly new hotel, which is called Stoos Lodge, and this is right next to the station, and quite special or unique. They heat the hotel with the energy that the funicular produces when going down. So the energy that is produced when they when the funicular breaks, is the energy that they use to heat the hotel. So that’s quite a unique technology on Mount Stoos.
Carolyn Schönafinger
Yeah, fantastic. And is that mountain accessible all year round?
Céline Deplazes
Yes, it’s accessible all year round, because it’s actually people live on Mount Stoos. So it’s a village. In winter, it’s a ski resort, a smaller ski resort than Mount Titlis, but you can still go to through Fronalpstock and enjoy the views, even if you’re not a skier.
Carolyn Schönafinger
Okay. And so would you need more than half a day to visit there from Lucerne?
Céline Deplazes
I think because it’s a bit further away than, for example, Mount Pilatus, it already takes a bit longer to get there. So you would, I would think, for this, you need a day. So if you leave in the morning at nine or 10, you take a boat, you’re there for lunch, and then the afternoon, you’ll probably be back in the city at five or five o’clock.
Carolyn Schönafinger
Okay, yep, great to know you mentioned that one of the ways that people can get up to Stoos is via Brunnen. And it’s another place that I wanted to talk about, because it’s quite an interesting town, and it’s worth an excursion from Lucerne too, I believe.
Céline Deplazes
Yes, so Brunnen is, as I said, it’s a lakeside village. It’s two hours by boat from Lucerne, and then you could take back a train, which will be about 45 minutes. I grew up very close to Brunnen, and we often went there on a Sunday afternoon to stroll along the lake. There’s beautiful cafes and restaurants, so it’s a bit like a Riviera. And I always have this holiday feeling when I visit the village and Brunnen, or the region there is also the home of the Swiss Army knives. So Victorinox has their headquarters there, and in the store in Brunnen, you can also build your own pocket knife. If you want to do that, you have to make a reservation in advance, because it’s very well booked. And you can put together your own knife, knife assembly. So this is also an activity that I recommend when you go to Brunnen.
Carolyn Schönafinger
No, I guess there’s no other sort of big attractions or or well known sites around Brunnen itself, but I think it’s worth visiting, as you said, because it’s like the Riviera sort of atmosphere. It’s got a beautiful promenade alongside the lake there with cafes and and shops. So if people are you know, they’ve done a couple of mountain excursions, and they want to do something a little bit different that that’s a good option.
Céline Deplazes
Yeah, definitely. Also in the evening for a nice dinner, there’s beautiful restaurants along the lake and two other small villages that I would recommend if you want to have this Lakeside Riviera feeling. Is Vecchi, or if it’s now, so they are on the foot of Mount Rigi, a bit closer to Lucerne, only 45 minutes by boat, and there you have a bit the similar feeling. There’s palm trees restaurants. So that will be another nice excursion for half the day, or after you were on Mount Rigi, you spent there an hour, two hours walk around, enjoy an uproar along Lake. Excellent.
Carolyn Schönafinger
While we’re on the subject of visiting small towns, I noticed something on the Lucerne Tourism website called Small Town hopping. I know a lot of people like to go and see some of these smaller towns and villages that most tourists don’t go to. So can you tell us a bit about that?
Céline Deplazes
Yes, so the small towns in the Lucerne area, there’s three of them that we will talk about today. It’s Willisau, Sursee and Sempach. And to be honest, I wasn’t very familiar with them, like a year ago, but I’m starting to explore them myself. It’s a beautiful, beautiful area. And I mean, Willisau is only 30 minutes from Lucerne, so it’s really like the outskirts suburbs of Lucerne. Sursee is reachable within 20 minutes, and Sempach is even closer, only 15 minutes by train. And they’re all located a bit further north from the city. So that’s why there’s not so many high or Alpine mountains. It’s more hills, green hills, forest, so different landscape, but also beautiful lake or lakes, so for cycling, it’s wonderful. Or just to enjoy the lake. I was there last weekend because around Lake Lucerne it’s very crowded at the moment, so we decided to go to Lake Sempach and, yeah, very peaceful.
Céline Deplazes
Okay, so if someone was doing this, or interested in doing this small town hopping, can they get to each of those places by public transport?
Céline Deplazes
Yeah. I mean, within the smaller towns, those are still the bigger ones, so they’re all reachable by public transportation. The three of them actually by train. They have a known train station, so it’s, I would say, half a day excursion. All of them, yep.
Carolyn Schönafinger
And what would you suggest people do? They just stroll around and admire the architecture and just soak in the atmosphere of being in a smaller Swiss town.
Céline Deplazes
Yes. So the three of them Willisau, Sursee and Sempach have beautiful old town. There’s a lot of history, and you see it when you stroll around the old towns with the how the houses are built. There’s paintings on the house walls. There is also small tours, like village tours, that you can do. And for me, it’s really that feeling or the way of seeing how Swiss lives in a smaller village. It’s a very authentic experience just half an hour or 15 minutes from the city center.
Carolyn Schönafinger
And it’s would give you a great contrast to city living in Lucerne, as opposed to living in one of these smaller towns.
Céline Deplazes
Yeah, and I mean, there are attractions like, for example, in Sursee there’s the Ramseyer experience world. Ramseyer is a company that produces a special kind of apple juice. And in this experience world, you learn about the whole process of how they make this apple juice, where the fruits are coming from the farmers. It’s it’s very interesting and fun for kids especially. And then in Sempach, there is a lake, Lake Sempach. In general, there is no boats. It’s not like on Lake Lucerne, where you have cruises on Lake sempach, there are no boats, so it’s beautiful to explore it with a stand up puddle or kayak. You can rent them there, and then you can go out and enjoy the quietness of of that lake.
Carolyn Schönafinger
Sounds wonderful. Well, there’s plenty of opportunities for day excursions from Lucerne. So we’ve covered some of the most popular ones there, as well as some that, yeah, hopefully people haven’t heard of but now are thinking that maybe they would like to include them when they visit Lucerne. Thank you very much, Céline for coming back on the podcast and for sharing all that with us today.
Céline Deplazes
Thank you very much, Caroline, thanks for having me. And should anyone have any questions, you can always reach out to Carolyn and she can also forward your questions to me. We’re all very much looking forward to welcome you in Lucerne and the Lake Lucerne area.
Carolyn Schönafinger
Thank you. That’s great to know, and I’ll include all the information that we’ve talked about today, including the names of those smaller towns in the show notes for this episode. So if anyone is interested in visiting them, they can quickly look up the names and get more information. Thanks again. Céline.
Céline Deplazes
Thank you. Carolyn.
Carolyn Schönafinger
Well, there are lots of opportunities for day and half day excursions from Lucerne, and many of them combine multiple modes of transportation. So it’s like doing two excursions in one whether it’s a mountain summit that you’d like to visit or you’d prefer to explore one of the smaller towns close to Lucerne, the possibilities really are endless. I hope we’ve given you some fresh ideas and inspiration, and you are now planning to include one of these excursions or more in your Lucerne itinerary. And if you miss Céline’s previous appearance on the podcast, go back and have a listen to episode 57 it’s one of our most popular episodes. Further details about all the excursions we’ve covered today can be found in the show notes for this episode. You’ll also find a link in the show notes to grab a copy of my new downloadable guide. 21 useful things to know before you visit Switzerland. It’s absolutely free, so be sure to get your copy. You can find the show notes at holidaystoswitzerland.com/episode105, thanks for tuning in today until next time. Tschüss.
You can see the full show notes and listen to this episode > here.
