Holidays to Switzerland Travel Podcast Episode 153 Transcript

A Local’s Guide to Authentic and Typically Swiss Things to do in Lucerne

You can see the full show notes and listen to this episode > here.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Welcome to the Holidays to Switzerland podcast. If you’re planning a trip to Switzerland, this is the podcast for you. I’m your host, Carolyn Schönafinger, the founder of Holidays to Switzerland.com, and in each episode, my expert guests and I share practical tips to help you plan your dream trip to Switzerland. You’ll get helpful advice about traveling around Switzerland and hear about the most popular destinations, as well as some hidden gems. We’ll introduce you to plenty of wonderful experiences that you can enjoy as part of your Swiss vacation. Each episode is packed with expert tips, itinerary ideas, and inspiration to help make your Swiss Vacation Planning easy. So, let’s dive in.

Hello, Grüezi. Welcome to Episode 153 of the Holidays to Switzerland podcast. In today’s show, I’m welcoming back Celine Deplazes from the Lucerne Tourism Board. She’s going to uncover some of the most authentic local experiences around Lucerne that go beyond those iconic landmarks like the Chapel Bridge and the Lion Monument. If you’re keen to experience some typically Swiss activities that often get overlooked by tourists, this episode will give you plenty of ideas, from cheese and chocolate adventures in rural dairies and artisan chocolatiers, to glass blowing workshops, scenic cargo e-bike tours into Lucerne’s quieter neighborhoods, and the quintessential Swiss tradition of hiking and barbecuing on nearby Mount Pilatus.

We’ll learn all about these fantastic experiences and more. So, whether you’re a first-time visitor or a returning traveler, I know you’re going to love Celine’s recommendations for unique hands-on experiences and ways that you can support local communities while creating unforgettable memories in and around Lucerne. Good morning, Celine. Thank you very much for coming back to the podcast. You’ve been with us on a number of episodes now, which is fantastic, but for anyone who perhaps hasn’t heard you previously, could you introduce yourself?

Celine Deplazes: Thank you so much for having me again. It’s always a great pleasure to talk to you and all your audience. So, I’m Celine. I work for the Tourism Board of Lucerne. I’ve been living in Lucerne for five years, but it’s not actually the place where I grew up. I chose it because it’s such a beautiful place. I grew up in Uri. I think that’s a village or a place not many of you have heard about. It’s really a rural place on the very south end of Lake Lucerne. So, if you want to see green meadows, lots of cows, and you want to have a quiet, peaceful place, I definitely recommend visiting Uri.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Okay, well, thank you for that little tip there. Now, when you have been on previously, we’ve often talked about some of the most popular things to do in Lucerne, and a lot of people have perhaps heard of the Chapel Bridge and the Lion Monument, and all those, you know, very popular things to do in Lucerne. But today, we’re going to be discussing some of the lesser-known things that you can do, not necessarily in the city, but close by, and they’re all very typically Swiss experiences. So what would you like to start with? What’s something typically Swiss that anyone visiting Switzerland would enjoy?

Celine Deplazes: So, typically Swiss, obviously, is cheese and chocolate. And in the Lucerne region, we have plenty of options to experience cheese making or to see how chocolate is being made, like from bean to bar. There are museums and experience worlds. So, something that I highly recommend is to visit the experienced cheese dairy in Marbach. So that’s very, again, a very rural place, and a very Swiss place. Marbach is about one hour by train from Lucerne, and it’s really surrounded by mountains because you need the milk for the cheese, obviously. So, this is definitely something off the beaten track, but something that I can only recommend to visit.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Okay. So what sort of things can visitors experience when they go to, what’s the actual name of it? It’s a Bergkäserei Marbach, is that exactly?

Celine Deplazes: Yeah, yes. So, Berg means mountain and Käserei means cheese dairy. And Marbach is the place where it is. Marbach is a place in the UNESCO Biosphere in Entlebuch. So the whole region there is very much dedicated or has a high awareness for sustainability. So when you visit the Bergkäserei in Marbach, you have to visit the experience world. They have audio guides, and it starts with a movie, and then you basically walk through this experience world, and they explain to you the whole process, from how they milk the cow, how the milk gets into the dairy, and then how the whole milk is processed into cheese. You get to see the cheese makers at work as well. Obviously, you can taste some cheese as well. And you might even find out the little secrets about why Swiss cheese is so good, because there are some little secrets about it.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Okay, and they don’t only make cheese from cow’s milk, is that right?

Celine Deplazes: Yes, exactly. So they also have mozzarella and cheese with buffalo milk. And buffalo milk is very rich and high in protein. And you also have the chance to visit the farmer who holds these buffalos. I was there two or three years ago with a journalist, actually, and it was a great experience to see how they treat the buffalos and how this milk gets to the cheese dairy, which is only like five minutes away. So this is a really fantastic and authentic experience. So I really recommend it. And of course, there’s a bistro as well. So if you’re hungry, you can have lunch there. They have a Apero-Plättli, like a cheese board, and you can try their different cheeses. Of course, you can also buy it, although I’m not sure if you’re allowed to bring it to Australia.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Probably not, but I’m sure it wouldn’t last that long anyway. It would probably be devoured right on the day, I would say. But with the animals there, obviously that would probably be something that would be appealing to the whole family.

Celine Deplazes: Yes, definitely. When I was there, it was still the father who was doing or who was the boss of the farm, so to say. And now I think his son and his wife, they took over. They also offered tours, because it’s really interesting to learn about the buffalos. Yeah, I was quite fascinated. It’s different than cows, how they give milk and how they have to be fed, and how they how they interact with each other and the behavior. So, definitely something that kids would enjoy as well as adults.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Yeah. Okay, great. So for those listeners who will be using public transport to get there, how do they get there from Lucerne?

Celine Deplazes: So from Lucerne main station, you can take a train to the station in Escholzmatt. That’s another very small village. It’s about 40 minutes to get there. And then there’s a bus, a mini bus ride, and there’s a bus stop right in front of the of the Bergkäserei. The stop has the same name as the Bergkäserei, Marbach. So you can, yeah, use your SBB Mobile app and then just type in Lucerne to Bergkäserei Marbach, and then it will show you all the different connections.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Okay, excellent. Well, I’ll put a link to all the places that we’re talking about today, and the names of the towns where people need to connect and so forth, so they can easily navigate their way there. Good. Okay, so we’ve talked about cheese. What’s next on the list? Swiss cows obviously produce plenty of milk, which is made into cheese, but what other milk products can people produce, and where can we go to see that?

Celine Deplazes: So besides cheese, you can make yogurt or ice cream or cream cheese, and in Einsiedeln, that is a monastery, you can buy those products. You can taste them, and you can also get a tour behind the scenes to see how all those products are being made. So Einsiedeln, for those of you who’ve never heard of this village, it’s about one and a half hours by train, and you have to change once in Wädenswil. But again, you’re just putting Lucerne to Einsiedeln in your SBB app, and then it will show you all the connections. And Einsiedeln is very famous because of one thing. They have a big monastery there. It’s still an active monastery, so a big pilgrim place. They have a beautiful Christmas market during winter time as well. So it’s definitely worth visiting the village, the monastery, and combining it with a visit to the milk manufacturer, a tour, to have a nice fondue there for lunch, for example.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Okay. And is that open all year round?

Celine Deplazes: Yes, you can visit it anytime of the year. Right. Okay, so obviously you can see all the products being produced. Can you taste them? Can you make your own?

Celine Deplazes: Yes, so they also offer different kinds of workshops. You can even produce your own little cheese, and they would ship it to you, for example, to the hotel in Switzerland. So they ship it within Switzerland, because I think it takes some time ’til it’s actually dried and finished. So it’s possible to send it to you afterwards. Okay, yeah, hands-on experience. Definitely do it if you have time. And yeah, you like doing things on your own, about yourself.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Very authentic, seeing it being made and then actually making it yourself. What a great idea.

Celine Deplazes: Yeah, definitely. And, as I said, a really lovely place, not just because of this milk manufacturer, but in general, a great little village. So there’s, as I said, chocolate, of course, that you have to experience as well, and very close by to the city of Lucerne, there is a chocolatier. It’s called Aeschbach Chocolatier, and similar to the Bergkäserei Marbach, there’s also an experience world, this time, all about chocolate. So you learn how the bean gets to Switzerland, how it is processed into chocolate. You can taste a lot of different chocolate again there. And what I think is a wonderful experience in Aeschbach Chocolatier is to create and decorate your own chocolate bar. So that’s a very quick process. You don’t have to book it well in advance. If there is availability, you can book it right on the spot. It’s about 10 Swiss francs. So, yeah, a very amazing experience. It’s only a 10-minute train ride from the city center of Lucerne, and right next to the train stop in Root, is the Aeschbach Chocolatier. So again, a wonderful experience for the whole family.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Yeah, it is. I’ve actually visited there a couple of years ago, and it was really great. I mean, one of the things that I loved about it was that even though we visited on a Sunday in the middle of summer, there was, you know, plenty of room. It’s obviously very well known around Lucerne, but probably for international tourists, it’s not so well known. And so it was mainly local people there. Yeah, we went through the exhibition, and as you say, we just walked up, and we were able to make our own chocolate bar on the spot. And then there’s a beautiful shop, of course, and a lovely café, yeah. So it was a great experience.

Celine Deplazes: Yeah. So I think this one is, I mean, Lindt is very commercial chocolate in Switzerland. Everybody knows about it. And we also have a Lindt store inside the Swiss Museum of Transport in Lucerne. But Aeschbach Chocolatier, as you say, is probably not as well known, and it’s a different kind of experience.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Yeah, definitely. And as you said, very close to Lucerne, just a 15-minute train ride. And yeah, the train stops right beside the chocolate factory.

Celine Deplazes: Exactly. If the weather is not nice and it’s a bit rainy or cold, you can easily combine it also with a visit of the Mall of Lucerne, which is right next to the Aeschbach Chocolatier. So it’s a big shopping center with restaurants. There’s also a cinema and Urban Surf, so you can go surfing inside a small pool. So you can combine these two experiences and activities.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Okay, for example. And do you have a favorite chocolate from Aeschbach Chocolatier?

Celine Deplazes: Yes, they have the it’s called, “Why Not?” It’s basically nuts covered in chocolate, and I really recommend to buy this chocolate when you’re there. You also get a voucher of five Swiss francs when you buy a ticket, so you can buy something in the bistro or in the shop.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Ah, okay. So with your admission fee, you get the voucher for five Swiss francs. Okay.

Celine Deplazes: Exactly. Fantastic.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Okay, what other local experiences should we try?

Celine Deplazes: So, if we’re moving away a bit from all the culinary experiences that are there to experience, something else that I would like to point out is the Glasi in Hergiswil. So Hergiswil is a village close to Lucerne, only again, 10 minutes by train, and the Glasi is a traditional glassworks. The visitors can watch the glassblowers at work and see how glass is produced by hand. So it’s a very special and traditional technique. And Hergiswil is actually also the only place in Switzerland where you can see this kind of craftsmanship. So it’s a very interesting place. I often went there with my mom when we were kids. So it’s a great family experience. They have a museum where you can actually see the glassworkers at work. They have a glass library. They have a big playground. They have like, water fountains and all kinds of, yeah, where they play with the water and the different glass installations. So it’s a, yeah, great experience again. From Lucerne, you can go there by train, or in summer, there’s also a boat. They have a peace churches by the lakeside.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Okay, yeah, great. And has that been operating for a long time? Is it like a very long-standing tradition in Switzerland?

Celine Deplazes: Yes, as I said, it has a long tradition. This way of making glass, nowadays, it’s mainly Portuguese that are the glassblowers. It’s not the Swiss, but they’re really good at it. They have interns as well. And the interns, they actually have to go to Germany to practice and go to school, because there is no school in Switzerland. So, yeah, the Glasi Hergiswil has a long tradition. It’s also a family-run business, and it has been there for a long time. The reason why it is in Hergiswil is because of the water. So it was an important trading place for glass in the past. So in the museum, they will also explain the whole history of glass making and how it came to Hergiswil and the importance for the village as well.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Okay, yeah. Very interesting. Okay, so what else have you got to tell us about?

Celine Deplazes: Again, a bit off the beaten track. It’s not really, so when you come to Lucerne, we always recommend to do a city tour to get a nice overview of the city. But if you want to experience a bit more, or if you want to go outside the city, then I can really recommend booking a tour with Loop Tours Lucerne. So Loop Tours Lucerne is a cargo e-bike tour. It’s not, as I said, in the city. It’s really going outside where the local people live, to the residential areas. They do tours along the lake with great views of the surrounding mountains. And, yeah, if you look it up, you see how the cargo bikes look. So it’s really fun to drive them by yourself, and someone is sitting in the front, so someone has to do the hard work, and the other one can relax a bit. But, yeah, our interns got to try it last year, and they all came back. I mean, they are from the region, so they know the region, but they came back and they were super excited about this tour and said it’s an amazing experience. It’s something different, and it’s very authentic. And that’s, I think, what visitors want to see as well. Of course, you want to check the Lion Monument and the Musegg Wall and the Water Tower, but you want to have an authentic and real experience. And in my opinion, that’s, that’s, I think, what Loop Tours can really offer.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Yeah, absolutely. And the starting point is right in the heart of Lucerne, isn’t it? Right, right by the train station. So it’s, even though you said it, it goes around the more residential area, people can still get to the start and finish point very easily. Yeah, and I have had a podcast episode, actually, with Roberto from Loop Tours a little while ago, so I will link to that in the show notes so people can have a listen to that. Now, what sort of tours does he offer? Are they basically just sightseeing tours?

Celine Deplazes: No, so it’s a sightseeing tour. But also Roberto, the owner, he offers a culinary tour as well. So you would bring some cheese and bread and some some meat, and then you would sit by the lake and enjoy this picnic while marveling at the mountains and the lake. So, yeah, as I said, really authentic. That’s what we Swiss do. When I head to the lake on a hot summer day, I also bring some cheese and bread and do a picnic sitting by the lake there with my friends or my family. So it’s not just sighting, it’s also the culinary experience again.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Yeah, good. And you can get away from all the big crowds too, because you’re further away from the heart of Lucerne.

Celine Deplazes: Exactly, exactly. Yeah, that’s what you really want, right? You want to see the highlights, but you want to have this authentic, real experience away from the crowds as well.

Carolyn Schönafinger: That’s right. And Roberto has a special offer too, for any of our podcast listeners who book, if they quote the promo code, which I’ll put in the show notes, they’ll get 15% off one of his loop tours, which is fantastic. Right. So another Swiss, very popular thing to do, is a barbecue and a hike. So tell us what what we should be doing to experience both of those things.

Celine Deplazes: So since this summer, we have this new offer. It’s an easy hike on Mount Pilatus. Mount Pilatus is the house mountain of Lucerne, so within one hour, you’re from the city center on top of Mount Pilatus, and with this easy hike and the barbecue tour, a guide from Lucerne Tourism will bring you to the top of Mount Pilatus, where you will be doing an easy walk. I think hike is a bit a misleading word. Because it’s more of a of a scenic walk. It’s about one hour. It’s a loop from Pilatus Kulm to one of the viewpoints, and then you come back to Pilatus Kulm. You take the gondola to the middle station in Fräkmüntegg, and there is a barbecue station and the Swiss barbecue. What is it? Sometimes, for me, it’s always clear what it is, but I think for many people, it’s not really clear. So a Swiss barbecue is a sausage, bread, a drink, an ice cream, and that’s it. It’s very simple, but this is really what we bring when we go on a hike as well. In our backpack.

Carolyn Schönafinger: You forgot one important element. You forgot the view. There’s always an amazing view.

Celine Deplazes: See, for me, it’s already that normal that I don’t really mention anymore. Of course, wherever you go hiking in Switzerland, you have amazing views. That’s a given. Yeah, and then yeah, you grill your sausage over the fire pit. There are vegetarian options as well. That’s something I get asked as well. And then you have your Swiss day on Mount Pilatus, again with this culinary aspect. Yeah, something I can really highly recommend.

Carolyn Schönafinger: And how often does that tour operate?

Celine Deplazes: So we offer it every Tuesday and Thursday for public groups. So you can join a public group, and then we can privatize it any day of the week. So if you’re in Lucerne and you want to do it on a Saturday, that’s no problem. You can just contact us. It’s actually our city tours department that can book this tour for you, and then we can organize a guide, and it’s also possible to do an individual pickup, so we meet you in the hotel. So that’s perfectly doable as well.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Okay, excellent, and it would be during the summer months only because the walking path or the hiking trail is not accessible during the winter.

Celine Deplazes: Exactly. So it’s from mid-May until the 16th of October, and then the hiking trail is closing because there is snow, so it’s not safe enough to do the hike. And also the barbecue area is closed, but you can still visit Mount Pilatus, but just not with this specific offer. But the views are still there. They’re always there.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Absolutely. And yeah, visiting Mount Pilatus is a good idea anytime of the year. I did the hike, yes, yeah, and it was fantastic. Yeah, our guide was so good. And yeah, she gave us so many bits of useful information or interesting information. And yeah, the barbecue with those views was amazing.

Celine Deplazes: Yeah, it’s always great to be in the mountains. It’s one of my favorite things to do, to just escape the heat in the summer and take a beer and a sausage and go on a little hike.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Okay. So there’s some really quite authentic Swiss experiences there. Why would you encourage anyone who’s visiting Lucerne to include one of these experiences in their itinerary?

Celine Deplazes: As I said before, I think nowadays it’s all about ticking off the things you have on your bucket list, but then you want to add on more authentic experiences and off the beaten track. And you want to see how people are living and how life is in Switzerland. And I think by visiting those places, you really get a great impression about what that is or or how people are living. For example, with the Loop Tours, where you really go through the residential area, you get background information about the chocolate and the cheese that everybody is talking about, by visiting the Aeschbach Chocolatier or Bergkäserei Marbach. And by going to those places, I always tell people to take enough time to stop in the village and to just walk around and look at the houses and the people. And I think in Switzerland, we have a long history, and we have a lot of history. So the old towns and the houses, they tell a story. It’s really something different and each village in Switzerland has a history and tells this history. So I definitely recommend to take time to go to those small places as well and to combine it with one of those activities.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Absolutely. And when you’re meeting the local, the farmers who are producing that milk or the cheese, and you’re contributing to their well-being as well, you’re helping the local community, because there’s obviously always a flow-on effect. So you’re helping out.

Celine Deplazes: Exactly, exactly. And I think for lots of local people, tourism is something that is very important for them, although in the smaller villages, English is sometimes a bit limited. But I think nowadays, with all the translation apps, that’s something you just take out your phone and you communicate via the translator. So not really a language barrier there anymore. And as you’re saying, rightly in Switzerland, tourism is a big industry and a very important industry, especially also for the smaller and rural places.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Yeah, absolutely, excellent. So where can our listeners get more information about all of these experiences that you’ve told us about today?

Celine Deplazes: So it’s on our website. So Lucerne, it’s with a C, it’s lucerne.com, or you can actually buy the tickets also for the experiences on our own shop. So that’s shop.lucerne.com, or, of course, just type in Google, Einsiedeln, Marbach, that Käserei, and you will find the information as well. Most of the websites are also in English, or they can contact you.

Carolyn Schönafinger: That’s right. And I will put all the links in the show notes as well. So yes, that’s another option as well. Perfect. Well, thank you so much, Celine, for telling us about all those amazing experiences. I really hope that anyone listening will try and include at least one of those when they visit Lucerne and see all the other amazing sites that are in Lucerne as well.

Celine Deplazes: I fully agree, and I would be happy to hear some feedback. So if one of you listeners are coming to Lucerne and you go to one of those places, let me or Caroline know how it was and what you think about it. Thank you very much for having me.

Carolyn Schönafinger: My pleasure. We’ll chat again soon, I’m sure.

Celine Deplazes: Yes. All right. Bye-bye. Thank you.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Wow. There you have it. As we’ve just heard, there is so much more to Lucerne and the surrounding region than its famous landmarks. Whether you’re interested in learning the secrets of Swiss cheese and chocolate, and who isn’t, let’s be honest, or getting hands-on at a local dairy, exploring traditional glassmaking, or perhaps hopping on one of those cargo bikes to discover where the locals live and play, there’s a truly authentic Swiss experience to suit every traveler. And don’t forget that unique barbecue and scenic hike on Mount Pilatus either. I absolutely loved it, and it’s an incredible way to see Switzerland and experience it, just like a local. To help you plan your own unforgettable adventure to Lucerne, I’ll include links to all the attractions and experiences we talked about today, as well as the Lucerne Tourism website, and also their promo code to get 15% off one of those cargo e-bike tours in Lucerne with Loop Tours. All those links will be in the show notes for this episode, which you’ll find at holidays to switzerland.com/episode, 153. Thank you very much for listening today. I hope you really enjoyed today’s episode. If you did, don’t forget to recommend the podcast to your friends and family who are also thinking of visiting Switzerland. And if you’ve enjoyed the show, I would truly appreciate it if you could leave a five-star rating or review wherever you listen to podcasts. Thank you so much, and I look forward to bringing you more Swiss travel tips and inspiration next week. Until then, cheers.

You can see the full show notes and listen to this episode > here.