Cruising Lake Lucerne

Lake Lucerne is one of our favorite lakes in Switzerland, with so many mountain peaks towering over the water and so much variety as you twist and turn around each corner. After all these years, it still makes me gasp with delight when we drive by or ride up a gondola to admire it from above.

One of the best ways to enjoy this lake’s many charms is on a lake cruise, where you get all the views without the hard work of hiking. The kids love watching the inner workings of the steam engine and exploring the boat. I love lounging in the sun and watching the fairy tale Swiss landscape float by.

For an easy day, we like the one-way 3 hour tour down the full length of the lake, from Lucerne to Flüelen at the south end. Of course there are many other shorter and longer tours, which I’ll mention below. But this is a great tour to start with and a wonderful choice with visitors.

Note: This outing was sponsored by Lucerne Tourism.

First a short video from our day by 110 in partnership with Lucerne Tourism.

Lake cruise overview

The Vierwaldstättersee, aka Lake Lucerne in English, is an enormous lake in central Switzerland south of Lucerne city. The map below is from a free brochure you can get the tourist info desk or on the boat. There are lots of cruise options, but for this post, I’ve focused on the full lake tour from Luzern to Flüelen, about 3 hours, with an optional break in Brunnen. 

If you want a shorter day, you could start in Brunnen and just do the 1 hour cruise to Flüelen, which is the best part of the cruise.

Operating Times

For the full lake tour, the boat leaves Lucerne hourly on the xx:12 and takes about 3 hours to reach the end of the lake at Flüelen. But definitely check the current timetable at www.lakelucerne.ch before heading out.

Here is a sample timetable for summer 2020. If you want to ride a steam boat (you do! more about that later), make sure to pick a route with the little boat icon at the top.

Sometimes we like to get off the boat in Brunnen (after 2 hours on the boat) and walk around a bit, get a gelato and let the kids run around at the park (more about that below). The next boat comes in a hour, which goes by quicker than you think. When we finish the boat ride in Flüelen, we take the train back to Lucerne if we came by car or straight home to Zürich if we came by public transport. 

FYI, this is the first half of the popular tourist route: Gotthard Panorama Express, which continues on a panorama train from Flüelen to Ticino. This tour is available starting 4 July 2020.

Ticket Prices

Here are some few 2023 prices. See current prices on www.lakelucerne.ch.

• One way full lake (Luzern to Flüelen) CHF 51. Return to Lucerne by train CHF 21
• Short round trip Lucerne – Beckenried (2.5hr) CHF 58
• Day pass CHF 83. This covers a full day of travel on the lake, any direction.

You can buy your ticket directly on the boat, at the ticket desk at the pier, or online.

They don’t check your ticket as you board the boat, but rather walk around later after the boat is on the water. So just board the boat and walk directly to the ticket booth to purchase your tickets. You can send the rest of your family to grab the best seats while you buy tix. 

Discounts

Those with a SBB Half-fare card and children 6-16 get a 50% discount. Kids under 6 and those with a SBB Junior Card ride free. If you already have a Tell Pass, SBB Day Pass, or GA pass, the boat rides are included – hooray! You would only need to pay more if you want to upgrade to 1st class. 

These boat cruises are a particularly great use of a SBB Saver Day Pass, which you can buy 2 months in advance, as low as CHF 52 (less with a SBB Half-fare card).

Ride free on your birthday! Bring your ID and you can ride free on the boats on your birthday.

Combo with mountain journeys

If you are doing any mountain excursions, make sure to buy a combo ticket that gives a small discount on both the boat and mountain transport. Combo offers are available for Rigi, Pilatus, Beckenried, and Treib Seelisberg. See details here.

How to get there

Most cruises start at the Lucerne piers, just outside the main train station, very easy to find. Of course, you can catch the boat at any of its stops along the lake, which I’ll talk more about below.

By public transport: Simply take a train to Luzern, Bahnhof. Exit through the main entrance, walk through the main arch towards the water. 

By car: Drive to Luzern. It’s most convenient to park at the underground parking at the train station (Bahnhofpl. 1, 6002 Luzern). After parking, you walk through the train station and outside directly to the piers.

When you drive in, you’ll see P1 and P2 to your left and P3 to your right, a bit farther away. They all start at CHF 4 for the first hour, but P1 & P2 are slightly more expensive at CHF 2.50 for each additional hour, while P3 is CHF 2 for each additional hour. 

We prefer to park at Parkhaus Altstadt (Baselstrasse 4, 6003 Luzern), which is a bit more affordable and more importantly, has easy access to the freeway without having to drive through the city. As an example, it costs CHF 12.50/ 6 hours. It’s a pretty walk along the river, about 15 mins, to reach the piers, as shown below.

See all Luzern parking options and download a PDF with a price comparison between all garages.

After you exit the train station, simply walk through the arch towards the water. The boat docks are directly in front of you, as shown on this map. When you get to the water, check the boat schedule and go to the numbered dock that matches the boat you want to take. You can always ask at the ticket office for assistance.

Photo story of the boat cruise

Getting on the boat & where to sit

There are no seat reservations, so it’s best to arrive a bit early so you can get a good seat. Of course, we like to sit right at the front of the boat, like we are here.

If that seat is already taken, we prefer the eastward facing side. But you can’t go wrong no matter where you sit, the views are great on every side. The sides of the boat are high enough that little kids won’t fall off. But you still need to watch them carefully so they don’t stand up on benches or chairs or crawl through railings.

Leaving Luzern

Let’s start our day. We got on the boat early and got the best seats up front.

Here we are leaving Luzern, watching the beautiful buildings of this historic city pass by as we head out to the open water.

The lake is very wide at near Luzern and the mountains farther apart. You can see Pilatus on the right and Stanserhorn on the left.

Steam boat magic

We prefer to ride on the steam powered boats, which have an open view on the lower deck to the cool machinery that powers the boat. It’s mesmerizing to watch the wheels in motion and interesting to see the workers maintaining the works, regularly filling up the oil and whatnot. Our boat was the oldest in the fleet, built in 1901 and kept in beautiful shape, running like a dream more than 200 years later.

I love all the old tyme details like this beautiful stairs. I was so happy to a new patch for my backpack!

Cruising down the lake

On this trip, we were on the 1st class upper deck, which has more open seating in the sun.

Plenty of rescue boats and safety supplies on board.

View of the distinctive Mythen peaks above Schwyz. I highly recommend hiking to the top of Grosser Mythen on the right, which I did at sunrise a few weeks ago.

Here’s one of the other boats in the fleet. Not all steam boats look the same. This one was a bit smaller than ours, with no upper deck on the front of the boat.

Passing through Treib. If you get off here, you can take a funicular train up to Seelisberg and get a great view of the lake. There are also nice hikes up there, including the first leg of the Swiss Path.

Arriving in Brunnen

This is my favorite part, as we approach Brunnen and turn the corner to reveal the most dramatic peaks of the trip. It’s unbelievably beautiful!

We got off the boat in Brunnen and knocked around for an hour before catching the next boat at 12:09. The waterfront is a nice place to stroll and lounge. Along the boardwalk there is giant chess and mühle set you can play with. I forgot to take a pic of that, sorry! We got gelato at the Belmondo cafe.

Here’s a map of the Brunnen area.

If you walk north along the water, you’ll come a big grassy field with a playground, which the kids will appreciate.

There’s also a great playground next to the field. Sorry my pic isn’t so helpful.

Back on the boat to Flüelen

We caught the next ferry towards Brunnen. Tschüss Brunnen! 

Approaching Bauen, the end of the first section of the Swiss Path.

So quiet and beautiful in this section, like a scene from a fairy tale.

The best pic is at the back of the boat with the big Swiss flag. You gotta be patient to catch it.

This pic is from a cruise we did on the 31 Dec 2009. It was cold but so beautiful!

We love seeing places we’ve hiked before. We hiked across this mountain on the last section of the Swiss Path from Sisikon to Brunnen.

Food on the ship

There is a restaurant on both levels on the boat, with drinks, snacks and full meals. On busy days, you’ll need to reserve a table. They also offer themed culinary cruises, like a sunset dinner cruise. But those are on hold at the moment because of Corona. You are also allowed to picnic on the boat.

Arriving in Flüelen

The last stop is Flüelen at the southern end of lake. Take a moment to wave goodbye to the ship.

Love these Swiss canton flags at the Flüelen waterfront.

Back to Lucerne

Once you reach Flüelen, you can take the ferry back, but that’s another 3 hours. The boat drops you right at the Flüelen train station, where you can catch the train back to Luzern, about a 1 hr journey. The trains are coordinated with the boat schedule. The boats arrive on the xx:55 and the trains leave on the xx:03. See current schedule on sbb.ch. 

You can also take the express Tell Bus, which is a bit quicker at 50 mins but also a bit more complicated. From the Flüelen pier and train station, you’ll need to walk under the train tracks to the Flüelen, Hauptplatz bus stop. Then take the bus two stops south to Flüelen Eggberge (as shown on the map below). Then transfer to the Tell Bus and ride it to Lucerne. It drops you off at the Lucerne train station.