We have been to Lucerne a few times and it still does not have the overnight appeal to me. I would recommend driving on to Interlaken. I think you would enjoy that area more. Explore Lucenre during the day, but end up in Interlaken...not that far to go.

Of those three I would pick Luzern. Can not agree with the above post. Luzern has plenty of appeal and it is a very nice place to spend a couple of days. Stay in the old town in one of the smaller hotels. Luzern is very nice.

I would also recommend Luzern. I love Luzern. If your budget allows, try to stay in a room overlooking the Lake at the Des Balances Hotel. If you email the hotel directly, you may get a better rate than what is shown on the Best Western website.

Lisa,

I'm going with Betty and Rex. Luzern is beautiful! It has a fabulous lake and water front area. Take the boat ride at sunset it's great. Swittzerland is so small that you can get anywhere very easily. Have a good trip.

Greg

Good afternoon, Lisa
Have to pick Luzern, do agree with Rex
stay in the old town, etc....
Richard of LaGrange Park, IL...

I will be in Luzern the middle of next week, staying at the Grand Hotel National--will let you know what it's like when I get back.
BTilke

BTilke: You won't be disappointed with the Grand Hotel National. Right on the water front. Among the bests in Lucerne together with the Palace and the Schweizerhof. But the location of GHN is best of all the 5-stars, in my opinion.

Thanks Ursula! I haven't been to Luzern before. The only part of Switzerland I know fairly well is the Ticino because my husband's aunt and uncle live there (although they're moving to Appenzell next year). But I'll be getting to know it a lot better--I've just accepted a job offer in Basel, tentatively starting in mid-January (so I'll see the Fasnacht celebrations in Feb.). My husband will stay in our apartment in Brussels for the meantime (I'll come home every other week-end) until we're sure the job is a good "fit." He's crossing his fingers it will be because after so many years in a demanding IT position, he can't wait to kick back and take his turn as the stay at home spouse.

Thanks everyone for the feedback. I think Luzern will be the place to go.....Will check out the GNH too.

I absolutely hate Luzern; it is a horrible tourist trap. There is nothing to do there except walk around the lake, eat at tourist restaurants, take a boat ride on the lake, and see the Lion of Luzern Monument (which takes about 5 minutes). It is pretty, with lovely swans on the lake, but, oh so boring after 2 hours. Now, Zurich is more my speed, with fabulous shopping, cafes, and people watching. Plus, you can go to Needle Park and see the heroin addicts. (I think it is important to see this Swiss social experiment on the topic of drugs.) There are also some wonderful old churches to vistit, and the Swiss National Museum.

John G: The Needle Park has been removed and is definitely gone! It's again a normal park as it used to be.
Please, don't talk about it again, it was a sad, mad, crazy, unbearable place everybody avoided. The nearby Marriott Hotel, restaurants, shop keepers suffered a lot, because everybody avoided that area.
Now that said, there is still a drug scene, but as a tourist, you most probably won't get to the places, where it all happens. It's rather in the outskirts of the town.

BTilke: does your firm have any vacancies? I too would like to go to all those neat places you go to (and charge your expenses on top of that...)

Eli, LOL! The last two years have been pretty good for me in terms of expenses paid trips to Vienna, Paris, Nuremberg, Switzerland, Sweden, Amsterdam, etc. I've got another 3-day trip coming up in early Jan. to London. Although the best deal by far was my trip to NYC in July--the company paid for biz class airfare and the way things worked out, I only had to *really* work for about 30 minutes...plus I was able to stretch the trip to include visits to friends and family on the East Coast.
It makes up for all the crap jobs, low pay and scut work I had during the early to mid 80s "greed is good" era. I missed that boat big time!
Lisa, the Grand Hotel National has a web site, www.national-luzern.ch Photos of the rooms included.

BTilke: Lucerne has a nice web site too at
www.luzern.org (also in English)

PS: Once in Basel, please let me know. That's where I grew up and still go there quite very often.
I hope the weather will stay as nice as it is right now. Big sunshine here, but cold.

Thanks, Ursula, I will. Everyone there keeps telling me Basel gets the most sunshine in Switzerland. I'll take their word for it, but it's hard for me to believe they get more sun than Lugano! I will check the Luzern web site. This will be a short business trip, very little time for sightseeing but since Luzern is only about an hour from Basel, I'm sure I'll see more of it on week-ends after I start work.

Basel gets indeed a lot of sunshine, when other places are foggy and it gets also very hot in summer. I don't know whether it gets more sun that Lugano though. But I've been to Lugano with wet and horrible weather.
On the other hand, Lucerne is known as the rainy and foggy corner of Switzerland. Hope you will be lucky next week.
I will get in touch with you. The above address is not my real one. After Christmas, ok?
BTilke: Just wondering about your first name. What is it, please?

Hi Ursula, this is a real email address, so I'll look forward to your email. Have a happy Christmas!