A day trip to either Luzern or Bern form Lauterbrunnen?
 

We'll be spending 4 days in Lauterbrunnen in mid September, and will see Murren, Wengen, etc. We'll dedicate one full day to drive to either Luzern or Bern, both about 45 minutes from Interlaken. At the end of our stay we will drive north about 3 hours to Germany's Lake Titisee, and can drive via of either Luzern or Bern (the opposit of what we visited during the week) and stop for a 2-3 hour visit. Given a day trip from Lauterbrunnen, which city would be the best to see: Luzern or Bern?

Hands down Luzern. You can enjoy Luzern even in 3 hours. Park under the train station, or better yet, next to Hotel National(follow parking place signs north of the bridge) Luzern is a lot more picturesque than Bern to visit.

Bern does have a gilded clocktower, arcaded shops, small gilded fountains, government buildings, and a zoo. However it is a more spread out city with a business atmosphere not as quaint/comfortable to explore in 3 hours.

Luzern has the famous covered bridge as well as other bridges, curvy old town lanes & quaint fountain squares, old city wall & towers just a few blocks up the hill.

The drive along Lake Sarnen & Lake Lucerne (Vierwaldstaetter-See) is very rewarding especially around Stansstad where you can see the steep rocky Mt. Pilatus plunging into the lake.
Have a great trip!

To The Top. Any other comments about either Luzern or Bern for our day trip?

I agree, Luzern it is!

Luzern is more than 45 minutes from Lauterbrunnen. It is more like an hour and 30 minutes to the city center. I know the road is beter now, but it is not all that fast a drive until you ascend the Brunig Pass to Kaiserstuhl, which can be quite slow if you are behind a few big lorries.

Luzern wins in my book. The transportation museum is fabulous.

Brookwood is spot on, I missed your driving time estimation. Hope you still have time to enjoy Luzern.

Lucerne is my favorite, but keeping in mind you have only 2-3 hours, you're going to have to make some choices about what to see. The Transportation Museum is awesome, but I remember spending the better part of a day there and still coming away thinking I hadn't seen everything. However, you could check out the bridge, browse some shops and have a bite overlooking the water in no time. The Glacier Garden is neat and you walk by the Lion Monument on the way to it. If its rainy, you might want to consider Berne. As I recall most of its shops are covered and lower visibility won't spoil the city as much as it would in Lucerne.

Berne is a fine city but Luzern is exceptional - one of Europe's most unique and picturesque cities, set on a lake hemmed in by the Alps - no contest here. Berne, however, is much closer by car and thus could be a half-day trip if need be, but the Brunig Pass to Luzern is very nice, though sinuously slow (I suppose you could reach Luzern quicker by autobahn via Berne). the descent from the Brunig Pass towards Luzern passes by two large lakes - very nice scenery. No real must-sees in Luzern save for its two wooden bridges, except the scintillating lakeside setting. A fine, fine town.

I am not sure how much of the road from Kaiserstuhl to Luzern is now much faster. When I drove it two years ago, I saw a lot of construction. Some of it was ready, and some of it had a ways to go.

The map I have shows that the road between Sarnen and Kaiserstuhl is now a modern highway with tunnels and bypasses. That should cut the travel time.

The connections requiring no changes make about 10 stops and take almost 2 hours between Interlaken Ost and Luzern.