Bern or Luzern
 

We have only 3 night to play with and we wanted to stay in both Bern and Luzern. Which would you recommend staying at longer?

They're not that far apart - so I think changing hotels would be a waste of time. I would stay in Luzern - which is about 10 times more charming and has way more to do - and just do a day trip to Bern (we found 6 hours there to be plenty).

Both are charming historical towns.

Luzern is smaller, on a lake, with a mountain (Pilatus) by cable car accessable directly from town. Luzern is good for a boat trip and cable car ride up the mountain.

Bern is bigger, but has still - despite being capital - a kind of small town feeling, with a mixture of medieval architecture and representative 19th century architecture. The setting is dramatic on a rock above the river. Bern has some interesting museums.

If you want just explore Bern and Luzern, it is indeed not necessary to change hotels - the distance by train is exactly 1:00 hour.

Bern has advantages if you want to explore the Berner Oberland mountains - at least if you do not have a car. Train connections from Bern to Interlaken and into the mountains are better than from Luzern.

If you have a car you might drive from Luzern into the mountains.

Either if you go by train or by car, a trip into the mountains depends on weather.

>>>which is about 10 times more charming and has way more to do<<<

It always hurts me if a post is grossly unfair to an attractive destination.

Bern's old town has fascinating historical architecture - absolutely unique and certainly very charming. And Bern has some excellent museums:

- The Kunstmuseum with a good collection of fine arts.

- The Paul Klee collection (in a spectacular building).

- The Historical Museum.

- The Albert Einstein Museum.

Nytraveler has it just about right, except I would dispute the assertion "10 times as charming..." - maybe twice because of the lake?

Before you decide, make up your mind about the daytrips you want to take from either location, from Bern or from Luzern. See the long list of targets to research below.

About the train trip between Bern and Luzern: If you take the train from either to the other, take a different route for each way.

Take the faster route via Zofingen and Sursee, 2 stops, no need to get off, takes 1 hour exactly.

Then take the route through the regions Emmental and Entlebuch (Swiss cheese country), via Konolfingen and Langnau etc., 8 stops en route, no need to get off, takes 1:25 hour, you see an entirely different landscape!

You need to buy your ticket accordingly, the distances vary and hence the price. For the Sursee route you need not say anything, it is the default route. For the other route, just say to the agent "via Entlebuch" (I know, easier said than done...).

Let me give you a selection of daytrip suggestions from either location, Bern and Luzern, then you can pick where you want to be based.

LUZERN:

www.lakelucerne.ch (timetable of ships on lake)

www.luzern.org/en/welcome.cfm? Lucerne

www.rigi.ch/en/welcome.cfm Rigi

www.pilatus.ch/default.asp?sprache=E Pilatus

www.pilatus.ch/content-n38-sE.html cograil Alpnachstad - Pilatus

www.pilatus.ch/content-n39-sE.html gondola Kriens to Fräkmüntegg at the foot of the mighty Mount Pilatus

www.pilatus.ch/content-n40-sE.html aerial cableway Fräkmüntegg up to Pilatus Kulm

www.einsiedeln.diorama.ch/english.htm Einsiedeln

www.einsiedeln.diorama.ch/heidi/e_default.htm Einsiedeln - best walks

www.engelberg.ch/en/index.php Engelberg

www.titlis.ch Titlis

www.verkehrshaus.ch/en/ Transport Museum

http://www.kkl-luzern.ch/navigation/...t_locale=en_GB new concert hall complex

BERN:

www.berninfo.com/en/welcome.cfm Bern

http://www.berninfo.com/en/navpage-S...BET-32443.html Bear Pits

www.paulkleezentrum.ch/ww/en/pub/web_root.cfm Paul Klee Zentrum

www.berneroberland.ch/navi/winter/frame_en.htm Berner Oberland

switzerland.isyours.com/e/guide/berner_oberland/oberland-map.html Berner Oberland map

www.schilthorn.ch/index.php?set[page][language]=4 Schilthorn

www.jungfraubahn.ch/en/DesktopDefault.aspx Jungfraujoch

www.thunersee.ch/ausfluege/stockhorn.html Stockhorn

switzerland.isyours.com/e/guide/berner_oberland/spiez.html Spiez

www.myswitzerland.com/en/infra.cfm/rkey/768 more about Spiez

www.niesen.ch Niesen

www.niederhorn.ch/ Niederhorn

www.beatushoehlen.ch/e/hoehlenwelt/index.html Beatushöhlen / caves

www.interlaken.ch/?L=3 Interlaken

www.harderkulm.ch/ Harder Kulm just up from Interlaken

www.reichenbachfall.ch/ Reichenbach waterfalls

www.brienz-rothorn-bahn.ch/?lang=en Brienzer Rothorn

www.muerren.ch/ Mürren

www.kandersteg.ch/english/ort/index.html Kandersteg with nearby lake www.oeschinensee.ch/kategorie/sommer_en/11/ Oeschinensee

www.chateau-doex.ch/english/index.htm Château d'Oex

www.la-gruyere.ch/index2.php?langue=eng Gruyeres (on left click on Interesting Sites)

www.avenches.ch/ota/page.php?id=138&lang=eng Avenches-Aventicum

www.murten.ch/_anglais/index.html Murten-Morat

if you decide on lucerne make sure you find the old town wall
it is such a nice walk and there are great views
one of my favourite towns is lucerne

I found Bern to be much more interesting than Luzern.

Stu Dudley

We too preferred Lucerne and have returned to it several times though we've only returned to Berne once.
Dalai Llama, what wonderful advice to take two different trains--one coming and the other going to be able to see different sights enroute. This is the kind of useful information that this Forum is so great for.

I've been to both many times and you cannot go wrong.

Lucerne is much more picturesquely situated - on what i consider to be Switzerland's most beautiful lake - the fjord-like Lake Lucerne.

Lucerne is smallish in the town center and bereft of many individual sights except its gorgeous old wooden bridges and the Lion's Monument. Yet it is such a wondrous setting that i would base here rather than Bern

Bern to me is a much more interesting city and much bigger, etc. and with the museums others have noted. Actually i think it's one of Europe's cutest cities.

Lucerne however to me offers many more easy day trips - on and around Lake Lucerne - Pilatus, Rigi (often called Switzerland's finest mountain lookout because of its lateral view of the spine of Switzerland - its highest Alpine peaks and a mountain train trip to nearby Engelberg - one of the top Alpine resorts - a theatre of glaciers, ice-girdled peaks, gondolas, hiking, skiing, etc.

A great day trip from Lucerne goes over the Brunig Pass to Lake Brienz and Interlaken - the only mainline Swiss federal railways cog-railway climbs up and over the pass. (All other narrow-gauge cog railways are run by non SBB (Swiss state railways) lines. And Zurich is just a few minutes from Lucerne by train as well. Investigate the Swiss railpass for any Swiss trip - esp since the pass also gives free admission to over 400 pricey Swiss Museums.

Perhaps my POV is due to the ffact that we always do raod trips in Switzerland/Germany - unless it's just a couple of days attached to a meeting in one city.

From Lucerne by car you can do an incredible number of days trips to places that are cute, charming, dramatic etc. (Lake Lucerne, Mt Titlus, Mt Pilatus, Interlake - and Brienz on the way, various towns up in the mountains, train up the Jungfrau, Thun, Zug, Zurich etc).

Perhaps Bern is a better choice if you're training?

In case OP is interested in driving - Bern would be at least as good a hub for car travel as NYtraveler rates Luzern - just not for parking in the very city center unless your hotel accommodates you.

Bern is situated on the main expressway arteries east and west and north and south, in more open and flat country than Lucerne.

Bring up this map:
www.mixmap-schweiz.de/karte.html
and input the postal codes (ZIP) 30XX (for Bern) and 600X (for Luzern), then plot your course and start your engine...

To reiterate, it really comes down to the daytrips you choose to make; staying in the historic center of either location, Bern or Luzern, can be very memorable.

I agree with DalaiLlama. It just depends on what day trips you want to take.

I think Bern is just as interesting as Luzern, but in a different way. Traveler1959 mentioned a few of Bern's museums, but there are several more. We also very much enjoyed a guided tour of the Swiss Parliament (reservations required). In addition to the other options mentioned, the towns on the eastern shore of Lake Geneva are an easy day trip from Bern.

Extensive renovations to the interior of the Federal Parliament Building have only just been completed. Info with videos and touring details at

http://tinyurl.com/5okxyt

This website lists all the museums - it is in German, but the list of the individual URLs is prominent and when you get to each museum site, most have a switch for English.

http://www.bern.ch/online/links/46/53

If you're strolling about town in Bern, make sure you get to the clock tower (Zytglogge) just before 12 noon, that's when the ancient clock mechanisms make all the figurines squawk and dance and ring bells - quite a show! At other times, on the hour, there is less activity.

Details at http://tinyurl.com/5txedz
and at http://tinyurl.com/5hs2yq

With a bit of luck you might catch a performance of the quite excellent symphony orchestra, usually in the big upstairs hall of the building (mis-)named Casino (no gambling, restaurants downstairs and two halls upstairs) a few steps from the clock tower. www.bsorchester.ch