I am leaning towards the Dom and hopefully the construction is done and the AC is working well.

Dax, We are going to be in Luzern for 3 nights so I welcome any information/experiences that you have. We are staying at the Hotel Wilden Mann. Our problem there is that parking is 25 Swiss Francs per night. ouch! We are thinking about going to Mt. Pilatus. The cog wheel looks amazing. I haven't been to Luzern since '96 so I'm afraid my memory has diminished some on this area. I'd appreciate any good recommendations that you have!

We will be staying in Appenzell for 2 nights and I must admit I was looking at some pictures and it didn't 'grab' me like I thought it would. I have been comtemplating going further south of Luzern into the Alps instead of Appenzell. Not 100% sure on this though. My husband is ready to kick me out of the house with all my planning and changing things.

Dax, from your posts it sounds as though you are a frequent business travler to Europe. I have a question regarding cell phone coverage. I have two cell phones ... 1 for work (through my company) and the other is my personal home phone (I had for 3 years or so). My work cell is a Cingular. My husband and I don't plan on living on the phone while in Europe ... but for the occassional "check-in" with family we will have to make a few calls. Our concern is also if someone has to call us for emergency reasons. I was thinking of this set-up. I am able (I belive so at least) that my Cingular has GSM capabilities for International calling. Do I need to have this activated if I want to receive calls from the United States? If this is the case, I am thinking of taking my work cell (Cingular with GSM activated) and purchasing a pre-paid calling card to make calls from Europe to the United States (to alleviate the 1.20 per minute charges). Are these pre-paid calling cards available to purchase over here (Costco/Sam's Club maybe) or do I need to purchase them in Germany, Switzerland or France (countries we'll be visiting)? Thanks again for your help!!

katzen,
The phone cards from costco definitely doesn't work in Europe. I use my T mobile phone which is great in Europe but lousy in the states. I've never bothered activating my cingular phone that I use at home, however you can easily do so just by calling them, I think it's easier than buying phone cards in different countries and end up with leftover credit.

If you are going to buy prepaid cards in Europe, you have to unlock your GSM phone by calling Cingular a week before you leave to be safe(I'd do it now).

I only use the instant SMS or email on my phone to communicate with the kids at home, saves a lot of money. It's fun if you have a camera phone for the kids to see your travel.

Val,
You got a good deal for the junior suite. It just goes to show how colored hotel reviews are depending on which room, price & expectation the person had at the time. I also can't find any faults with the staff or the public rooms at the Ernst. I agree it is easier to drag the suitcase into the Ernst while the Dom requires draging over some steps. There is a round about way to avoid the steps but it's not worth the effort. I would leave the Dom if there is no AC as well, I would not be able to stay even one night in 100 Fahrenheit room.

I think your Schottenhof tip is a great one for 56 euro. How was the area for walking at night? I've only taken taxis/train to the Hauptbahnhof during daytime.

katzen,
As far as Pilatus, you can buy a package ticket at the train station in Luzern when you arrive. There is a big travel service next to the supermarket (which opens long hours). Ask for the all inclusive ticket that includes a lake boat ride to Alpnach where you disembark right in front of the Pilatus cogwheel, then go down on funicular cable bahn to Kriens and then take the public bus back to Luzern. You can also do it the opposite way but not as good/fun. It's been a while since I did the real touristy stuff but you can also go to Rigi mountain with the boat & special train. Your hotel can actually give you a lot of info.

I've never been to Appenzell but I heard the best day is to go there on Sundays when the locals dressed up in their traditional outfit to go to church. If you choose to go further south of Luzern, you must have a car. Besides the obvious Berner Oberland destinations like Grindelwald,Wengen, Lauterbrunnen etc, you may consider going to the Aareschlucht which is like a crack in the immense rock where water flows through the narrow Aare gorge. You can walk through this very narrow slit btw the rock from one end to another and see the sky through the slit above and the river below with railing next to you. I can't remember the details but it's close to the town of Meiringen where they have the Sherlock Holmes statue and where Meringue was first created before the French made it popular.

I live in California where we pay over 40 dollars a night for parking, so 25 francs(20 dollars)is fine with me. I don't know if there is any secret/cheap/illegal parking place in Luzern. The Swiss locals would be too proud to tell you even if they know one. Sounds like you're going on a grand trip, hopefully you can write a trip report when you get back.

Thanks again for all the help Dax. I have nixed the phone card idea (costco). I called our representative at Cingular and asked him to activate my International calling. Let's see if he truly does.

I'm still not sure whether to hit Appenzell or the Berner Oberland. What is drawing me to Appenzell is Heidiland .. which isn't in Appenzell but close by in Mainfeld. Heidi was one of my favorite stories as a kid. I am still a big kid ..

I will have to do more research. I'm excited to do Pilatus and the cogwheel.

Thank you again for your help.

The area around the Hotel Schottenhof (Hauptbahnhof), in Mainz, was very safe.
We never felt threatened walking late at night. However, we were only there one night. We were still walking around at 1 a.m. though.

Regarding cell phone usage in Europe: We have used GSM cell phones on many occasions. However, lately, I've found that calls, to the U.S., from our hotel room were no more expensive than calling from home to Europe. Very reasonable, as a matter of fact. So now, we just use our hotel room phones to call home or the office. We still take a cell phone as backup, in case we're not in close proximity to our hotel, but rarely use it anymore.