Lucerne & Zurich
 

I have our three week plan of Italy and Switzerland almost covered for next late May & early June. The last remaining parts of our trip for accommodations are for 2 nights in Lucerne and 2 nights in Zurich before we take our flights back to the United States.

There will be 7 of us (my husband and our 5 children ages 16-24). I love all of our choices so far rated very highly and a mixture of Apartment in Rome, B&B in Atrani (5 minutes from the town of Amalfi), Apartment in Venice, Apartment in Zermatt, Hotel in Grindelwald. We have 3-4 nights in all of these places, but just 2 nights in Lucerne and 2 at the most in Zurich.

Any suggestions for Lucerne or Zurich?

To help with accommodation suggestions, can you please advise the budget per night you're working on?

Switzerland, as you may have discovered, is the more expensive country of all the ones you are visiting so keep that in mind when looking at hotels.

We will have to have 3 hotel rooms per night with our group. Would like to stay under $350 per room per night if possible.

I would ask why stay in Lucerne at all? Bear in mind that distances in Switzerland are all relatively small. Zurich to Lucerne is only about an hour by train. It is quite possible to train from one to the other or any nearby areas of interest, for the day. Why waste time moving?

I'd stay in or near Zurich (because of your flight home) for the entire 4 nights. I stay in Thalwil when in that area. It's 15 minutes by train to downtown Zurich and 30 to the airport. Around 30 to Lucerne as well.

I stay with a friend so cannot suggest a hotel but there are two decent hotels in the town. One right next to the train station for convenience and both with great lake views.

https://maps.google.ca/maps?ie=UTF-8...&ved=0CMABELYD

Here are some hotels for Luzern:

Hotel Luzernerhof - www.luzernerhof.ch. Located in the old town, near the Lion Monument, very pretty and very Swiss.

Hotel Central - www.hotel-central-lu.ch. Located in the centre of town in the new town section, about 5min walk to the lake, 2min to train station.

Hotel Anker - www.anker-luzern.ch. Located just around the corner from the train station (about 30secs) in the centre of the new town district. Nice hotel, good prices for centre of town.

I haven't checked the prices lately, but see if they suit. And at least you can see on a map of the city where they are located in case you need to look for other accommodation.

Nothing wrong with staying in Luzern for 2 nights. That will give you one full day plus time either side on the arrival day and departure day (it's a short train ride to Zurich - 1.5hrs - and only 45-60mins to drive). Time for one mountain (Pilatus, Stanserhorn or Rigi), a lake cruise, walk on the city wall and relaxing.

There is not much to see at Zurich (compared with other Swiss towns). I would rather pass my last nights at Lucerne and go from there straight to Zurich airport (1 hr journey; trains every 30 min from 6.10am until 23.10, plus at 4.55am and 5.28am).

You may have a look at
http://www.myswitzerland.com/en/home.html
http://www.swisstravelsystem.ch/en/
http://fahrplan.sbb.ch/bin/query.exe/en

"There is not much to see at Zurich" -- I disagree! I was very impressed with the museums in and around Zurich, not to mention its munsters' stained glass windows and cloisters, etc.

I would, however, agree that Zurich is not the most scenic of Switzerland's towns. :-)

I wrote:
"There is not much to see at Zurich (COMPARED WITH OTHER SWISS TOWNS).
But I fully agree that the Rietberg Museum (actually 3 temporary exhibitions: The Fascination of Persia, Indian paintings, Textile Art from Gujarat) and and the Swiss National Museum (actually big Charlemagne exhibition) as well as the Kunstmuseum (actually exhibition "Masterpieces of Edward Munch") are well worth a visit.

I ceased to mention museums in my posts as most people here obviously hate them.