hawaiihoneymoon

Hi - I am looking for more information regarding a day trip to Mount Pilatus from Luzern. Does anyone know of a website that would have train schedules to get there - as well as costs.

Can it be done in 1/2 day?

PalQ

You don't need schedules as the bus and train that connects at each end of the Pilatus excursion run twice hourly or more. For a varied experience you go up from one side to the summit and then down the other. For example train (or boat) to Alpnachstad (Luzern-Engleberg or Luzern-Interlaken trains should all stop here) then hop aerial gondolas to the summit and then swing down the other side via gondolas to Krens (sp?) from where Luzern city buses whisk you back to Luzern city center. Yes can do it half day as there is not much to linger at at the summit. For a great day tie in a boat trip on gorgeous Lake Luzern, from Luzern's train station to Alpnachstad. Check all-inclusive excursion tickets at Luzern rail station.

kappa

> Alpnachstad ... then hop aerial gondolas to the summit ..

No, Alpnachstad-Pilatus Kulm(the top) is by cog-wheel train (do they say the steepest in Europe ?). Kulm-KRIENS by aerial cable car is correct.

For more & detailed info, Pilatus Bahn has their own site. You can Google search and find it easily.

By the way, the cogwheel part is closed in winter till end of April(?) so you can do only the return trip between Kirens and Pilatus Kulm.

PalQ

Thanks for correction.

kappa

You are welcom.

swandav2000

Hi hawaiihoneymoon,

Go to www.pilatus.ch. After selecting English, click on "Mountain Railways" for schedules & fares. Also go to "Mountain Adventures" and then "Golden Roundtrip" for a virtual journey or a preview of the trip.

s

hawaiihoneymoon

hey - thanks! I will check out those websites - we are actually planning on going to Lucerne in June. We don't have very much time in Lucerne - so were planning on seeing Lucerne for one day - and then Mount Pilatus the following day. We do however have to catch a 6:00 p.m. train to Zurich and so were wondering if the Mount Pilatus excursion could be done in time for us to get back to Lucerne and catch the train in time.

kappa

Hi hawaiihoneymoon, try to make your itinerary with the Swiss Railway web site. They will give you all the transportatioin timings including the Pilatus part. The following is their English page.

http://fahrplan.sbb.ch/bin/query.exe/en?

For a try, I put 04.06(june)05 and got the following among others :
09:07/10:10 Lucerne railway station/Pilatus-Kulm with a change at Alpnachstadt. This means you will take the cogwheel train Alpnachstadt to Kulm.
14:06/15:14 Kulm-Lucerne (via Kriens)
with 3 changes. 1 change is because there are two parts on the aerail cable car line. You may not like 3 changes but it's still quite doable and will give you a plenty of time before your 17:00 train to Zurich.

PalQ

Pilatus vista may be nice but i've been in Luzern dozens of times and only on a few days was Pilatus not shrouded in haze or clouds - maybe i just hit the wrong time but be flexible as paying all that dough to be literally in the fog up top is a waste.

mr_go

On a good day, the view from Pilatus is wonderful:

http://community.webshots.com/photo/...35965554lxwNrn

We also really enjoyed taking the cog-wheel train down, and then the slow boat ride back to town on the scenic Vierwaldstatersee. It's a perfect half-day excursion from Luzern, IMO.