EU Trip 5: Lucerne, Switzerland

Where: Luzern, Switzerland
Who: Mr & Mrs Wanderlust
When: April 2019
What: Part 5 of our Euro Trip Series; Coming from Milan, Italy to Luzern in Switzerland!

Now on the 5th part of our European Trip Series, coming from Italy (Rome - Florence - Venice - Milan). If you want to back read you may always go back and start with Rome and continue from there just click on the button to go back, or just keep reading if you want to know more about the very beautiful town of Luzern in Switzerland.

Back to Rome

A small and beautiful city in Switzerland known for its well preserved medieval architecture, lays surrounded by snow capped mountains on Lake Lucerne. The covered Kapellbrücke (Chapel Bridge), was built in 1333 and still an active bridge being used today.

How To Get There:

Coming from Milan in Italy, which is another country under the same European Union you don't need much documents to show (but of course make sure you have a valid passport with required visa in it as well as other documents just in case). Crossing the border from Italy to Switzerland by train where in the train stops at a station in Lugano Italy, and police/immigration officers would board the train and look around the passengers, but nothing much like frisking or anything, really laid back. So Mr is someone who has a face that is always a target for "random" inspections and frisking was a bit surprised of how relaxed everything was we didn't even need to get off our chairs or show our passports.

Always have been watching shows and been reading online much about a beautiful and scenic train ride from Italy to Switzerland as you pass by their border town of Lugano. We have our prebooked ticket Milan - Luzern so we just had to board our train from Milano Centrale station on a SBB train (official Swiss train) and would also like to note that Swiss being known watch makers are also really known to be punctual and always on the dot when it comes to time so as Filipinos who are known for our late time, we ought to make sure that we are very early to avoid being left by the train.

A very scenic train ride it proved to be as you begin to see the Italian-Swiss bordertown and country road which are full of green fields, then onto the snowcapped mountains and alps which are very beautiful and really one of the best train rides we have experienced.

The Swiss train by the way was really spacious, comfortable, and very clean, even their bathrooms from inside the train are clean so the train ride experience was really smooth and 10/10 would do it again.

After a very easy breezy train ride, we barely even noticed that it was a bit more than 3hour ride we arrive to Luzern train station. So with our luggage (getting heavier and heavier from all the stuff we bought) we pull towards the taxi stand. 

Now we just wanted to share that their station (probably any Swiss') have the cleanest and straightforward train station we have ever seen. I mean it was spacious, had shops around for anything you might need, and the train platforms, and a waiting area so if it gets too cold outside they have heater.

Getting Around:
Switzerland is notoriously known to be a really expensive country, and truly it was. Getting out of the station to our hotel was a short distance but we hired a taxi as our luggage were a bit heavy for us to be carrying it on a 15 minute walk. Got to our hotel in 5 minute taxi ride. 

Our hotel gave us a free bus/train ticket for 3 days (the duration of our stay) but we never even needed to use it as we had scheduled tours for the next days to see what Switzerland has to show us.

---

Where To Stay:

Mr & Mrs Wanderlust's Review

Hotel Ibis Styles Lucerne (a 3 star Hotel)

+ Staff were all helpful friendly and beautiful :)
+ Easy check-in in their lobby, and their cafe/breakfast are is also located in the foyer
+ Clean, Spacious and Hip room, comfortable bed with huge window for fresh air with city view
+ Bathroom was also spacious and has everything we need
+ Bathroom was clean and no leaks from shower, love the multipurpose shampoo/soap BTW
+ Breakfast has lots to choose from, very much satisfied.
+ WiFi was working great and very fast
+ Mini Cafe has refreshments and stuff open 24/7 reception
+ Reception has free coffee 24/7
+ Excellent location as we didn't even need the bus/train ticket our whole stay there
+ Near lots of shops, and even the attractions nearby are within walking distance.
+ Honestly this was the best room we have ever slept in our whole stay in EU so far
+ Really great value for money

- Elevator has a burnt plastic smell
- 


***Rating:

Price:  €€ €100 - €150 / night for double room
Service: 5 Star - Service & staff were all very helpful and welcoming
Facilities & Amenities: 5 star - Spacious, hip & clean room and bathroom, comfy bed, great stay 
Restaurant (foods): 5 star -Free breakfast was amazing, many choices, all of which delicious!
Bar: N/A - No bar in the hotel yet there is one just accross the road and looks like many people.
________________________________
Overall: 5/5  May be a 3 star hotel, but really 5 star quality from service, facilities, design, cleanliness. Our most comfortable accommodation in our EU Trip

What To Do

1. Walk Around The Streets of Luzern

When we arrive to new place, we just unload our bags, freshen up a little bit, then prepare to go outside and walk around the area, familiarize and at the same time felt its small town vibe, yet still a first class city, very clean, peaceful and quiet, beautiful traditional old preserved buldings, small street on cobblestones, yet has a lot of retail shops around from the high class and expensive luxury watches like the most famous ones you surely heard already and most expensive watches known internationally.

The Swiss are well known historically when it comes to watch making. Many fine arts, and crafts are also around the area ranging from cheap souvenir ones to expensive antique and crafted valuable items.  There are also many choices for mid range retail shops like fast retail giants. Local quality garment brands seem to be a bit more expensive than the said fast retail prices.

And of course many corner stores of the countries food pride like shops for Swiss Chocolates, Swiss Cheese, and Knives, Swiss knives and other stuff.

2. See and Cross the Kapellbrücke 

Known in English as Chapel Bridge, a covered wooden footbridge spanning the River Reuss diagonally in the city of Lucerne in central Switzerland.

Very picturesque and beautiful sight right in the middle of their small yet dreamy city

3. Head to Interlaken, The Adventure Capital of the World

Part of the tour we booked from online (with Klook) we have signed up for (because if we do it DIY it may end up costing us more as taxis and private transport is expensive, while it might be hard for us to figure doing public transportation so we just wanted to enjoy the transfers with no hassle as we have booked a the tour with a comfortable coach bus.

In the heart of the Bernese Alps, and with the crystal clear lakes around it, this paradise is located in central Switzerland. Like its name suggests, it is located on a small strip of land between 2 lakes, namely Lake Thun & Lake Brienz.

4. Enjoy the Views and Cold of Grindelwald

Still in the same district as the Interlaken-Oberhasli, Bernese Alps, is where Grinderlwald is located. A very small quiet town in the higher part of the mountains and with view of the alps, It got cold in there, with winds and temperature just 0 - 3 celcius. There was also rain which made it even colder and had the view with foggy the whole afternoon.

5. Experience Mt. Titlis

No visit to Luzern would be complete without seeing Mt. Titlis. After booking again from online small group tour to guide us getting to the top of the Mountain. It was actually pretty easy to get up this mountain as they have gondolas that bring you up top the mountain.

We fell in love even more with the Swiss alps as we got to it up close and personal, able to touch the snow, play or ski on it.

More photos on the top of Mt. Titlis

Assorted photos

Just a photodump of assorted photos.

Bonus: Get A Souvenir Tattoo of Swiss Alps

We just want to fill up ourselves with different tattoos as a souvenir from the places we go that really inspired us or as Ms. Kondo say it, 'sparked joy' to us at that moment, although already planned to get inked, we decided that since we have a bit of free time, we searched for a couple of shops within our area and found the a shop that is just walking distance from us and also have good quality artworks when we checked out their IG page, so we scheduled an appointment via their social media page and upon arriving we just walked around a little bit, to feel the city vibe then went straight to the shop to have our tattoos worked by the artist.

---

Pricing

*Note: Switzerland does not use Euro as currency as they use their own Swiss Francs
* $100 USD = 100.90 CHf  (as of April 2019)
​
Accommodation - High End - 1,000CHf+++
Accommodation - Mid - 150 - 300CHf
Accommodation - Budget - 100CHf but may be lower depending on haw far area from center
Transport - Taxi - 10CHf from our hotel to station with luggage which is walking distance
Transport - Regional Rail tickets, 25CHf/per person up to 80CHf depending on time, and trip
Transport - Sightseeing Tour - 150CHf - 300CHf tour with private guide car and driver etc.
Food - Snacks - 10 - 20
Food - Restaurant (set meal for 2) - 50 - 100 per head
Food - Fastfood Meal - 20 - 25 per head
Drinks - Hotel Beer  10 - 20
Drinks - Bottled Water - 3 - 5
Drinks - Espresso Coffee - 2 - 5 (really depending on the place if touristy more expensive)
Drinks - Coffee Cappuccino - 3 - 8
Drinks - Nightlife Bars - 10 - 15 per drink
Others - Toilet Use / WC - 2 - 3CHf
Souvenir - T-Shirt - 20 - 50
Souvenir - Magnets / Keychain = 5 - 15
Souvenir - Premium items, Chocolates etc, - 50 - 100

---

VIDEO

Sit Back, Relax, and Watch our Video Montage of our trip in Switzerland. Read up above for more comprehensive information.

---

NEXT: Amsterdam, Netherlands

---