Three mountains, one lake.
One of the three mountains above Lucerne, privately, in a day.
Three mountains stand around Lake Lucerne within an hour of Zurich, and they are sold as the same day out when they are nothing of the kind. This private tour takes one of them, in the right direction and at the right hour for the month you happen to be in. Pilatus for the round trip, Rigi for the evening light, Titlis if somebody in the party needs to stand on a glacier.
- Duration
- A full day, with about an hour of driving from Zurich at either end of it.
- Pickup
- Collected in Zurich by private car, at whatever hour the chosen mountain happens to reward.
- Group size
- One mountain, one car, and nobody in it who did not arrive with you.
- Season
- Titlis is both the summer default and the summer queue, which makes Rigi and Pilatus the better answer on either side of it.
Three mountains stand around Lake Lucerne and every one of them is sold as the same day out. They are not the same day out, and the mistakes people make on them are predictable enough to write down.
WHAT GOES WRONG
Going up in the wrong direction
Pilatus has a golden round trip: boat across the lake from Lucerne, the steepest cogwheel railway in the world up the far side, cable cars down to Kriens. Run clockwise it is one of the great days in Switzerland. Run anticlockwise, which is what happens when you arrive by car and park at Kriens, it is the same components in the dull order, and you finish at a bus stop instead of on a lake.
Going up at the wrong hour
Rigi is the gentle one, a broad green summit with the Alps on one side and the lakes on the other, and it is best in the last three hours of daylight when the coaches have gone and the light comes in low. Most people do it at eleven in the morning because that is when the tour leaves. It is a different mountain at six.
Going up in the wrong month
Titlis is the one with a glacier, a rotating cable car and snow in August, which makes it the obvious choice in summer and a queue for most of the day. In late spring and autumn it is quiet and the glacier is still there. If someone in the party has never stood on snow, this is the mountain. Otherwise, in July, choose one of the others.
HOW WE RUN IT
One mountain, not three. An hour from Zurich by private car, the direction and the hour chosen for the mountain and the season rather than the timetable, tickets held, and time in Lucerne itself on the way back, which is a good town and usually gets ten rushed minutes.
If the water is the part you want rather than the height, the same lake is better seen from a boat.
A full day out of Zurich, a private driver who guides, and back in the city for dinner.
CHOOSING THE MOUNTAIN
Which one, if we only have a single day?
Pilatus, run clockwise: the boat across from Lucerne, then the steepest cogwheel railway in the world up the far side, then cable cars down to Kriens. Arrive by car and park at Kriens instead and you get the identical components in the dull order, finishing at a bus stop.
Can we manage two of them?
Physically you can, and what you get for it is a long day of transfers with two rushed summits inside it. We would rather give you one mountain and an hour in Lucerne on the way home, which is a good town and normally gets ten rushed minutes.
When does Rigi work best?
In the last three hours of daylight, once the coaches have gone and the light is coming in low across both lakes, on a summit broad enough that you can walk away from whoever is still standing on it. Group tours go up at eleven in the morning because eleven is when they leave.
Below these three, the lake is worth a day of its own, which is the boat. Both belong to the private tours that leave from Zurich. If height itself is the point, the highest station in Europe is a day further south.