Exploring: Switzerland - Lugano, Lucerne, Zurich
- Aug 27, 2025
- 13 min read
Updated: 15 hours ago
This travel journal marks the last portion of our Italy and Switzerland trip. Over the past 20 days, we've gotten to see so much of Italy, covering more than 1,800 miles / 3,000 km, by trains, cars, buses, and ferries. It's hard to believe our time in this country is coming to a close, and now we finish by exploring Switzerland, starting with Lugano, then Lucerne and, finally, Zurich.
LUGANO:
As we were piecing together our trip itinerary, we booked the airfare, then everything in between. We knew we wanted to fly into Naples, work our way north, and fly back home from Zurich. Milan seemed like a good train hub for getting us into Switzerland. Based on a well-traveled coworker's suggestion, our first Swiss stop was going to be the ski town of Zermatt, which is at the base of the famous Matterhorn mountain.
After booking our Zermatt hotel, we discovered none of the regularly-scheduled trains were available from Milan to Brig to Zermatt, and there weren't any straightforward bus options. At this point, we had to rethink Zermatt. Since we were planning on taking a day trip from Milan to Lake Como, we had a thought: Could we just stay in Como and take a train into Switzerland from there? The answer is "yes"!
Taking a look at the train stops between Como and the second Swiss stop we had already booked, we found Lugano. There truly wasn't anything in particular that drew us here; we just needed a replacement for Zermatt. For once, we decided to just wing it.
Lugano is a city with a population of about 60,000 and is located next to Lake Lugano. The predominant language is Italian (~80%), followed by German (~7%). We've been able to get by with the very basic Italian we learned from language CDs and online videos before the trip; plus, so many people here are fluent in English. Hopefully that continues to be the case for the rest of the trip, because we certainly aren't prepared to communicate in German!
Just south of Lugano proper is a town called Paradiso. During our research, we found some of the hotel rates are a lot more reasonable than in the city "next door", so we booked a room here and will get to Lugano by bus or by foot. At the hotel, we are able to get checked in a couple hours early, so we head out to find some lunch.
At the waterfront, the beautiful lake curves around, and Lugano doesn't seem so far away. We walk in that direction and, after about 20 minutes, we reach the center of town.
For a glimpse of the geography and architecture we're seeing, here's looking back at Paradiso from Lugano:
Wow, this place is hoppin’! It’s a Saturday, the weather is perfect, a lot of people are out strolling, and we stumble upon a car show featuring only American automobiles from the 1940s-70s.
Turning the corner, we find out this is part of a larger event, called Summer Jamboree. On a big stage, bands are playing American hits from the ‘40s and ‘50s. Food trucks are nearby, and booths are set up, where vintage clothes are being sold and hairstylists are doing up ‘dos of the time, calling back to the "Rosie the Riveter" era.
Out on the lake, people are having fun on small, powered boats and pedal boats. Some have slides in the middle - that’s what we want to rent!
I really should have either worn or brought trunks along anytime we’ve been by water during this trip, considering I always end up wanting to get in. We walk 20 minutes back to the hotel to change, walk 20 minutes back, and stand in line to rent a boat.
The young guy at the counter (practically still a kid) doesn’t seem to manage this chaos very well, of people paying for the boat rentals, requesting certain types of boats that aren’t yet available, and getting people set up and on their way, out onto the water.
We wait for a boat with a slide, see two of them come in, then go out with different people aboard. One couple had definitely been waiting before us, and the other couple seemed to get a boat right after getting in line, after us. I double check we are still going to be getting a boat, and the employee seems to hardly have any recollection of our request. One boat with a slide just happens to be coming in, so he says he will give us that one. We want to rent the boat for two hours and, at this point, he says only one hour is possible, since that’s when they will be closing. What kind of business doesn't think to post their hours?
Anyhow, out on the lake we go, and we make the most of the 1 hour. We about wear the slide out, especially me. I ride down it in just about every way possible. The lake is cool but feels really nice, and it's a little bit warmer than Lake Como.
Back on land, we stroll through town. The ‘40s and ‘50s music is blasting, and a lot of people are swing dancing in front of the stage. We enjoy the scene for a little while, then head to dinner.
Here, the sticker shock is real. I’ve heard Switzerland is expensive, and wow! Prices at most of the restaurants are comparable, no matter if you are in the main plaza or outside of it. On several menus we’ve now spotted hamburgers that are 24 francs (almost $27 USD) and minestrone soup that’s 18 francs (over $20 USD).
I end up ordering a bratwurst in an onion sauce with potatoes, which is good but not $27 good. The options from the kid's menu cost nearly as much.
Since our time in Lugano is very short, after dinner, we go in search of a digestif, then call it an early night.
LUCERNE:
As we get further into Switzerland by train, a part of me wishes the ride would go slower… a lot slower. The countryside starts to look like the classic photos we have all seen of the beautiful landscape here - lush, green hills leading up to homes and, further up, a bevy of mountain peaks that make this look like it could be a Bob Ross painting.
Arriving in Lucerne proper, due to the navigation app, there’s some initial confusion about which way to go. The best bet for a first-time visitor, it turns out, is likely to walk straight out from the train station and straight across the bridge, or to the left along the Reuss River. Our path is a combination of the two. We huff and puff up some hills through town in the summer heat.
Finally reaching the hotel, it feels like we are on the edge of town. We have such a great view from our room. Down below is the shallow, clear river. We see people with floaties and dry bags getting in the water and floating downstream.
On our way out to explore, the woman at the hotel check-in desk asks about our plans. She insists we visit the Musegg Wall (or "Museggmauer"), which dates back to the 13th century and is the longest surviving city wall in Switzerland. Access to the western part of that fortification is about a 2 minute walk from where we're staying, so we give it a look. Wow! Climbing the old guard towers is a workout, but look at this amazing view:
After about an hour, we have fully walked the old city wall and explored the towers that are open to the public. If you're planning on visiting Lucerne and this is on your to-do list, be sure to wear comfortable shoes and bring water.
The east end of the city wall puts us at about a 5 min. walk to Lucerne's famous Lion Monument. This is an impressively-large relief of a wounded lion carved into a very solid, very large rock wall. It was completed in 1821, in commemoration of Swiss Guards who were killed during the 1792 French Revolution in Paris. I've read a fair amount of Mark Twain's work, and he called this sculpture "the most mournful and moving piece of stone in the world." We are really looking forward to seeing it...
Well, bad news, my friends: the monument is undergoing maintenance. The view is tarnished by scaffolding, and the pond below has been drained.
It's safe to say we didn't have the same experience here as Mark Twain.
Whereas the dominant language in Lugano was Italian, here, further north in the same country, yeah, it’s turns out to be German. Studying Spanish for years and years helped make navigating our way in Italy not so bad. On the other hand, I only ever took German for one semester and found it more difficult than any of the languages I studied in school. I want to reiterate here that we are lucky to be native English speakers, since it’s been rare that we haven’t been able to work out a language barrier during this trip.
What I’m most excited about for this portion of the trip is the mountain toboggan run. As a child, I used to see tracks in the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee, and not once did I ever see them being used. Maybe it was always just the wrong season. The potential for fun always stuck with me, and now I can actually see it... and try it!
First, we take a bus to the nearby city of Kriens, then take a gondola up and up and up.
We exit the lift at the station, and oh crap! We still need to ascend higher up the mountain and quickly hop back into the same car.
The ride up is so peaceful. It's so quiet. The wind occasionally whipping through the windows has its own sound. You can hear hikers talking far below. And an occasional clanging turns out to be an actual cowbell, rattling while cows graze on the mountainside.
At the next stop, you can exit for all kinds of fun (a ropes and zip line course, hiking, tree tent camping, etc.) or take a larger gondola up to the top of Mt. Pilatus. We are here for the toboggan run only, so we exit the station and follow the signs up along the gravel path.
Along the way, looking down the hill, we see people on the toboggan run, zipping by on the Alpine carts, and most of them have big smiles on their faces. A few trudge along, no doubt riding the brake in fear, and I hope we don’t end up stuck behind someone like that. Here you can see the track snaking along to the left, ending at the building just right of center:
For a deposit of 50 francs, you can borrow a chest harness for your phone and record the fun. That’s a good idea, since safety is a priority here, and signs claim the fine for using your phone while on the ride is 100 francs ($111 USD). I didn’t know about the borrowing system and have been lugging around a chest and head harness this entire trip, just for this very ride. Good thing the rain hasn’t yet come in today, which shuts down the whole operation.
Ticketing is easy: just before the queue, there’s a machine. Pay your 9 francs ($10 USD), take your ticket, then put it in the turnstile once you get to the front of the line. All you need to know about operating the Alpine carts is that pulling back on the stick activates the brake.
Are you ready? We are! Well, almost...
The goofy thing about the harness kit I bought is that it came with a hat and a chest harness but just one phone mount. The workaround, so Janine can wear the chest harness, is that the phone can be wedged under one of the straps, and the wrist strap on her phone can be looped into the harness as a safety. The description sounds more complicated than it is. The point is, since the phone isn’t on a proper mount, the guy telling everyone when to start the ride almost doesn’t let Janine go. We explain that the setup is secure because the harness goes through the phone wrist strap, and he, reluctantly, says “Okay…. Go ahead.” Off she goes:
With this head harness digging into my forehead, the wait feels like an eternity, although it’s probably 20 seconds. And now it's my turn...
The ride down is exhilarating! I wish it would never end. Signs along the way tell you when to go slow and where you need to break, before big curves. How much to brake is subjective so, as you get a feel for the cart on the track, it’s easy to find yourself taking each big curve with more confidence and speed.
When it’s all done, an employee hooks your cart up to a lift, and you slowly ride backward up to the top, ending next to the start of the ride. It’s very tempting to do it all over again, but we have other things to see back in Lucerne. Overall, this experience added up quickly, costing the two of us a total of 80 francs for the gondola lift and 18 for our toboggan ride (= $109 USD), but that sure was fun.
Here's the view from the harness that was digging into my head:
Back in town, sticker shock returns… The food is good but hasn’t been a “My tastebuds just exploded” level of good. Plus, Switzerland isn’t especially known worldwide for any cuisine other than fondue. I can easily get sucked into trying anything once but, walking by restaurants serving this, the odor of the cheese is so pungent (like an exceptionally strong Swiss cheese mixed with the stench of a dumpster) that spending 30-35 francs per person to have bread and cheese for a meal is a hard pass. Our workaround: go to the grocery and get a picnic lunch.
The two big options in this area are Coop and Aldi. This time I go to the latter. It doesn’t quite have all I’m looking for, but it has enough. A bottle of wine, can of beer, package of grapes, warm and cheesy focaccia, warm rhubarb tart, pack of cucumbers, turkey lunch meat, two bottles of sparking water, one bottle of Rivella, and a little dessert cup run us a little over 20 francs (~$22 USD).
As for Rivella, it has to be the most popular soft drink here in Switzerland. It's unique. The standard version includes milk whey as a main ingredient and, to me, the flavor is like a ginger ale and orange creamsicle combined.
Lucerne is a beautiful city. The water of Lake Lucerne is so incredibly clear and, with the mountains in the background, it's hard to find a more picturesque spot anywhere. But this place is just so expensive, even for people who live in L.A. Closing out this part of the trip, here is one of the unique and fascinating landmarks in the middle of town: the Kapellbrücke (Geman for "Chapel Bridge"), which is the oldest covered bridge in Europe, built in c. 1360 / partially rebuilt in 1994 after a fire.
ZURICH:
Zurich, ah Zurich. This place is pretty but, other than the airport to get back home, we couldn't find a whole lot here to put on the agenda... For the most part, we're just gonna have to wing it.
I was watching the show “Travel Man” the other day and, more specifically, the “Zurich” episode. Although it’s still very foreign to me, Dada was apparently an important art movement that dates back to 1916 and started at a performance space/bar/museum here called Cabaret Voltaire. Plus, I used to have a CD by the industrial band of the same name, so I guess that warrants a stop. Why not?
After a long walk, the navigation app takes us up an alley and, although this place is supposedly now open, the damn doors are shut. Frustrated by this waste of time, we backtrack, and it turns out we had already walked past the entrance a minute before, and the front door is wide open!
Janine and I order a couple beers. The bartender is awesome to talk with - an artist in his own right - and he invites us to explore the space. Upstairs are a multi-purpose/performance room and a small art library.
Downstairs is an exhibit. I would assume this is a representation of Dada, and it’s like a child with many resources made a large, papier-mâché tent with a monster face on one side. If you take a close look at the work, it’s evident a lot went into it. Kudos for that, yet this really isn't my kind of thing.
For our final dinner in Switzerland, we find... a Vietnamese place. No more pizza, no more pasta, no more ham, no more bread, no fondue. The meal is filling, delicious, and fairly cheap.
I need to mention here that we've made it a point to visit a sweets shop and buy some authentic Swiss chocolate. Again, sticker shock. Some of the chocolates look like mini works of art. We each buy 3 small pieces, pay roughly $16, and find a place by the beautiful river nearby to try them. Eh. They're okay but not great.
The Zurich airport sucks. Walking in from the Zurich metro, it looks like a mall. In fact, despite the announcement that this is the airport stop, we have to wonder if there’s been some sort of mistake.
Some “check-in” signs indicate we need to go up stairs. These check-in counters seem to only be for Swiss Air. We go upstairs again and find more counters. Here, we see just about every other airline logo you can think of on the monitors above the desks, except for ours. We circle around, then finally find out the monitors we've been looking for are turned off.
When we get the luggage dropped off, the clerk tells us to go “that way and take the metro to E.” The subway takes us to the next and only stop, then we go up some stairs, down an escalator, then down another escalator. From there, we go through a terminal - just not our terminal. Back downstairs we go, then through a passport control checkpoint. Then it’s back upstairs and, finally, to the actual gate. We have our grievances with Los Angeles International Airport but, there, we would have found our gate at least a half hour sooner. This place is wayyyy too spread out. I thought getting to the airport 3.5 hours early would be completely overkill - it isn’t. Another gripe, not because I’m lazy, but because I don’t understand it, is that the women’s restroom is on this same level, while the men’s room is up two flights of stairs, built above the ladies room. I have never seen a design like this and have no idea what the accommodations would be for a man in a wheelchair or any other limited mobility.
The flight home is delayed, but it’s expected that we will make up for lost time in the air. Still, good God, this airport is awful.
In closing, this has been an amazing trip. Italy was great, and there's so much to love. Switzerland has been okay, and maybe we just didn't have enough time (and maybe money) here to appreciate it more. Either way, we feel very grateful for this opportunity.
"Exploring Switzerland: Lugano, Lucerne, Zurich (2023)"
Written by: Justin Kilmer
Edited by: Janine Kilmer
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