Where to stay, eat and go in Switzerland (Zurich & Lucerne)
As I mentioned in my previous post, my fiancé and I recently went to Europe to spend time in Germany (see travel guide here) and Switzerland. Both countries were amazing, but Switzerland was definitely my favorite of the two. You can’t really beat walking along the lakefront and looking out at a mix of green and snow-capped mountains – any photos you have seen do not do this country's beauty justice.
We visited Zurich and Lucerne. Below are my recommendations on where to stay, eat and go!
Where to stay
In Zurich we stayed at St Gotthard Hotel which was located on a popular shopping street and less than 5-minute walk to the train station. The hotel was pretty basic – it had everything you would need for a nice stay, but stopped short of being anything above standard. For the price we paid though, I did like the hotel and would consider staying there again.
In Lucerne we stayed at an incredible hotel that I would highly recommend to anyone called Art Deco Montana. Its located up on a hill, but there is an elevator that takes you up to the entrance of the hotel so you don’t have to hike up and down every time you want to go somewhere – wish we had known that before we lugged all our bags up the stairs and winding streets! The hotel had incredibly helpful staff, beautiful views and art deco décor. There was also a bar / cigar lounge in the lobby which my fiancé LOVED since he is very into cigars. There is a non-smoking area of this bar too so non-smokers like myself have a place to enjoy a drink, great music and amazing views.
We booked a pretty standard room there, but were fortunate enough to be upgraded to a much larger room with two balconies. I did peek into the room we would have been in had we not been upgraded and they also looked very nice!
Where to eat
Below are some of my recommendations for restaurants in Zurich, Lucerne and some of the towns we visited during our excursions.
Adler’s Swiss Chuchi (Zurich) – a must for cheese fondue! It was soo good and I loved that you could order veggies on the side since many fondue places just offered bread and maybe potatoes. We sat outside in this square which made for fun people watching over our meal. Highly recommend!
Café Odeon (Zurich) – we went here for breakfast after it was recommended to us by our Tuk Tuk tour guide (read more about that below). It’s a bar / restaurant, but open for breakfast. The place has so much history as it was visited by historic figures including Einstein and Lenin. If you don’t go for breakfast, I recommend you at least stop in for a drink. I will say – I have never seen so many people drinking champagne, beer and wine at 10am!
Rathaus Brauerei (Lucerne) – even though we had just left Germany, Ronnie was still craving German food so we checked out this restaurant which is also a brewery. The meal was fantastic – we started with a pretzel and cheese, then I had the fish which was very good. Cool ambiance with lots of outdoor seating as well.
Pfistern (Lucerne) – we were craving cheese fondue (again) so asked our hotel for a recommendation. We sat outside on the balcony and enjoyed cheese fondue before also ordering a chocolate cake. The food and service were great, but I do think this restaurant is a bit more touristy than others - we started talking with our neighboring tables who were all American and all went to the restaurant because it was a recommendation from their hotel. It was also the only restaurant where we were explicitly asked if we wanted to leave a tip – in Switzerland tipping is generally not requested, although you should round your bill up for great service. I still really enjoyed it and do recommend it. There is a restaurant called the fondue house which we were told by our hotel not to go to because it was extremely touristy, so happy they at least sent us here instead
Bachmann (Zurich & Lucerne) – these are all over the place and perfect for a sweet treat, coffee or a morning pastry. We stopped in here a few mornings for coffee and a croissant.
Seehof Du Lac (Weggis) – this waterfront restaurant is located in a hotel in a town called Weggis. We sat outside here for lunch after taking a trip up to Mt. Rigi. The view was incredible, the service was great and the food was also very good. We were eating before catching a boat back to Lucerne and from the restaurant you could see the dock, so very well located!
Scala Restaurant (Lucerne) – located in our hotel, it was definitely the best view and prettiest restaurant we went to for dinner, but we had better food at some of the other restaurants we mentioned. That’s not to say the food was bad, it was quite good, but this is definitely the restaurant you go to more for the ambiance. We also watched a proposal (she said yes!) while we were enjoying dessert. The restaurant definitely has a romantic vibe
Restaurant Zu Webern (Bern) – we stopped here for lunch during our day trip to Bern and thought this restaurant was lovely. Our waiter was very attentive and the food was amazing – I got a pear and cheese flatbread which I am seriously still dreaming about.
Stern Luzern (Lucerne) – our last dinner in Switzerland and we definitely picked a great restaurant. It was a small restaurant in the lobby of a hotel. The menu offers appetizers and desserts in the small glasses for $7 each which allowed you to taste a few different things and I loved that concept. I also ordered a fish and it was soo delicious. Probably my favorite meal of the trip!
Where to go
This is one of the most beautiful countries I have ever been to. I was pleasantly surprised when we arrived in Zurich as I pictured it to be a bit more modern and less well kept, but the city was very clean and charming. Lucerne was also absolutely gorgeous – you can’t beat the view of Lake Lucerne with the snow-capped mountains in the background. Unreal. We did a few things in these cities, but also took some day trips. I have listed some of my recommendations on what to do below:
Zurich Tuk Tuk Tour – it was fun riding around in a Tuk Tuk, but I wish we didn’t walk the city before we took this tour. All you really do is drive around and get acquainted with the different neighborhoods, which you can just as easily do yourself on foot, but it was nice to have a local point out restaurants and bars to check out while in town
Visit Mt. Rigi via boat, funicular railway and aerial cable car – we wanted to visit the top of a mountain to get the full experience of being in the Swiss Alps and our hotel recommended Mt. Rigi. We took a boat from Lucerne to a town called Vitznau where we took the Vitznau–Rigi Kulm cogwheel railway, Europe's first mountain railway which opened in 1871, all the way up this steep mountain. The views on the railway as you continued up toward the top were fantastic, so try to get a window seat! Once at the top, we walked around and enjoyed the views, but there was still quite a bit of snow and it was pretty slippery at the top. After getting our fill of the mountain top, we decided to hike down for about an hour to a town where we could catch an aerial cable bar down to a town called Weggis. The hike down was easy and it was amazing to see peoples snow cottages along this mountain - incredible views of mountains and the lakes down below. The cable car was fun to take down as it was quite steep and the views were unbeatable. We had lunch in Weggis which was a cute town before we jumped the boat from Weggis back to Lucerne
Day trip to Bern including a stop at a cookie & cheese factory – we had heard great things about Bern, another city in Switzerland, and decided to take a day trip there through Viator. We were picked up in a Mercedes van which drove us through the Switzerland countryside. We stopped at the Keebly biscuit (cookie) factory on our way which was really just a big cookie store where we did buy lots of swiss cookies! When we arrived in Bern, our guide gave us a quick tour before giving us about 2 hours to wander around ourselves. We walked the streets, wandered through a street market, and then sat outside at Restaurant Zu Webern for lunch. Bern was really beautiful with sandstone architecture aligning a long, old street. There were many fountains in the middle of the road and great history. There’s also bears here that you can view from the street!
Aeschbach Chocolatier tour - we woke up one morning to cold, rainy weather and decided it was the day to visit a chocolate factory. Honestly, not something I would do if it was nice out since it was really geared more towards kids, but we took the bus out to the Aeschbach Chocolatier in Root where we did a self-guided tour, saw the factory and got to make our own chocolate bar after also enjoying many chocolate samples. Definitely the most delicious excursion of the trip
Self-guided walking tour through Lucerne – rather than hiring another tour guide, Ronnie and I did a self-guided walking tour through Lucerne where we stopped at the main sites and read their history to each other. We visited three beautiful churches, all built in very different times, saw beautiful, old bridges and then just walked through the streets of old town and did some shopping. I love to walk around in new cities, but it’s nice to have some guide to follow to make sure you really see everything!
Switzerland is by far the most beautiful country I have ever visited. I can’t wait to plan another trip back to visit more mountains, specifically Jungfrau and Matterhorn, and maybe even check out Lake Geneva.
Where else would you recommend visiting in Switzerland?
Xo, Katie