Out of all the countries in Europe I've visited, I would definitely say that Switzerland is by far the most beautiful. We stayed on Lake Lucerne (highly recommend!) which I found to be a much better experience than staying in Zurich. While Zurich is a busy city, Lake Lucerne offers gorgeous scenery and there's so much to do, but it still has parts that feel like a city (just a much quieter one.)
We stayed at Hotel Seeburg, which is right on the lake. It's a bit pricey considering the rooms are a bit bland and have no air conditioning (around $350 a night for a lake view room with a balcony), but waking up to this gorgeous view every day was incredible.
It's also across the street from the Sunset Bar, which I loved! They have lots of food options such as pizza and burgers, and a full bar. The sun doesn't set there until around 9:45pm, which was great to have so much light!
The hotel also has free parking, and it's a great location because it's easy to get everywhere. You can go across the street and swim in the lake, take a boat ride, or rent bikes. There's a bike rack across the street - just make sure to download the Nextbike app, but you'll have to call them for the pin (for some reason, the pins don't get sent to US phone numbers, but they answer the customer service line right away and will give you a pin over the phone.)
You can walk or bike around the entire lake - they have food tents and live music events, and they also have a bunch of gorgeous hotel bars on the lake if you want to have dinner or drinks with a view.
Chapel bridge is a big tourist attraction in Lucerne, and right next to it are a few nice restaurants on the water. Across the street is the pier where you can rent small speed boats, pedal boats, or go on one of the big boat cruises.
Another fun attraction in Lucerne is Mount Pilatus. They have Alpine slides you can ride (super fun!) and you can either take a gondola or a train to the top. (We chose the gondola because that was the side of the mountain where we parked, but I'd love to ride a mountain train next time!)
You definitely want to rent a car if you want to see the other areas of Switzerland such as Lauterbrunnen, Interlaken and Grindelwald (just don't speed! Apparently they're very strict about that.) It's also a gorgeous drive where you can pull over and take photos of the bluest water you've ever seen!
We drove to Lauterbrunnen, which has 72 waterfalls! It's an adorable little town with restaurants and shops, and you can also RV camp there and rent bikes. It's basically one long road where you can walk the whole town in an hour. I'd love to camp next time and spend a few days there.
They also have interesting compost port-a-potty's and vending machines that sell wine, cheese and salami! (Charcuterie anyone?)
On our last day, we drive 40 minutes from Lucerne to Zurich to explore the city. I have to admit, after all this gorgeous nature scenery, we were a bit underwhelmed with Zurich. We had lunch in Altstadt (the old town neighborhood), then walked over to Umbrella Alley (which looks cool in photos, but you have to walk through a sketchy neighborhood to get there, so I wouldn't recommend it!)
Other things to note: Switzerland is very expensive! A meal is usually around 40 Franks, which is about $50 US. Burgers seem to be very popular there, as every restaurant has burgers, no matter what type of cuisine.
Also, German is the primary language there, but everyone speaks very good English (which isn't always the case with other parts of Europe), so it was easy to communicate.
And in case you're wondering how to say exit in German...
(These signs are everywhere. The immature kid in me really got a kick out of it.)
All in all, 6 days in Switzerland was not enough time! My bucket list for next time includes:
- Camping in Lauterbrunnen so we can bike the entire city and see more waterfalls (and get some charcuterie vending machine snacks!)
- Renting a speedboat in Lake Lucerne
- Riding the mountain go-karts in Grindelwald
- Riding one of the trains that go up the mountain (Lauterbrunnen has one of those too.)
- Seeing Interlaken
Guess we'll have to go back!
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