Available languages
10 hours
Mobile ticket
Spend a day in the pretty city of Lucerne on a day trip from Zurich, enjoying a short introduction of the city, Lake Lucerne cruise and plenty of free time. After traveling south through the panoramic landscapes, learn all about Lucerne on a short introduction of the city while driving into the city. Then, spend roughly six hours at leisure, seeing the city as you please. The day trip includes a ticket for a cruise on Lake Lucerne, so hop aboard to enjoy the lakeside scenery and onboard commentary with an audio guide app.
Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller
Service animals allowed
Public transportation options are available nearby
Specialized infant seats are available
Travelers should have at least a moderate level of physical fitness
Audio guides during the yacht cruise available in: English / French / German / Italian / Spanish / Russian / Arabic / Hindi / Japanese / Chinese / Korean
The tour is accompanied from Zurich to Lucerne and from Lucerne to Zurich. For the individual stay in Lucerne and the yacht cruise, tickets and a written itinerary are provided.
Please note that some shops in Lucerne are closed on Sundays.
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
"Best of Lucerne" audio guide (available for download on your own device)
Partly guided tour by professional multilingual guide as per description
Transportation by air-conditioned coach
1-hour yacht cruise cruise with audio commentary (audio guide app to be installed on own device)
Carbon-balanced operations certified by myclimate
Gratuities
Food and drinks
Hotel pick-up and drop-off
Personal expenses
Zurich
Start your day with a pickup from Sihlquai Bus Station in the center of Zurich. Enjoy the coach ride through the gorgeous Swiss countryside, and along the shores of Lake Lucerne to Lucerne.
Luzern Altstadt
Enjoy a brief orientation drive, where your guide points out the main attractions of this charming town like the famous Chapel Bridge, the Town Hall, the Jesuit Church and the Culture and Convention Centre (KKL). Explore this unique city on your own during the following six hours of leisure time.
59 reviews
Total reviews and rating from Viator & Tripadvisor
Mindy S,
Oct 19, 2025
- Review from Viator
Very easy to find the bus station to get on our tour bus. The tour guide gave us a nice overview of the area and took us on a small guided walk to the famous wooden bridge in Lucerne. She provided us with a map of other tourist spots around town and showed us where the boat launch was located. The boat ride was nice and it gave a good overview of the lake and some of its history. Our return bus arrived on time and gave us a comfortable ride home. Please note you are left alone to tour on your own in Lucerne. No one guides you through town. We enjoyed this because we love to check out new locations on our own at our own pace.
scott b,
Sep 13, 2025
- Review from Viator
Lots of “on your own time” in Lucerne. We had over 6 hrs to explore. The coach ride was well narrated into town and the lake cruise was beautiful on a comfortable quiet boat.
Laura C,
Sep 3, 2025
- Review from Viator
Our bus ride was comfortable and informative, and our guide was so helpful and kind. The cruise on Lake Lucerne was absolutely stunning, and you still have plenty of free time during the day to explore the city, eat lunch and do some shopping on your own time. The guide also gave us a map with all the major attractions in the city which was convenient and easy to follow. Overall a wonderful tour and would definitely recommend.
Maureen D,
Aug 25, 2025
- Review from Viator
It’s worth doing as they travel the back roads to Lucerne. Had a great guide. We enjoyed wondering round the city. Took a cruise on the lake. Went to the Lion monument.enjoyed the KKL ( culture center)Lucerne really needs more than a day to really enjoy it.
Michael G,
Aug 11, 2025
- Review from Viator
We did the Lake Lucerne cruise and visit. It was among our least favorite excursions, mostly due to the fact that we felt trapped in Lucerne like a rudderless ship. We were provided a rudimentary map and sent forth on our own. No information about sites to see and as a result, we simply went from church to church and wandered aimlessly up and down curt streets. We felt trapped in that we had to wait for the bus to return from the mountains and unless we wanted to spend the extra money to train back to Zürich, there was little to do. No wife available except at specific areas and all instructions were in Swiss German. We got on the shphyr boat for a circular one hour cruise. The viator app noted we had to download an app which we were unable to do and as it turned out, there were headsets available but nobody informed us that this was the proper route. The bus from the mountains was about 20-30 minutes late headed home. If all you are wanting to do is Visit Lucerne, save the fees and take the train yourself. Otherwise folks that visited the mountains seems to have a better time than us.
JohnHernandez,
Aug 4, 2025
- Review from Viator
Tour was exactly what we expected so it was great. The lake cruise was nice and glad we took it. Lucerne is very nice and I feel like we spent a good amount of time there.
jackiewT5714QP,
Aug 1, 2025
- Review from Tripadvisor
The trip itself was beautiful! Our guide was horrible. He lost a whole family, our 1 hour in Lucerne was shortened by 30 minutes of walking to shopping area. Some of our group didn’t even make it because they couldn’t keep up with the guide. One of our group spoke to him at that time, however it didn’t help. He didn’t try to keep count of the group and lost the family. He sent 6 of our group up the mt to do the bobsled only to find out there was a 90 minute wait, so they lost that time up at Mt Pilatus. We paid a lot of money, only to be very disappointed. At the end he stood in front of us expecting a tip🤬
Josh R,
Jun 23, 2025
- Review from Tripadvisor
Really enjoyed our trip to Lucerne. We got a lot of good information about Switzerland, Lucerne, and history. We had a good amount of time to explore.




Kimberly B,
Jun 17, 2025
- Review from Viator
Good day trip, nice city, easy tour for the masses to enjoy and not be confused over. Guide was good. We had zero issues.
DAVID C,
Oct 21, 2024
- Review from Viator
So this wasn’t quite what we expected. We wanted to visit Lucerne and thought doing so through an arranged excursion would be better than going ourselves by train. As it turned out, we were grouped, for convenience sake, with the larger tour heading up to Mt. Pilatus. There were just a few of us doing only the Lucerne part so when the bus arrived in Lucerne, our “guide” walked the group to the Chapel Bridge, gave a brief overview, then set us loose. Then the larger group heading up the mountain went back to the bus. Lucerne is a beautiful city but we were there for too many hours (about 6) for being on our own. The boat ride on Lake Lucerne was nice, but you really don’t go that far (this is a huge lake). If we were to visit again, I would just take the train from Zurich.
Operated by Best of Switzerland Tours