Lucerne with Kids: What Works, What Costs Too Much and What to Skip

Lucerne works well with children if you plan one big outing a day and fill the rest with free things. The big outings are expensive, the free things are good, and the one decision that changes the budget most is whether you own a Swiss Travel Pass. This guide gives you a day-by-day logic, not a checklist of everything.

Free and nearly free, good for any age

• The Lion Monument. A huge lion carved into a rock face, in a small park. It is open at all times and free, and children tend to remember it. It commemorates Swiss guards killed in Paris in 1792, so decide how much of that you tell younger children.
• The two covered bridges. Walking through the Chapel Bridge is quick, and the Spreuer Bridge has painted panels showing a Dance of Death that can frighten small children, so look at them first.
• The lake front. A walk along the water, ice cream and ducks cost nothing and take as long as the children like.

For a full walking route with history, see our Lucerne walking tour guide. A guided walk is not the best use of money with small children; the self-guided loop lets you stop whenever you want.

A wet-weather day

The Swiss Museum of Transport is the strongest indoor option. Locomotives, aircraft, ships and many interactive exhibits give children things to touch, and it is generally described as Switzerland’s most visited museum. On GetYourGuide the entrance ticket is €39.91 per person with 4.4 stars from 224 reviews and a listed duration of one day. Published rates for the museum list reduced prices for children and free entry for the youngest, but the figure above is the one shown on the listing, so open the booking page and the museum’s own site to see what applies to your children before you buy. Our museum guide explains the ticket against the day pass.

The Swiss Chocolate Adventure, at €19.42, is a 30-minute ride in small automatic vehicles and an easy add-on. The guide to it explains what it is and what it is not.

The Glacier Garden (Gletschergarten) is a second option near the Lion Monument: a site where a glacier carved deep holes into the bedrock, with a museum and a mirror maze from the 19th century. It is a short visit, so combine it with the monument. Prices and opening times change, so check the Glacier Garden’s own site.

A different idea is the creative painting workshop for children and families, listed at €63.64 per person for 2 hours. It has only five reviews, with a 4.8 rating, so treat it as promising but unproven, and read what is provided and who it is meant for before booking.

The lake

A boat on Lake Lucerne is the easiest big outing for children, because they can move about and look out. Our boat trip guide compares the cruises, and the biggest saving for families is the pass described below.

One mountain, not three

Choose a single mountain and give it the day.

• Pilatus is the most exciting for children, with a cogwheel railway, panoramic gondola and the “Dragon Ride” cableway. The Golden Round Trip guide covers the loop. It has several changes of vehicle, which suit some children and tire others.
• Rigi is gentler and nearly as pretty. The Rigi guide shows how boat and railway combine, with the added bonus that the journey is the entertainment.
• Titlis is high and cold at 3,020 m, and the most expensive. It is the one to skip with small children unless snow is the whole point of the day. The Titlis guide has the details.

For help choosing between them, read Pilatus, Rigi or Titlis.

The Swiss Travel Pass and children

According to the Swiss Travel System, a parent who buys a Swiss Travel Pass can also get the free Swiss Family Card for children between 6 and 15, and children under 6 travel free without a ticket. With the card, the children travel free with that parent on trains, buses and boats and on Rigi, among others. You can only get the card together with the parent’s pass, so decide at the time of purchase. Conditions apply, including residence outside Switzerland, so read the official rules before counting on it.

For a family of four the pass can be the difference between an expensive week and an affordable one, since it covers the boat and the Rigi railway. If you plan only one or two excursions, do the sums with the single tickets first.

What to skip

Skip paragliding and any activity with a body-weight or age condition until you have read the booking page, because the limits differ by operator; our paragliding guide explains why. Skip the long group tours with a 10-hour day for children who find a car journey of an hour hard. And skip trying to do the museum and a mountain on the same day.

Our recommendation

Plan three kinds of day: one mountain or boat day, one museum or wet-weather day, and one slow day with the bridges, the monument and the lake. Book the big items in advance, keep the other days free, and check prices for children on each booking page before you add them up. More family-friendly ideas are on our things to do in Lucerne page.