Lucerne

In the nearby town Meggen, there's an unusual Roman Catholic parish church building made of transcluent marble, built in 1966. The building has a form of a 13m high cube and no windows. It looks bluish from the outside, and yellow-orange on the inside - depending on the lighting conditions.

Beautiful park with nice view over Lake Lucerne and the Alps. Sometimes you can listen to the music of the conservatory-students.

With its large collection of trains, planes, automobiles, and motorcycles, this museum of means of transport is a great place to spend an afternoon. If you get tired of the real train engines you can check out the model railroad or the miniature working steam train. The air section also features several space travel exhibits, including an unused project Mercury capsule.

Well over 200 works by 23 artists of early modernism, including 125 works of Paul Klee and about 50 by Pablo Picasso. Also works by Cézanne, Chagall, Miró, Pissarro, among others. The collection also houses 200 photographs, previously housed in the Am-Rhyn-Haus, by David Duncan Douglas, Life Magazine’s World War II photo correspondent who arrived with his camera uninvited at Picasso’s villa “California”, was welcomed by Picasso and his family, and over the years produced an intimate portrait of the artist’s day-to-day life. Picasso's living room was his studio, and domestic scenes — a ballet lesson, Picasso drawing with his children, or wrapping himself in the cape and hat of his native Spain —play out within the backdrop of some of his most famous works. Allow at least 2 1/2-3 hours to see all the artworks. There are three floors, and you should allow plenty of time for each one. The ground floor houses many very interesting works by Picasso, but there are lots of others on the first floor, along with outstanding works by Raoul Dufy, Fernand Léger, Vassily Kandinsky, Georges Rouault, et al. The Klees are all in the basement. The titles in Klee's handwriting are often very small and hard to read, and he did not put titles in every work, so ask for a printed list of composition titles for them.

One of the main reasons that Lucerne attracts so many travelers is its small but remarkably preserved old town. You can get lost (for a few minutes anyhow) in its maze of streets, passages, and squares, admiring the many and varied murals painted on what seems like every other building. A nice short walk on the Museggmauer starts at the Schirmer-Turm, walk up the road near Jazzkantine, open only at daytime.

Take a boat tour on the lake Lucerne with the traditional steamboats. A ride along the full length of the lake (Lucerne – Flüelen) takes approximately 3 hours. The lake has several tight bends and the landscape changes dramatically during the ride from the high mountains around Flüelen to the gentler hills around Lucerne. The villages and towns along the lake are generally very nice places to take a relaxed day with a walk/swim and food at the lakefront - Weggis and Brunnen for example. Flüelen and Brunnen at the far end of the lake can also be reached by direct train from Lucerne.

Lucerne has an excellent bicycle Network. Rent a bicycle at the train station in lucerne and explore the city and the suburbs or make a day trip on the national bicycle network (http://www.veloland.ch/en/veloland.html).

A famous mountain overlooking the city of Lucerne. Pilatus is definitely a must and gives you a good impression of a wild and rocky peak with a marvelous view of the "real" Alps. Its peak can be reached by the world's steepest cogwheel railway from Alpnachstad (not operating in wintertime) and all-year-round by cable-car in three sections from Kriens (10 minutes by trolley bus no. 1 from Lucerne as far as 'Linde/Pilatus'). Going up from Alpnachstad and down to Kriens, combined with a boat ride from Lucerne, is called the Golden Round Trip and is over €100. A pleasant, and cheaper, option is to take the train from Lucerne to Alpnachstad (roughly €8), then take the cogwheel railway to Pilatus's peak and then the first cable-car down towards Kriens (roughly €52, or €26 with a rail card), and then hike the rest of the way down to Kriens (free, approximately 2 hours). Of course you can walk the entire way to the top on foot, which takes at least 4 hours from Kriens. In addition to hiking, there are several other activities, including a suspension rope park and a 1,350 m long toboggan (both at the second stop of the cable-car from Kriens). Even if you don't plan to hike, allow for at least three hours to spend on Pilatus.

The mountain Mount Titlis has a glacier on the top and a splendid view.

In addition to the popular Pilatus, Rigi, and Titlis there are a number of other mountains in the region which are easy to reach by public transport and are serviced by cable-cars. Stoos and Stanserhorn are included in the Swiss Travel Pass for 2022. The cable car to the Brienzer Rothorn at Sörenberg can be reached in an hour by car or public transport.

Get a beautiful view over the Mittelland and its lakes on this 2-hour walk. Go there by boat (Lucerne-Kehrsiten) and funiculaire or by train and bus (Lucerne-Stansstad-Bürgenstock). There are some luxury resorts at Buergerstock. It's also possible to go by mountain bike to the top.

Paragliding down from the majestic mountains surrounding Lake Lucerne is a unique experience. Tandem paragliding is possible all year round with pilots certified by the Federal Office of Civil Aviation (FOCA) of Switzerland.

UNESCO Biosphere reserve. Nearly a third of the area is protected moorland, and the mountainous karst region of Schrattenfluh. The latter is a limestone karst massif with several peaks, covered by fissured rock surfaces, dolines, and underground caves, developed through the dissolution of calcium carbonate by mildly acidic rainwater.

Some cities of Switzerland, including Lucerne and Basel, celebrate a rousing carnival just before Lent each year. The version celebrated here is famous for its chaotic "march any direction you like" street parades of the so-called Guugemusig (band of wind instruments and drummer, typical to the carnival of Central Switzerland) and elaborate masks. The carnival week of Lucerne starts at the end of February on Fat Tuesday and ends at Ash Wednesday. The programme in short: Fat Tuesday, Urknall (big bang) at 05:00 is the official beginning, music on the streets all the day in the city, mask parade from 14:00 along the lake, music on the streets in the evening; Friday to Sunday music and mask parades in all the towns and villages of the region; Güdis Monday, second Urknall at 06:00, rest ditto Fat Tuesday; Thursday, big street concert in the whole old town and surroundings, end of the official carnival at midnight, but it continues in the bars until the morning of Ash Wednesday. As with carnival elsewhere, the exact date on the calendar is variable according to the phase of the moon. You find the date of the next Fat Tuesday (SchuDo, Schmutziger Donnerstag) here. If you don't want to be recognised as a tourist, put on some colorful clothes. Most of the locals dress in colors or in masks. The cities of Zürich and Berne have started to copy Central Switzerland's carnival.

Music festival in July.

Music festival in June–July

Top end theater and musicals

Nice theater with a bar. A place for art work and to meet people. Inexpensive.