Pilatus Hiking Path — Attraction in Alpnach

We had a few days in Lucern and asked our hotel desk for recommendations. Mt Pilatus was his "must see" recommendation and he scheduled everything for us. We had a very short walk to the boat, which took us on a very scenic cruise of Lake Lucern, which ended at the Mt Pilatus funicular station. The ride up in the funicular was breathtaking. It may have been about an hour, but with so many amazing views, it seemed short. Along the way we say several hikers working their way up....true die hards. At the top, in the visitors center there is a self serve cafe, gift shop and traditional music. There is an outside path that is cut from the edge of the mountain that is not to be missed!!! We attempted to have a nice sit down lunch in the hotel, but we were turned away because we were not hotel guests. We were lucky to have some breaks in the clouds to get a few beautiful photos, but it was about 9,000 ft altitude and VERY cold, so plan to bundle up and expect clouds. Its still beautiful and worth the time. The trip down is in an enclosed 4 man gondola which goes down a different side of the mountain and also has breathtaking views. At the bottom station, we thought the tour bus would be waiting, but it's actually about a 3 block walk down hill to a main street and a regular city bus so you need to pay close attention to the signs while walking to catch your ride back. I would highly recommend...

Beautiful route up Pilatus. Start at the bottom train station, hike up through the forest, then up through the high altitude meadows and finally arrive at the summit train station. Then either walk back down, or save yourself pain and suffering the next few days by taking the train down (your muscles will suffer much more from the braking effort on the way down than the hike up - even if you're working harder overall to get up). Normally it's a nice afternoon hike (4-6 hrs depending on your speed and number of stops) but a fun variation is to start between 05:00 & 06:00 before sunrise and go up as fast as you can. Depending on fitness this can be done in 1.5-3.5hrs (my last attempt was 2h39m), watch the sunrise and then take the first...

It's a challenging and beautiful hiking trail. There is a big parking available in Alpnachstad , CHF5 a day. First the trail direct you through the forest, easy in the beginning with getting more difficult - lots of stones, roots, some parts of the trail are dirty and might be slippery, therefore, the hiking shoes are a must as well as plenty of drinking water. If you are tired when you have reached Aemsigen, you can jump on a train and go up or back down. The second half of the trail is not easy either and the final 40 mins are quite tough. Also, the hot weather will make it harder as you will be fully exposed to the sun. However, I would recommend it as it's very refreshing for the...