Frakigaudi Summer Toboggan — Attraction in Hergiswil (NW)

TLDR Version: Great fun for children of all ages, but wait times can be long

English Version: If you aren't familiar with what a Sommer Rodelbahn is, search it up on YouTube; you'll probably like what you see. This one is several minutes long, but if you're like me, and want to go as fast as possible for the thrill of the ride, (because you can enjoy the view while walking or standing still) wait until the attendant requires you to go, otherwise, if the person ahead of you is timid, you will quickly catch up to them, and have your speed limiited by the slowpoke ahead of you.

The people working the attraction are very laid-back; when I was there, the ticket-booth went unattended for several minutes while I waited for someone to return. This isn't a huge deal, Switzerland, in my experience as a whole, operates on time, but not at the same fast-paced tempo as Germany, nowhere near as laissez-faire as Italy, but somewhere in between, kind of like their geographical location. ;-)

Don't be surprised if you are in line with people dripping with gold-jewelry, speaking languages you didn't expect to hear visiting Europe. The well-to-do class from all over the world has found what Switzerland has to offer, if you have the CHFs to pay for it. ;-)

Don't miss your chance to sail around Lake Lucerne on the opposite side of the mountain, it's

Deutsche Version (abgekürzt): Eine gute Sommer Rodelbabn. Längere und spannendere gibt's vielleicht woanders, aber einmalig ist was man auch noch in der Nähe findet. Auf dem Berggipfel ist noch viel zu tun, und die Fahrt mit dem Schiff auf dem Vierwaldstädtersee ist herrlich...

Terrible! The wheel just broke while my husband was playing with my son! We had to pull themselves with the car by hand to get to the destination. The staff didn’t even apologize for this bad experience! We waited for over an hour for a ride, and then they told us to go back to the line if we wanted a compensated ride. Their bad attitude made my son cry. I never imagined I’d wait an hour for such a unhappy and dangerous terrible experience!

Shocking reply! I don’t know what you call the “circle” part under the sleds but the staff at the downhill section turned the sled over and showed us that this “circle” part had split from the sled when we complained it didn’t work. I was shocked and angry that the facility hadn’t been maintained and broke while in use — but he seemed more surprised at my surprise! Is this a common situation?

My husband and son’s sled got stuck in the middle of the hill, yet no staff came to help them. Finally, my daughter and I, who were behind them, used our sleds to push them back to the destination. This meant all three of us only rode half of the track, and I believe it was dangerous for three sleds to be stuck together and slide on the track. But we were helpless and had no choice, because the sled was locked onto the rail without the “circle” part, and my husband had already used all his strength trying to move it!

I can’t imagine if this happened to a child — how could they handle it? This is extremely dangerous for such poorly...

Visited on 1/8/25

BE AWARE: The toboggan does not run in even the slightest bit of drizzle. We saw people learn this the hard way today and we got very lucky between very short, light showers. Also, be prepared to wait at peak times and pay €20 each way pp (adult) to actually get up the mountain in the gondolas on a 20 minute ride.

The views were amazing and the ride was fast and fun (you can control your own speed), but we queued for 1 hour and 15 minutes. The queue wasn't even very long, they were just only giving people a ticket and allowing them beyond the barrier (to yet another queue to actually board the toboggan), in small groups. While waiting in this queue we spent a lot of time watching the staff and people boarding and getting off the ride. There were a lot of staff doing little to nothing and large periods of time where nobody was getting on or off the ride (this was during dry weather! The rain came just as we had finished our ride which delayed things further for those still waiting)

Overall we're glad we did it because the view and ride were amazing (albeit short in comparison to the wait time) but the extremely long wait (which seemed unnecessary) and disorganised nature of the staff...