You can do a trip up to Engleberg by rail as well as the ascent of Mt. Titlis once there in 1/2 day without difficulty.

We stayed in Lucerne 5 or 6 days during January and used a Swiss Pass to do day trips by rail out of the city. Worked beautifully. 1 hour to Bern. 25 min from Bern to Murten on the sea, 2 hours 18 min to St. Gallen--lovely small town with fantastic monastical library,
1 hr 19 min to Rapperswill, cute seaside resort town, the 34 min to Einsiedeln with another terrific monastery and church in Baroque style. 1 hr 14 to Basel. Also went to Interlaken and Wengen, but latter is primarily a ski destination I think.
Lucerne is pretty much in the middle of everything and I can't say enough good things about the swiss pass. Here's a link to questions, answers and a report on my use of the pass.

http://www.fodors.com/community/europe/obsessively-looking-for-confirmation-swiss-pass.cfm

Thanks for the quick response. Will check out suggestions.

Lots of information to absorb on the Swiss pass.

Has anyone tried the rental car route?

Definitely the Swiss Pass. You will certainly want to make excursions up to the mountain tops and the Swiss Pass will give you reductions for those (Mt. Rigi e.g. is included in the Swiss Pass). If you rent a car you have the cost for the rental car, the gas (expensive in Europe!), the parking fees (also expensive!) plus the full cost for the mountain railways/cable cars. Also, the Swiss public transportation system is sufficient, you're not slower than by car (depending on traffic often even faster).

I second the ideas of Einsiedeln, Engelberg/Mt. Titlis and Bern. Do a cruise on Lake Lucerne, go to Mt. Rigi (up from Vitznau e.g., down via Art-Goldau), do a day trip to the Jungfrau region (Lauterbrunnen - Kleine Scheidegg - Grindelwald). How many days are you staying?

Thanks. We have 6 days, 5 nights in Lucerne.

I am still debating on whether to rent a car or just get a rail pass. Leaning toward the rail pass after reading some of the posts but can go either way.>

The pass covers so so many more things than trains - lake boats like you will want to do on Lake Lucerne as well as city buses and trolley buses and trams and postal buses and gives 50% off on expensive mountain train rides to mountain tops - like Mt Pilatus righg in Lucerne practically. Also gives free entry to 400+ Swiss museums.

Great day trips from Lucerne:

Lake boats - classic tour is down the fjord-like arm of the lake to Fluelen, then take the train back - get off in a lovely lakeside city like Brunnen for lunch or a look about

Mt Rigi - boat to Vitznau and take the mountain train up to the celebrated Mt Rigi summit - known not for glaciers like the Jungfraujoch or Zewrmatt's Matterhorn but for its fantastic lateral view of the rocky spine of Central Switzerland and the lake far below - take the aerial cable way back down to the boat dock via Weggis (all 100% covered by Swiss Pass)

Mt Pilatus - take a boat to Alpnachstad and awesome mountain train up to Mt Pilatus' summit - then aerial cable car back down to Krens in suburban Lucerne and trolley bus back to town.

Bern is a great day trip - one of the most underrated cities in Switzerland IMO.

Zurich could be an interesting day trip too and Einselden as mentioned by Ingo - that famous religious pilgrimage site.

And even Interlaken - take the train up and over the famous Brunig Pass (part of fabled Golden Pass rail route) - one of Switzerland's most scenic rail rides - tracks hug gorgeous Lake Brienz to Interlaken - or just get of at Brienz and take a lake boat around the lake or go to the famous Ballenberg Open-Air museum (Swiss Pass would save about $20 on the entry there!)

Oh so so many nice day trips from a Lucerne base.

Oh meant to add to check out www.swisstravelsystem.com for lots of good stuff on trains and conveyances in the area and also these superb IMO sites that cover the area in details - www.seat61.com; www.budgeteuropetravel.com and www.ricksteves.com.

And there is a less heralded but still considered to be one ogf Switzerland's iconic scneic rail lines - the one that goes east of Lucerne to Pfaffikon SZ and beyond - forget the name but it has some kind of special name.

No one seemed to mention Zurich. We fly into Zurich and planned to spend the first 3 night there before heading to Lucerne. Is that too many? I figured first day would be recovery from jet lag so just some walking around to get acquainted with the city. The next day would be the sight seeing day; maybe get a walking tour and find a nice place for dinner. Then pack up and head for Lucerne the next morning.

Also there are 3 Marriott hotels in Zurich...Zurich Marriott Hotel, Renaissance Zurich Tower Hotel and Courtyard Zurich North. Any recommendation which is in the best location?

Thanks for the help

Don't know the others, but stayed at the Courtyard Marriott Zürich - very nice hotel, only a five minutes walk to the train station Zürich-Oerlikon where you can catch the suburban trains to Zürich main station. Trains run about every 5-10 minutes, only takes 8 minutes (I think) to the main station.

The other hotels are much closer to the centre, the Marriott probably with the best location. It's a matter of room rates IMO.

You can easily spend two full days in Zürich with sightseeing (although most Fodorites will tell you it's just a business city). Here is a page with many tips on the city:
http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/4166c/a8632/

Thanks, Ingo, for the first hand experience. The website looks like a great resource. I will check it out in detail.

What was your favorite thing in Zurich? We just love to walk around cities and enjoy the architecture, people, etc. Is it safe most places to walk around.

How about your favorite restaurant? We love to eat!

Parking your car in Switzerland can be expensive. Plan on about 30-40+ Swiss Francs per day in Lucerne, more in Zurich. We managed to find parking on the street, just outside the Renaissance in Lucerne, and the hotel gave us a parking ticket for our rental car so it would not be towed. I honestly don't recall what we paid to park the car on the street (maybe 20 Francs per day?), but it was less than parking in the garage nearby. The Renaissance is a nice hotel, and the location is near night life and restaurants (some a bit pricey). Shopping is close by. The best shopping will be across the old bridge and into the old city area. This is one of my most favorite shopping areas anywhere!!

The Renaissance is not far from the main bahnhoff in Lucerne so location/proximity to rail service is good. It's nice to have a rental car (we always do) but the train service in Switzerland is excellent!

I am also a Marriott fan, but the Marriott in Zurich is just a bit too far from the main city center, in my opinion. Not walking distance for sure. Trams could get you back and forth to city center. We drive past this big Marriott all the time when heading from city center to the airport area. We like staying by the airport and then taking our rental car or the train into the city for shopping and sight seeing. Zurich, especially the Bahnhoffstrasse and the Old Town area are good for walking and people watching. We stayed at a Renaissance (not the Tower) which was supposedly "close to" the airport, but it was unhandy. It is NOT my favorite Renaissance Hotel! Have not tried the Courtyard.

Einseideln is a lovely suggestion for a day trip from Lucerne! I'll be there for a few days in about a week! Always enjoy my visits to see friends who live in a house overlooking the Sihlsea there! The historic abbey (be sure to go thru the horse barns also!!!) is very interesting!

Just typing my suggestions for your trip is getting me very excited about jetting back to Zurich next week for 2 weeks in Switzerland!!! Hoping you enjoy your trip as much as we will.

Carol

Thanks, sounds like Einseideln is definitely on the list with so many of you recommending it!

I've done the Einseldein day trip from Lucerne and found it mildly interesting as a town - the pilgrimage shrine yeh nice but Einseldein would be low on my list of day trips if time was precious - I enjoyed much more for example a day trip to The Rhine Falls and Schlaffhausen - easy to do by train.

But don't get me wrong Einseldein is a good day trip just that IMO others are better for the average tourist.

So many to decide. Looking into details now. Is the weather pretty predictable end of May? Averages say 70 degrees F. Trying to figure out how much weather will impact my decision of where and when.

Thanks for all of the help

Weather in the Alps is always unpredictable, all the year round. There are no dry seasons and no wet seasons, it may rain at any time as it may be cloudless, warm and sunny for more than a week. Interlaken-Lucerne-Appenzell are among the wetter places of Switzerland whereas Basel, Sion-Sierre-Brig and Locarno are the driest one's.

It can rain for days on end or be misty in the Berner Oberland - one reason why keeping open possible day trips to cities like Bern or Lucerne or Thun or the famous Ballenberg Open-Air Museum is a good idea - better places in wet weather than hiking in the hills!

I would never spend three nights in Paxil City aka Zurich.

Do you plan on walking up and down the Bahnhofstrasse with all the matrons and bankers whilst looking into the windows of Cartier and Prada?

Thin

I thought the weather might be unpredictable, so we will try too keep plans semi-flexible depending on the weather. That is one reason I wanted a base and just go on day trips. So I think I should categorize trips...ones that would be better if it is rainy and others that would be better if it is a sunny/nice day

One thing for sure - if the sun is out and if doing say the Jungfraujoch hop on it - though check weather reports on hotel TVs as the conditions at the summit could be very different than down below.

Sorry, but I like Zurich, though I think two nights would do it justice (unless daytripping to Rapperswil or Einsiedeln,etc).
Click on my name in blue to read Trip Reports from May 2010 and November 2010 which included time in/daytrips from Zurich.
Stayed just this last October in Brunnen, a lakeside town just 30 minutes from Luzern...can't wait to get back!

IF you get to Einsideln, be sure to visit the horses around the back of the monastery, visit the monks gift shop with locally-produced wines, and try Lebkuchen- the locally produced spice-cookie!

I too am a fan of Zurich - much maligned and really for good reason in that it pales in comparison to the average tourists' interests with places like Lucerne, the Interlaken area to be specific. But a day or two in Zurich is great - a sweet lakeside promenade which on weekends takes on the atmosphere of a festival with folks of all ethnic types strolling around - folks selling things like an outdoor market everywhere - and take a hill-climbing tram into the really sylvan setting just to the east and south of town, etc.

There is nothing wrong with Zurich, it is a pleasant city, but one day there is sufficient.

Thin

for most yes one day is enough but there is enough of enough there for others to linger for several days as I once happily did - using it as a base from which to hop to many great sites and explore areas not normally on tourists' radar - Zurich is a very ethnically diverse city and that adds to its color.

Thanks for all the great replies. It might make more sense for me to start a separate Zurich thread.

When we go to a city we usually like to take a walking, biking or Segway tour. Recently we did a food tour of a city and that was great fun. So I will start a new thread on those items.

Any other Lucerne/ day trip suggestions, please keep them coming.

What is the difference between the Zurich Pass and the Swiss Pass?

Swiss Pass is for travel all over Switzerland and Zurich is probably just regional in and around Zurich - otherwise same benefits I would suppose.

Any other Lucerne/ day trip suggestions, please keep them coming.>

Engelberg IMO should be at the top of any such list - roivals Zermatt and the Jungfrau for awesome Alpine scenery such as we often think of when picturing Switzerland in our minds eyes but fail to find in many parts of the country.

Hop a train from Lucerne to Engelberg and then take mountain conveyances even higher to eyeball snow-girdled peaks - lots of hiking trails for all energies/skills. Just about an hour or so from Lucerne.