Has anyone done a day trip from Zurich to Engleberg & Mt Titlus? We've 5 days in Zurich at the end of january and I'm quite keen to visit this area. From my research it appears that the options are either a train - changing at Luzern - or an organised bus trip from Zurich. Normally I'd automatically opt for the train (preferring independent travel), but the cost works out about the same.

Hi Mary,

I waited a couple of days to see if anyone else could help you.

Our family has visited Lucerne a couple of times. In July 2005 we took the train from Lucerne to Engleberg, where we spent the night. The next day we began a 14 day hike in the Swiss Alps. Our first day took us up above Engleberg where we had great views of Mt. Titlis and the glaciers.

The train from Lucerne to Engleberg is about an hour and travels through some beautiful countryside with views of the lake and mountains. At some point the train attaches to a rack of some sort to begin a steeper ascent. The station is a bit out of the main village. I'm not sure how you would make the transfer to the cablecar for Mt. Titlis.

I suspect that if you do the train from Zurich, the whole process will be longer-- the change in Zurich, the change in Engleberg and then the same on the return. You would also have the possibility of taking a later train from Lucerne and looking around there a bit.

We have done two other mountain trips in this area-- to Mt. Pilatus and Mt. Rigi. Both offer the possibility of a circular route that includes a boat trip on the lake. I highly recommend both of these trips. Although you don't have the rotating cable car over the glaciers like Titlis, you wouldn't need to invest so much time and would definitely have time to explore Lucerne. I did the Rigi trip the first time in early December.

If you do a search on either "Rigi" or "Pilatus," you'll find some previous discussions of these mountain trips.

Kathy

Dear kathy,

Many thanks for all the information it's very helpful. We've spent a few days in Luzern a few years ago, so time there is not such a priority - but it would be nice to go back. I would prefer to take the train (rather than an orgaised bus trip), but it does take about 2 hours to Engleberg from Zurich with the change in Luzern and, as you mention, I'm not sure about how far it is to the cable car from the train station. I think I'll wait and see if I can get any more details when we get to Zurich. It may be that the weather makes any sort of alpine trip a bit pointless!

Mary, for what it's worth-- we did our Pilatus trip in late October. It was a very overcast day in Lucerne. We took the steamer down the lake, then a cogwheel railway up to the top of Pilatus. At some point the train pushed up through the clouds and we were in a beautiful sunny day-- high above the clouds. It was so gorgeous that we had our lunch outside. (Normally you can then take a cablecar down another side of the mountain and then a bus, though the cablecar was closed for maintenance when we were there.)

All these trips can be very expensive. We had a Swiss railpass for 1/2 fare which worked on the Rigi trip. The savings covered much of the cost of the railpass.

Hope you have a great trip-- and please come back and let us know about it!

Kathy