One of the nice excursions out of town when you're visiting Lucerne is a nature hike along
the face of a cliff, and it's easy.
Starting with boat ride to Burgenstock then a funicular ride up the hill for some hiking
through the forest.
If you're on your way to Mount Pilatus for an excursion you can make this easy stop along
the way.
You'll find the boat ride gives scenic vistas of mountains all around Lake Lucerne and it
just takes thirty-five minutes to get there.
The boats also have food-service, some with an elaborate lunch at the restaurant.
Hop off at the Burgenstock dock.
You can use one ticket that will take you all the way to Pilatus and get off partway
here at Burgenstock and then get back on the boat and continue to Pilatus later.
You'll need to purchase a ticket for the funicular lift which you can do at the office right
here on the dock.
The sign on the dock says Kehrsiten-Burgenstock.
You ride this funky, old-fashion funicular to the top, and notice the open air balcony.
It's the original railcar, the oldest funicular in Switzerland, first opened in 1888, reaching
maximum a gradient angle of 58°.
It's pulled up the steep hill by cables with automatic electric propulsion.
Upon reaching the top you can take a lovely nature hike following the signs to the cliff
walk.
This is a level path with sweeping views across the lake and straight down the rock face of
the mountain looking down about 1000 meters.
The map shows the route in a summary, you go up the hill by funicular and then you walk
along this cliffside trail, from the Burgenstock resort over to the elevator, along the face
of a vertical thousand-meter high cliff with beautiful views out across Lake Lucerne.
This cliff path was built between 1900 and 1905 and its legendary.
Rits name is the Felsenweg and it's actually part of a slightly longer trail system.
You could keep going and walk all the way around the Burgenstock mountain and that would
take you about two hours, or do the easy short hike.
Up ahead you'll find the elevator will lift you to the top of the mountain.
The trail is quite level with the change in elevation of just about 100 meters along its
course and at some point you could take a little shortcut up a staircase or do the loop
switchback trail.
It's even accessible for baby carriages and wheelchairs, so you don't need any fancy climbing
gear to enjoy this experience, and yet you get that robust feeling of an adventure, and
being out in nature on the edge, at the top of this steep cliff.
Although this trail is well known, especially among the Swiss it really does not draw a
lot of tourists because it slightly out of the way.
So it's a great opportunity for the visitor to Lucerne who's spending a few days there
and wants to do something a little bit different, enjoying this perfect nature hike.
It's the highest, public, external elevator in Europe and fastest in the world, just takes
fifty seconds to go up 152 meters, and provides a double thrill of quickly speeding skyward
surrounded by the spectacular view.
But it's not free.
You pay ten Swiss francs one-way or you can get a round-trip for thirteen Swiss francs.
It's called the Hammetschwand lift and was first built in 1905.
At the top you can relax and enjoy the views, sit at the outdoor cafe and have a drink,
or you can have a meal in the Taverne 1879.
Now the elevator is open during the season, from early May until the end of October and
the hours are 9:30in the morning until 5:30 in the afternoon.
At the top you’re at an elevation of 1132 meters.
They're doing some farming up here the old-fashioned way with a large hand scythe, keep the weeds
down.
And notice how steep the hill is as that rock goes tumbling down.
A series of short hiking trails continues through the forest, very easy to walk on.
They are either paved or they have a smooth gravel surface and the gradient is really
not steep at all.
So it's very pleasant walking in the shade of the tall trees of the forest.
It's big enough to give you a feeling of adventure but small enough that you will not get lost,
a little disoriented perhaps, but there are signposts to help you find your way.
Elevation is just over a thousand feet high and there's a plateau that features a 9-hole
golf course.
Burgenstock has always been popular holiday center, with luxury hotels that were first
built from 1872.
In recent years an amazing transformation of the hotel facilities has taken place with
construction of three new ultra luxury properties.
There is the five-star Burgenstock Hotel Superior.
And there is the Waldhotel for healthy living, which has 160 guestrooms and features spa,
and professional team with medical care, and healthy living facilities.
And then there is the reconstruction of the four-star Palace Hotel which was first built
in 1906, and all of its historical value has been retained during the renovation, bringing
it right up to date.
When finished with your visit, if you're not spending the night in one of those super-luxury
properties, you take the same funicular back down the hill to the boat dock and resume
your journey.
When this funicular first opened in 1888 it was water powered, filling its water tank
to make the car heavy, so gravity would pull it down while it pulled up the other lighter
car by cable.
And at the bottom, the water was emptied out and pumped back up the hill to the other car.
When done with Morgan stock you could take a boat right back to Lucerne or better yet,
continue on with us to Pilatus, as we show you in a different movie in our Swiss series.
It's another fun boat ride over to Alpnachstad, then up to Pilatus by rack rail, and down
by cable car back to Lucerne.
We have a big series of movies about Switzerland taking you to most of the great places.
We will bring you to Lucerne and up to Mount Titlis, Mount Rigi, over to Interlaken, up
to the Jungfrau.
We will see the Shilthorn, Lauterbrunnen Valley, Trummelbach Falls, Grindelwald, Bern, then
on to Zermatt, the Matterhorn, yes we will have a look at the Gornergrat, up the Sunnegga,
do some hiking, show you the village then on down to Lugano and Locarno in the southern
part of Switzerland, the Ticino we also take you to the great city of Zürich.
Look for them in our Swiss collection.