The taxi was booked for 6:50, before the hotel's breakfast service had started. We had asked the night before whether they could pack something, and on the way out we had to remind them, and then it appeared: croissants and fresh orange juice to take away, which is a kind thing for a kitchen to do before its own day begins. By seven we were standing at the platform gates at Gare de Lyon watching our train pull in.
Seven in the morning at Gare de Lyon. The gates open a few minutes before departure. Photo: RewardsGuru.club
The 7:22 to Zurich
We took the TGV Lyria, first class, and the seat was cheaper than it should have been. The Swiss Half Fare Card, which we had bought for the mountain days, also discounts Lyria, the international train between France and Switzerland. Our first plan had not applied it. We caught that before booking, and it is the sort of thing that slips past you when you are planning a whole trip at once, so check it against every leg, not just the Swiss ones.
| Two Swiss Half Fare Cards | $370 |
| TGV Lyria Paris to Zurich, 7:22, first class, half fare | about €230 |
One thing to know before you buy. SBB only sells Lyria Standard first and second class. Business Première, the fare with the meal at your seat, is sold through SNCF or Lyria direct. If you book on SBB and expect breakfast to arrive, you have bought the wrong thing. We knew that going in, so breakfast was the bag from the hotel, something from the station bakery, and a coffee from the bar car. The seats were wide, the table was ours, and for four hours nobody needed us to be anywhere.
Lyria first class, ten minutes before departure. The Half Fare Card discounted this seat too. Photo: RewardsGuru.club
A locker at Zurich, and the falls between two trains
At Zurich Hauptbahnhof we found a large locker, put both rollers in it, and paid CHF 12. That one decision made the day. Without it we would have gone straight to Lucerne with the bags. With it, we had the afternoon, and the Rhine Falls are less than an hour away.
The walkways run down beside the water and then out over it, and from the bottom platform you are close enough to feel the spray. We had not expected a waterfall like this to sit that close to a main station. It was one of the happiest surprises of the whole trip, and it cost us a locker and a short train ride each way.
The falls from the walkways, a little after one o'clock. Photo: RewardsGuru.club
We did not take the boat. The red boats go right up to the rock in the middle of the falls, and they looked like fun, but the walkways were the version that fit inside a transfer day. The boat is what you add when you are giving the falls a half day rather than the gap between two trains. Decide which of those two days you are having before you arrive, and the afternoon stays easy.
The boat we did not take. It goes right up to the rock. Photo: RewardsGuru.club
Then back to Zurich, bags out of the locker, and the train to Lucerne.
Up the hill to the castle
We had booked the hotel the night before, from the room in Paris. Château Gütsch is the castle on the hill above Lucerne, and we had looked at the webcam, seen a clear forecast for the next morning's summit, and decided to pay for the lake view. Booking that late is a weather hedge, not a bargain, and the same-day rate is the price of it. We paid through the Capital One travel portal, which is where the Venture X $300 travel credit lives.
| Paid, after the credit | $561 |
| Credit used | Capital One Venture X $300 annual travel credit |
The whole credit went against this one booking, because the booking came to more than $300. That is the clean way to use it. One portal booking priced above the credit, and there is no remainder to chase for the rest of the year. A smaller booking leaves you tracking a balance, which is how these credits quietly expire. The same portal booking also earns 10X miles on the hotel, which is the Venture X rate for hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel (capitalone.com, read 2026-09-15); a direct booking would have earned the everyday 2X.
If you are considering the Venture X, you can apply through our referral link. We can earn miles from it, and it does not change the offer Capital One shows you.
The hotel has its own little funicular from the street, the Gütschbahn, free for guests and running from half past four in the morning to a quarter past one at night. Nobody told us that. We found it ourselves, and at half past four in the afternoon we were riding up through the trees with the town dropping away behind us.
The Gütschbahn from the bottom. Free for guests, and nobody mentioned it. Photo: RewardsGuru.club
Then the terrace. Lucerne below, the lake beyond it, and the mountains behind that with the light coming through the clouds. It is the best view we had on the whole trip, and it is the reason to book this hotel.
The terrace at a quarter to five. This is what you are paying for. Photo: RewardsGuru.club
The card we had to ask for
Here is the part that matters for anyone staying in Switzerland, and it happened at the desk.
Most Swiss towns give every overnight guest a local transport card. It is free at the desk because you have already paid for it: every property we stayed in, in all three countries, charged a city or tourist tax per person per night on top of the room, and in Switzerland that tax is what funds the card. It is worth real money on a day when you are moving around town with bags, and it is the most commonly missed benefit of a Swiss hotel stay, because it is not always handed to you.
Ours was not. Nobody mentioned the visitor card at check-in, nobody explained how to get up or down the hill, and the bags went up the stairs in our own hands. We asked for the card. It took about ten seconds, and we left the desk holding one. That is the whole lesson of this piece. Ask.
Luzern Tourism publishes three facts about the Lucerne Visitor Card that settle most of the confusion around it:
| How you get it | Emailed by your accommodation, or requested at check-in |
| Can you buy one | No. It cannot be purchased |
| What it covers | Buses and trains in zone 10 |
Read those together and the point is obvious. There is no fallback. If the property does not send it and you do not ask at the desk, there is no counter in town where you can fix it. The only route to the card runs through the hotel.
Four things to settle at check-in
The stay taught us a checklist worth running anywhere in Switzerland. Ask about all four at the desk and the rest of the stay gets easier:
- The visitor card. Ask for it by name if it is not in your key folder. This is the one that costs you money if you skip it.
- How you get up and down. At the Gütsch that is the funicular, free, 4:30 to 01:15. Worth knowing on arrival rather than discovering on day two.
- Bags. Ask what the routine is before you start up a staircase with a roller in each hand.
- The morning plan. First departure, breakfast opening, and how you get back down to the station.
Where to stay, with hindsight
Château Gütsch has the best view of the trip, and the view is genuinely the reason to book it. Take the lake-view room; a room on the other side gives you the hill and the stairs without the thing you came up for. Book it with your own plan already made and it delivers exactly that: ask for the visitor card at the desk, note where the funicular is and when it runs, and be ready to handle your own bags on the stairs. Sorted out on arrival, none of that costs you anything, and the view is what you remember.
The alternative is staying in town, which puts you next to the station and the boat pier and costs you the view.
One thing to plan for rather than discover: there is no air conditioning in the rooms. That is ordinary for a hilltop hotel of this age in central Switzerland and it is not a fault, but it is worth knowing before a warm night. The fix is to ask at the desk for a fan rather than to assume one is in the room. On a hill, an open window does more of the work than it would in town.
Looking across the roofs from the railing, late afternoon. Photo: RewardsGuru.club
Where we ate
Breakfast was the bag the Paris hotel packed the night before, something from the station bakery, and a coffee from the bar car on the Lyria. Cost: nothing beyond the room, which is the point of asking the night before.
Dinner in Lucerne was Indian, at Gourmindia (Baselstrasse 31), a short walk from the bottom of the Gütschbahn. After a day of trains and a waterfall, a restaurant you can reach on foot from the funicular, and ride back up from afterwards, is worth more than a better one across town.
Gourmindia at a quarter to six, before the room fills. Photo: RewardsGuru.club
Dinner on a three-tier stand. Photo: RewardsGuru.club
After dinner, the old town
We ate early, and it bought us the best hour of the day. From Gourmindia it is a short walk to the river: the Chapel Bridge, the Water Tower, the swans on the Reuss, and Pilatus standing behind the whole scene with the light going warm on it. We walked out along the lake as far as the steamers, then took the funicular back up in time to watch the town light up from the terrace.
The Chapel Bridge with Pilatus behind it, half past seven. Photo: RewardsGuru.club
Back up the funicular for this, a little before nine. Photo: RewardsGuru.club
Lockers and bags
Zurich Hauptbahnhof, a large locker, CHF 12. That one line is why Day 2 was a sightseeing day and not just a transfer day. Bags in at Zurich, out to the Rhine Falls, back for the bags, on to Lucerne.
This is the pattern that runs through the whole trip. A locker at the right station turns a travel day into a travel day plus an attraction, for the price of a coffee. Carry-on only makes it cheaper still, because two rollers fit one large locker.
Useful tips
- Every Swiss overnight stay comes with a local guest card. Lucerne, Interlaken and Lugano all have one. Ask at check-in if it is not handed over. You funded it with the city tax on your own bill, so leaving the desk without it is paying twice for the same buses.
- The Lucerne card cannot be bought. If the hotel does not give it to you, there is no other way to get it.
- The Half Fare Card discounts TGV Lyria too. Check it against every leg you booked before the trip, not just the Swiss ones.
- A CHF 12 locker at a hub station buys you a whole attraction on a transfer day.
- Booking a mountain hotel the night before is a weather hedge, not a bargain hunt. Expect to pay a same-day rate for it, and put a card credit against it if you have one.
Tomorrow, Pilatus. The first cogwheel leaves at 8:10, and it is the steepest railway in the world.
Previous: Day 1 in Paris. Next: Day 3, Pilatus: the steepest cogwheel, and a hotel in the wrong valley.
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