Lake Lucerne (in German: Vierwaldstättersee or the lake of the four forest Cantons) is of course ringed by spectacular mountain and lake views, but also by a lovely and extensive trail infrastructure, with a wide variety of trails including hiking paths, mountain trails, bike routes for both road and mountain bikes, and even trails for inline skates and wheelchairs. Switzerland Mobility is your best resource for finding and using these trails, with mobile and desktop websites and a great app that has a lot of free features but is well worth the CHF 35 annual fee for SwitzerlandMobility+.
Anyway, on this hot and sunny day, I set off from Weggis, where the tourist office offers rental bikes at a rate of CHF 25 per day (20% off with a local tourism card).
From Weggis, I took a boat to Treib, then the Treib-Seelisburg Bahn (aka TSB) to Seelisburg, where the bike journey began.
The route, a partial circumnavigation of the lake, first climbs from the TSB station up to a nice view overlooking the Urnersee, then past the small Seeli (little lake) and down into Emmetten. From there, a steep descent to Beckenried is followed by fairly flat but spectacularly scenic lakeside views along national bike route 4 to Luzern, then follows regional route 38 up the steep ridge through the Meggenwald. Finally, there’s the wide open descent to Küssnacht, some ice cream, and the surprisingly hilly return to Weggis via Greppen. The end of the route was pretty dicey in that Google predicted that I would arrive at the Weggis boat dock precisely 1 minute after the boat was scheduled to leave, so I had to book it, pulling into the bike rack with mere moments to pull off my pack and gear (camera mount, phone mount, etc.), lock the bike, leave the key at the tourist office, and sprint to the boat just as they were pulling up the gangway. As I got on board, huffing and puffing, the boat lady asked “where are you going?” (A good call since the boats go in two directions from that spot.) “Vitznau,” I said, breathlessly, whereupon she gave a satisfied nod and let me pass. Exciting!
Check out a few photos of the ride, below, along with some video selections.
