Lucerne & Mount Pilatus - Private Day Trip from Zurich

Great driver

Andrew was great- took us from the busy airport in Zürich and safely delivered us to our hotel in Lucerne. He was a pleasant driver with wonderful conversation!

Response from the operator: Dear Jennifer, Thank you for your positive review! We are delighted to hear that you had a pleasant experience with us. We will pass on your kind words to Andrew. Looking forward to serving you again in the future! Best regards, Customer Support / AlpTransfer.com

via Tripadvisor

Great transfer service!

Our private transfer was actually from Lucerne to St Moritz so we could ride the Glacier Express. About 3 hours. Our driver Dimitris was extremely prompt, came 15 mins early. Came into the hotel and made sure he told my husband to leave all our luggage right in the hotel and he will take care of everything. That was very nice considering we had a lot of luggage. We ended up having to purchase an extra bag during our trip because the airline damaged one. I emailed a day earlier to send a pic so they could see how much we had and received a prompt response back that they will switch to a slightly larger car to ensure everything will fit, no additional charge. This was much appreciated considering how expensive Switzerland is. I talked to Dimitris almost the entire trip. Very personable and friendly. Speaks great English even though he will tell you it’s not that great. It’s obvious he loves his job, which is refreshing at his young age. We don’t see this much since Covid in the US. This is the second of 3 transfers we booked with Alp Transfers for this trip. Our last one is in a couple days from Zermatt to Geneva to fly home. Looking forward to not worrying about them not showing up. Very smooth. Highly recommend!!

Response from the operator: Dear Customer, Thank you for your kind words! We’re so glad Dimitris made your transfer smooth and enjoyable. We will pass on your kind words to him. It’s wonderful to hear you felt well taken care of, and we look forward to providing the same seamless service for your final journey from Zermatt to Geneva. Best regards, Customer Support / AlpTransfer.com

via Tripadvisor

Fireworks and sledging in Switzerland

It’s a great experience to ride out of a cloud covered city as a cable car swings travellers up into sunshine. We chose to sledge the easy run from its start with small children and it was challenging enough for us. Parts of the run were quite steep at the end but overall it was a great experience after 4 years away from the mountains. Lucerne had great firework displays and the boat trips on the lake were ideal for family outings. Switzerland is expensive now due to a low exchange rate. As much as we loved everything we will probably check out costs in future and try France and Italy.

Response from the operator: Dear Customer, Thank you for your kind review! We’re thrilled to hear that you had a great experience during your private trip to Mount Pilatus and were able to see the fireworks in Lucerne. We still hope to see you in Switzerland again as it has so much to offer. Safe travels! Best regards, Customer Support / AlpExcursion.com

via Tripadvisor

Mt Pilatus is worth it, but this private tour was not

Overall, our trip to Mt Pilatus was wonderful and worth the time. The best part of the actual tour was the unguided part - cogwheel train up, lunch at the top, gondola down. That was 5 stars. The car itself was very nice, and the driver did a great job getting us to and from. But this did not feel like a guided tour -- the tour part was really mediocre, and we encountered significant delays and got zero compensation for that. First, we were notified 5 minutes before our scheduled pickup (9:30am) that they were having car troubles and couldn't pick us up. They gave updates quite sporadically, saying it would be resolved "soon", but this kept happening for 2 hours. Finally they were able to get another car, but that set our tour back by 2+ hours (11:45am). This was extremely disruptive, as the original plan was to tour Lucerne, have lunch, and then go up the mountain. It turns out our tour guide, while very nice, was really not knowledgeable. We had arranged with the coordinator that we would take the cogwheel train up to Mt Pilatus and then take the gondolas down. Our guide kept insisting we were unable to take the cogwheel, saying he didn't think it was open. We persisted, and he finally relented and took us to where we were supposed to go all along (and it was indeed open). We then had a lovely visit to Mt Pilatus without the guide, and our guide was waiting for us at the bottom when we finished. So sadly, the best part of the tour was unguided. Then the guided part of the tour started. We got to Lucerne, and he parked the car and said we would walk to see the Lion Statue. He took us on a 10 minute walk in the wrong direction, and even my kids noticed that we had walked in a complete circle. When we pointed this out to him, he tried to laugh it off. But we totally wasted our time walking nowhere. Turns out the statue was just 1 block from where we parked, but in the opposite direction. The rest of the tour was ok. My main complaint here was that I had told him my foot was hurting and that I wanted to do minimal walking. But he would tell us some sight was "on the way" or "right by here", and then proceed to make us walk 20 minutes in the heat. It seemed like he didn't know the directions that well, or was simply trying to extend the time. We were pretty bored and tired by then, so we asked him to just take us home. Again, our guide was a nice guy and very good driver, but we felt like we really had an uber driver rather than a supposed expert guide. Unfortunately, we paid a premium for this, hence the 3 stars.

via Viator