When I was 16 years old, I visited Switzerland with my parents on a coach tour from the UK. Even at that adolescent ‘everything’s boring’ age I fell in love with the country and was mesmerised by its cleanliness, beauty and contrasting landscapes where mountains and lakes meet to wow you. I’ve passed through and had short visits a couple of times since, but it came as no surprise to my husband that for my 50th birthday European tour I wanted to include a week showing him some of the places I’d visited aged 16.
If you’ve never heard of Vitznau, don’t worry because neither had I until I started researching campsites. When I’d visited before we had spent a day at Lake Lucerne and a couple of hours on a rented speed boat zipping around the lake. Lucerne was the place I remembered most and was determined to find us a great place to stay on the lakeside. If you have already heard of Vitznau, then you will appreciate why I’m writing about this beautifully scenic place!
Vitznau
The town is located on the shores of Lake Lucerne and was transformed from a fishing village into a high-end bathing resort when Europe’s first cogwheel railway was constructed there in 1871. It has uninterrupted views of Rigi and other mountains that surround it, and the most amazing sunsets across the lake from the harbour and village park (including Camping Vitznau).
It has a few independent stores, a small supermarket, some fabulous restaurants, a few small hotels and the magnificent 5* Park Hotel which opened in 1903 and was regarded to have the most beautiful architecture in Switzerland at the time. It sits on the shore of the lake with a 2 Michelin starred restaurant, luxury spa, and an eye-watering nightly price tag to match.
The main attractions that bring thousands of visitors to this small town are the cogwheel railway that takes you to the top of Mount Rigi, the cable cars around the mountain area, and direct lake access to the many pleasure boats (some being steam powered) that take visitors to the various towns around the lake including its namesake Lucerne.
Rigi Kulm Cogwheel Railway
The cogwheel train was Europe’s first mountain railway, since 1871 it has taken visitors from Vitznau directly to Rigi Kulm in just under an hour. These days there are the refurbished historic carriages, working alongside the modern-day trams. It is open daily from 6am to 11pm, enabling those wishing to stay up the mountain to access the towns by the lakes and vice versa until late evening.
It is a picturesque ride, with views looking out over Lake Lucerne initially, the scenery changes as you turn after Rigi Staffelhohe enabling you to see as far as the Jura mountains, Black Forest and the Vosges on a clear day, whilst looking down on Lake Zug. It climbs steadily up the steep incline, stopping at several villages up the mountain where you can hop on and off to have a look around, a bite to eat or even stay in one of the hotels.
You arrive at the top in Rigi Kulm where there is a nice self-service restaurant and hotel, or lots of places to eat your own picnic and admire the views. We had lunch in the restaurant, which served excellent food as is the norm in Switzerland, then spent the afternoon hopping on and off different trains around the mountain, dropping down to Goldau then back up to Rigi Kulm to head back to Vitznau. We managed to ride on one of the old carriages as well as the modern ones, the views from the old one were magnificent with the huge low windows, but the seats left you with a bit of a numb bum and sore back, being made of wooden slats!
The cost is CHF78 for a day pass which entitles you to access any of the trains on the mountain throughout the day, and the cable cars from the many villages you pass through. The campsite gave us a 20% discount voucher, so it cost around £55 per person for the whole day which we thought was exceptionally good value. You can combine this with a boat trip on the lake, but I’d suggest doing them on separate days as we did, so you can enjoy full days out in each, as the boats operate a hop-on and hop-off system too.
We spent 9 hours riding the mountain area, we didn’t venture onto the cable cars despite the hubby’s continued efforts to convince me, I stuck to cogwheel carriages. Not sure why, as a skier so I’m used to open cable cars, but they just seemed to be swinging so high above the ground. Maybe its because I don’t usually see how high they get until I’m on and can’t get off when I’m skiing!
You can buy a one-way ticket if you wish, then walk down the mountain on one of the many designated paths, some parts run alongside the railway tracks and were well-marked with gravel underfoot. The area is a walkers’ paradise and we saw many people set off to climb up it as we were eating our breakfast each day, rather them than me haha.
Where to Stay
We stayed at Camping Vitznau which sits in a slightly elevated position overlooking Lake Lucerne almost at the opposite end of the lake to Lucerne town. The pitches are set out in tiers so that the majority have uninterrupted views looking down the lake, only the bottom tier was scuppered by houses that back on from the road. There are seasonal pitches so only 70 for rent, I’d advise booking in advance as we saw many drop-ins being turned away in early September, although we only booked 4 weeks prior to travelling. Some pitches are quite tight to access but once pitched they are a good size.
The staff are very friendly and speak fairly good English and French, with German being their main language. There is a small shop selling essentials from the reception area, a bar with terrace outside overlooking the lake and takeaway pizza van (very good). Next to this is the pool which is elevated so you can watch the world go by on the lake. The facilities are spotlessly clean. We rented a one-bedroom apartment in the main chalet and my sister had a camping pitch as we took the car instead of the motorhome, a last-minute change that gave us a different holiday, not a story for this blog but we did enjoy the accommodation on each campsite we stayed on, especially the air-con!
It is a 5-minute walk down into Vitznau to the Rigi Culm railway and boat station, and shops/ restaurants, with a bit of a hill back up it takes 10 minutes. You can park the car in the village near to the supermarket if you want to get supplies. It isn’t the cheapest campsite we’ve stayed on, but it is Switzerland and we thought it very reasonable, especially with the views over the lake, I’d say they were priceless!
There are other campsites around Lake Lucerne, with one in walking distance of Lucerne that I know is very popular due to its position. However, if we went back, we would only stay at Camping Vitznau, purely because of the views, the cleanliness of the site, and the ability to access lots of other places and activities easily.
If you don’t want a campsite then Vitznau has a car park where the tour buses park up for Mount Rigi, just along the main road as you go out of town, you walk past this from the campsite down to the lake from the back gate. It has no views, but it said overnight campers were accepted and there were a couple of motorhomes there for the odd night and there is a toilet over the road near to the man-made beach area where you can launch your own paddleboards/canoes.
Summary
We went to Lake Lucerne so that I could revisit my past and show my family how fabulous this area is. I succeeded in both of those things and had new adventures too in Vitznau. I’d never been up Mount Rigi before, which was amazing, and I’d not seen the lake in its glory from the opposite end to Lucerne. Well worth the visit and we will be back one day, I actually preferred this quieter end of the lake. I’ll cover visiting Lucerne in another blog as there is plenty more to say separately without taking the shine off Vitznau.
Enough waffle for this week, I hope this helps some fellow campers on future trips. If you have been to Vitznau or Mount Rigi, please drop me a comment on the blog letting me know what you thought of it.
If you enjoyed reading this blog, please like and subscribe to my website so you get notified when the next blog is published. It’s completely free, I don’t fill your inbox with unwanted spam, and it really means the world to me to know my experience has helped someone else.
Happy Travels
Photographs of campsite only courtesy of Camping Vitznau, all other images copyright of White Rose Wanderer.
Comments