Rigi

The Rigi stands alone between three lakes above Lucerne, 1,798 m, and it has been called the queen of the mountains since long before it had a railway.

It is where alpine tourism started. Turner painted it repeatedly; Mark Twain climbed it and wrote about missing the sunrise by sleeping through it; and in 1871 the first mountain rack railway in Europe opened to the summit — thirty years before the Jungfrau line was even begun.

Why the Rigi rather than a higher mountain

It is not high, and that is the point.

The summit is a broad grassy dome you can walk about on, not a rock platform with railings. There are paths in every direction, several restaurants, and a network of routes down. You can spend a day up there rather than twenty minutes.

It is open all year, unlike Pilatus. And because it stands isolated, the view is a full circle: Lake Lucerne below on one side, Lake Zug on the other, the Alps along the southern horizon, and the Black Forest on a clear day.

Getting up

Three ways, all of them worth doing:

Cog railway from Vitznau — the historic 1871 line, reached by boat from Lucerne across the lake. This is the classic approach: steamer, then red train, about 30 minutes up.

Cog railway from Arth-Goldau — the other side, connecting with the main line from Zurich, and usually the quicker route if you are not coming from Lucerne.

Cable car from Weggis to Rigi Kaltbad, which links into the railway.

The round trip — boat one way, one railway up, the other down, train back — is the standard day and is covered by a Swiss Travel Pass.

Rigi Kaltbad

Halfway up, and worth a stop: a thermal bath and spa by Mario Botta at 1,450 m, fed by a spring that has been used since the Middle Ages, with an outdoor pool looking over the lake.

Bathing in warm water at that height with that view is the best thing on the mountain and most day trippers ride straight past it. See thermal baths.

Walking

Around 120 km of paths, and unusually for a Swiss mountain most of them are gentle. The Rigi Panoramaweg contours round the mountain from Rigi Kaltbad to Rigi Scheidegg, level, about an hour and a half, with the lake below the whole way.

Walking down to Vitznau or Weggis takes two to three hours and is a pleasant way to save the return fare.

The sunrise

The Victorian tradition was to climb up in the evening, sleep in the hotel and be woken by an alphorn for the sunrise. Twain overslept and had to describe it from imagination, which he did at length.

The hotels are still there and the sunrise trains still run in summer. It remains worth doing.

Getting there

• From Lucerne — boat to Vitznau, 45 minutes, then the railway.
• From Zurich — train to Arth-Goldau, about 40 minutes, then the railway. This makes the Rigi one of the easiest mountains to reach from Zurich; see around Zurich.

Rigi or Pilatus?

Across the lake from each other, and the two standard excursions from Lucerne.

Pilatus is more dramatic, has the steepest rack railway in the world, and closes in winter.

Rigi is gentler, open all year, has more walking and the baths, and costs less.

See also which mountain to go up.