Lucerne · comparisonMount Pilatus or Mount Rigi?

Pilatus and Rigi side by side

Both mountains stand on Lake Lucerne, both have a famous cogwheel railway and both can be combined with the boat into a round trip. After that the paths diverge: in altitude, in season, in the price with a pass and in the question of what you actually want at the top.

Rule of thumb: Without a pass both cost the same. With a Half Fare Card both cost the same. Only with a Swiss Travel Pass or GA does Rigi become free while Pilatus stays at CHF 42 – that is the only price difference, and for many people it decides the order.

Who Pilatus is right for

For anyone who wants the railway: a 48 per cent gradient, cars built at an angle into the rock, the Eselwand – that exists only here. For anyone who wants to go higher: 2,132 against 1,797 metres, and the operator does not call it the mountain in the middle of Lucerne for nothing. And for anyone looking for the big loop from Lucerne: boat, cogwheel, aerial cableway, gondola and bus in one ticket, in either direction.

Honestly: Pilatus is a different mountain in winter. The cogwheel railway stops, there is no Golden Round Trip, what remains is the gondola from Kriens for CHF 60. If you come between December and early May expecting the cogwheel railway, Rigi is the better place – there it runs all year.

Who Rigi is right for

For everyone with a Swiss Travel Pass, Swiss Travel Pass Flex, GA or Lucerne Travel Pass: the Rigi railways are included, no ticket to buy, no supplement, on every day of the year. For families: children up to 15 ride free when accompanied. For anyone who wants to ride a boat: Vitznau and Weggis sit right below the mountain, and the round trip up via Vitznau and down via Weggis is already in the day pass. And for anyone who wants to walk at the top: Rigi is a walking mountain with paths between its stations, Pilatus a summit you look out from.

Honestly: Rigi has no steep railway and no dragon. If you come to Lucerne to ride “the steepest cogwheel railway in the world”, you will find nothing on Rigi that replaces it. The railway built in 1871 matters more historically, but it rides like a railway.

Both in two days: what it costs

From Lucerne each mountain needs a day; doing both in one day fails not on travel time but on timetables: the last ascent on Pilatus leaves Alpnachstad at 17:30, the last descent with a boat connection on Rigi leaves Kulm at 17:00. Two days, calculated from the fares:

Rule of thumb: With a pass the order does not matter; do Pilatus on the day the summit webcam shows sun. Without a pass, take the better-weather day for Pilatus, because that is where most of the money is in the view, and the other day for Rigi.

Book ahead if you travel without a pass

With a pass you need no ticket at all on Rigi and only the CHF 42 at the counter on Pilatus. Without a pass, the two round trips with boat are the most convenient way to have everything in one:

Honestly: The Rigi round trip on the platform costs more than the Pilatus one, even though the Rigi railways cost less – the boat to Vitznau is what drives the price. With a Half Fare Card, buy the Rigi day pass for CHF 42 on the spot and the boat from SGV. And with a pass, click nothing here at all.

And Titlis?

The third mountain from Lucerne is higher than both, 3,020 m with a glacier, but further away and dearer: CHF 102, CHF 51 with a pass, and in 2026 without the rotating cabin until December. It is the answer if you want to see snow. Everything for the comparison is on the Titlis page. The details on the two mountains here: Pilatus, Pilatus prices, Pilatus from Lucerne and Rigi from Lucerne.