Lucerne, Switzerland

Switzerland is one of my favorite countries in all of Europe. It's clean. It's full of friendly people. And the views are unbelievable.

When deciding where to stay in Switerland, my friends and I ultimately realized that we wanted to stay in a smaller town without as many tourist traps so that we could simply enjoy the Swiss life.

Based on our research, Lucerne, Switzerland fit the bill well. It was the perfect base point for all of our adventures.

It's a small city - it only takes 3/4 of a day to really wander around and see everything. And in all honestly, there's not a whole lot to see.

I spent a day roaming the city and seeing the sites. There was a farmer's market of sorts near the largest church in town. I wandered around old bridges and gateways and through the older part of the city - full of shops and restaurants.

I saw the old lion monument. It's a lion carved out in stone behind a small lake. No idea why it's there or what its significance is, but it was on the list of most popular places to check out, so that's what I did.

Lucerne is the perfect spot to stay at if you want to go to Mt. Pilatus. I'll save those adventures for another post, but it was a quick train ride away to the base of the mountain.

I thoroughly enjoyed my stay in Lucerne and would highly recommend it for anyone traveling to Switzerland.

The only caution that I would give is with buses passing through. We anxiously awaited our bus to get back to Italy the day we were set to leave. After three hours of being late, we thought we'd make our way over to the train station to find an alternate path out.

Just in the knick of time, however, our bus arrived. It was delayed due to an avalanche in the Alps. It had to be redirected. So, if you plan to visit by bus - just make sure you have plenty of buffer time in between your destinations.