How to spend a day in Lugano, Switzerland
Lugano is a small lakeside town, with only around 65 000 (mostly Italian speaking) inhabitants. It is surrounded by mountains and often considered as the Monte-Carlo of Switzerland. The city is filled with beautiful buildings, stunning sceneries, and high-end shops.
What to do?
Lugano is a walkable city, so I’d suggest to park the car if you have one, and explore it on foot. Take a stroll along the Riva Vicenzo Vela, the boardwalk, which offers beautiful views along the lake as well as some window-shopping in the surrounding luxury stores. It’s easy to see that Lugano is a center of economic wealth.
If you’re curious to see more stores and fancy watches, head over to Via Nassa, which is the main luxury retailer street in Lugano. Here, you can window shop (or shop) for some of the most luxurious watches in the world. I’m generally not that into expensive watches, but you can’t help being intrigued by some of the luxury items that are on display in this town.
Piazza Riforma is the central square of Lugano. Here you will find many restaurants with lovely outdoor seating areas, beautiful buildings, and the Credit Suisse Bank building, which is abundantly decorated with beautiful red flowers.
Piazza Riforma is a good place to stop for a lunch break, as there are many nice restaurants, and it’s a great spot for people watching too.
For Lunch, I’d suggest Vanini.It is located right on Piazza Riforma, is focused on crepes (especially sweet ones) and has a beautiful and large outdoor seating area. It was half-full when we had lunch there, we were well taken care of, and the crepes were really good. Dining out is pricey in Lugano (Switzerland isn’t exactly known to be cheap), but this restaurant was moderately priced, and still of good quality. Everything tasted great. I’d give it 4 out of 5 stars.
If you have time, and aren’t afraid of heights, I’d also suggest taking the funicular up to Monte San Salvatore or Monte Bre to experience the mountain, lake and city views from above. Also, don’t forget to buy some Swiss chocolate before leaving. I purchased some goodies from the famous Swiss chocolatier Läderach.
How much time do you need in Lugano?
Lugano is a small town, and you probably don’t need more than a day here. It is the perfect day trip from Lake Como when you want to see something new and experience Switzerland for a bit.
How to get there
The options vary a lot depending on your origin. What we did, was to drive across the Italian-Swiss border from the Italian Lake Como region. The trip was around 1-1.5 hours, and there were no tolls or anything like that even though Switzerland isn’t part of the EU. Lugano does have an airport, but there are more and better connections from Zurich or one of Milan’s airports in Italy.
Have you been to Lugano and have any additional tips on what to see and do here? Please let me know in the comments!
