Nightlife in Lucerne

The obvious starting point for any night out in Lucerne, and for good reason. The medieval lanes between the Kapellbrücke and the Museggmauer concentrate the city's best bars within a ten-minute walk of each other. The crowd is mixed, tourists in the earlier evening, more locals as midnight approaches and the day-trippers head back to their hotels. The architecture does something flattering to nighttime atmosphere here. Even a middling bar feels more interesting when the street outside looks like a film set. Start here.

Cross the river from the Altstadt and the scene shifts noticeably younger and more local. This is where university students end up on weekends and where you'll find the bars that are slightly less polished, slightly louder, and considerably less focused on the tourist trade. The Schüür is on this side of the city, which gives the neighborhood a gravitational pull on nights when there's a good act on. Worth crossing for if you want a night that feels more like Lucerne lives it and less like Lucerne sells it. Dive in.

Not glamorous. But pragmatically useful: the area immediately around the train station has bars and eateries running later than much of the Old Town, and the transport connections make it an easy place to end up at the close of a night. The crowd here is varied, business travelers, backpackers, and locals catching the last train. The late-night food options are also the best in the city in this radius, which earns it a place in any honest Lucerne nightlife guide. Grab a döner.