What is the Lucerne outdoor escape game?
The Lucerne outdoor escape game is an escape room played in the open air: every puzzle hides at one of the city's landmarks, and your phone is the only kit you need. Budget about 2 hours, including 59 minutes of walking across 4.3 km, and take on the 10 stops on any day you choose.
Puzzles are attached to the covered Spreuer Bridge, the towers of the Musegg Wall, the Lion Monument carved into its cliff, the Hofkirche, the Chapel Bridge with its Water Tower and the Rathaus on the Kornmarkt. They are independent of one another, with no story to follow, and three levels of hints stand by. Lucerne makes it easy: river, wall and lake frame the old town, so the next stop is rarely out of sight.
- Durationabout 2 hours
- Walkingabout 59 min · 4.3 km
- Stops10
- LanguagesEnglish, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Chinese
What you do on the escape game
Crack the puzzle
Each landmark holds one puzzle that yields to observation and logic alone. You bring no prior knowledge, only attention.
Look for the clue
Painted panels, dates on towers and figures above doorways are where the answers tend to hide.
Walk the route
Google Maps leads you on: 59 minutes of walking and 4.3 km, bridges and the lakeside quay included.
No pressure
Nothing ticks away while you think. Use a hint, pause for a drink on the quay and pick the game up later or another day.
See the route and attractions →
How it works
- Book online Choose the number of players. Your booking reference arrives by email straight away.
- Get the app Download the World City Trail app from the App Store or Google Play and enter your booking reference.
- Play when you like Start whenever you are ready, walk at your own pace and pause any time. No guide, no fixed schedule.
Who it suits
Friends
A puzzle at every landmark gives everyone a theory, and the city stays new to all of you.
Couples
Two heads on one puzzle, with the Reuss, the lake and the mountains behind you and no clock to beat.
Team building
Up to 5 per team, everyone on their own phone, so colleagues can set off together and compare answers at the end.
Good to know
- Bring a charged smartphone with mobile data; a power bank helps.
- Best started in daylight, so you can see the details the puzzles ask about.
- No entry tickets needed: everything happens outside the buildings. Going inside is optional and paid separately.
- Family friendly; children must be accompanied by an adult.
- Not suitable for wheelchair users and difficult with strollers.
- Teams of up to 5 work best; bigger groups split into several teams, one ticket per player.
- Every purchase helps support stray cats and dogs in Greece.
Puzzle route: from the Jesuit Church to the Town Hall
10 stops · about 59 min walking · start: Jesuit Church of St Francis Xavier · finish: Lucerne Town Hall
The first puzzle is set in front of the Jesuit Church on the left bank of the Reuss, with the Historical Museum in the old arsenal next. You cross the covered Spreuer Bridge, reach the Nölli Tower where the Musegg Wall meets the river, and follow the wall above the roofs. The Lion Monument and the Hofkirche come after that, then the quay on Lake Lucerne and the Chapel Bridge, and the final puzzle stands at the Rathaus on the Kornmarkt. The app reorders the stops, and no puzzle calls for an entry ticket.
Open the route map ↗
1Jesuit Church of St Francis XavierStart
The Jesuits built this church on the bank of the Reuss between 1666 and 1677, and it is one of the earliest large baroque churches in Switzerland. Its white façade is framed by two towers whose onion domes were only completed in the 19th century. From the forecourt you look across the river to the old town.
Read the full story →
2Historical Museum Lucerne
The Historical Museum occupies the old arsenal on Pfistergasse, a 16th-century building where the city once stored its weapons and armour. Today it tells the story of Lucerne and its canton, and it is known for theatre tours in which actors bring the collection to life.
3Spreuer Bridge
The Spreuerbrücke is a covered wooden bridge across the Reuss whose history goes back to 1408. Its name comes from chaff (Spreu), which could only be thrown into the river from this bridge. Under its roof hang the 17th-century Dance of Death paintings by Kaspar Meglinger.
Read the full story →
4Nölli Tower
The Nölli Tower stands where the Musegg Wall comes down to the Reuss, at the western end of the old fortifications. Built in 1513, it has a gateway through its base, so the road still passes right under the tower.
5Musegg Wall
Built largely in the late 14th century, the Musegg Wall runs for about 870 metres along the hill above the old town and still has nine towers. The Zyt Tower carries the city's oldest clock, made in 1535, which by tradition may strike one minute before all the other clocks in Lucerne.
Read the full story →
6Lion Monument
The dying lion, carved into a sandstone cliff in 1820 and 1821, commemorates the Swiss Guards killed in Paris on 10 August 1792, when the Tuileries Palace was stormed during the French Revolution. Bertel Thorvaldsen designed it and Lukas Ahorn carved it. Mark Twain called it the most mournful and moving piece of stone in the world.
Read the full story →
7Hofkirche St Leodegar
Lucerne's main church is dedicated to St Leodegar, the city's patron saint. After a fire in 1633 destroyed the old church except for its two slender Gothic towers, it was rebuilt by 1639 in late Renaissance style, rare for a large church north of the Alps. Arcades with old graves surround the church.
Read the full story →
8Lake Lucerne waterfront
Along the quay, the boats of Lake Lucerne tie up, including historic paddle steamers that still sail the lake. Its German name, Vierwaldstättersee, refers to the four forest cantons of Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden and Lucerne on its shores. On a clear day Mount Pilatus and the Rigi rise beyond the water.
9Chapel Bridge
The Kapellbrücke, built in the 14th century, is one of the oldest covered wooden bridges in Europe and takes its name from St Peter's Chapel nearby. Many of the 17th-century triangular paintings under its roof were lost in a fire in 1993, after which the bridge was rebuilt. Beside it stands the octagonal Water Tower, once a prison, archive and treasury.
Read the full story →
10Lucerne Town HallFinish
The Rathaus on the Kornmarkt was built between 1602 and 1606 by Anton Isenmann. It combines an Italian Renaissance façade with a large hipped roof inspired by Swiss farmhouses, and under its arcades along the river a market is still held.
Read the full story →
Only logged in customers who have purchased this product may leave a review.
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.