The Kriens-Fräkmüntegg gondola travels the lower section of the journey to the Pilatus Kulm viewpoint. At the Fräkmüntegg station, you transfer to a large cable car that goes the rest of the way to the viewpoint.

Location: Schlossweg 1, 6010 Kriens

Open: year round, except two week maintenance break end of October.

The small gondola cars fit 4 people. It run continuously throughout the day. The journey from Kriens to Fräkmüntegg takes about 30 mins. It travels a distance of 4.9 km, ascending 899m.

Besides the Pilatus viewpoint, this gondola is used to access various amusements. At the Krienseregg station, you'll find the PILU-Land playground and restaurant. At the Fräkmüntegg station, you'll find the summer toboggan, ropes park, Dragon Glider, restaurant, and tree tents.

Tickets

When you buy round trip cable car tickets for Kriens-Pilatus, it includes both this gondola and the cable car. For this type of ticket, we like to buy via GetYourGuide, which allows full refunds up to 24h in advance.

For other types of tickets and to apply discounts, buy tickets via Pilatus.ch.

Free with Lucerne Tell Pass. Discount with Swiss Travel Pass and Swiss Half Fare Card.

➡️ If you are doing the Golden Round Trip from Lucerne, the package ticket includes the cable cars as well as the boat from Lucerne and cogwheel train on the south side of the mountain.

Opening times

The Pilatus aerial cableways run mostly year round, except a maintenance break a couple days in early April and two weeks starting in late October. During this break, you can instead ride the Alpnachstad mountain train to reach Pilatus Kulm.

From mid April to mid October, the gondola runs from 8:30, last ride down 17:30. From mid November to early April, the schedule is a little shorter, starting at 9:00, last ride down at 16:30.

See Pilatus.ch for current opening times.

How to get there

The Pilatusbahn gondola starts in Kriens, just west of Lucerne city. Schlossweg 1, 6010 Kriens

By bus: The closest bus stop is Kriens, Pilatus-Bahnen, 26 min from Lucerne with one change at Kriens, Busschleife. This connection runs once an hour, so make sure to coordinate your plans carefully to avoid a long wait at the bus stop. Check bus schedule on SBB.ch.

By car: There are two small metered parking lots next to the Kriens cable car station. See on map. These lots fill up fast, especially on the weekends and school holidays.