The Lion Lodge in Lucerne, Switzerland is a decent hostel in a good location.
Whilst looking for accommodation in Lucerne, I found that there were many hotels/hostels listed on Hostels.com, however they only offered private rooms not dorms – the bane of a solo travelers existence. Traveling in the peak of European summer, I found it difficult to find availability in 2 of the 3 dorm offering hostels available – hence I ended up at Lion Lodge.
I booked a 4 bed mixed dorm (which ended up with only female occupants anyway) for 34CHF per night, or approximately 29Euro.
The dorm was standard and fine. Bedding was clean and comfortable and there was plenty of room to move within the room, even with guests items flung randomly around.
The hostel has a large dining/common area on the ground floor with free wifi (that unfortunately doesn’t work at all in peak times) and a small kitchen with 2 hot plates that could be considered temperamental at best. If you are in a hurry to cook yourself some food relax, you will likely be in for a long wait to access the cooking facilities. The kitchen was also often messy, with many guests not seeming to realise that emptying bowls of noodles down the sink and leaving the drain blocked with those noodles is not considered cleaning up after yourself nor the best way to make friends with other guests.
There is also a limited time staff seem to work at the hostel. Not advertised on the hostel’s site or 3rd party booking sites is the limited time for check-in. Guests can only check-in from 4pm as the reception area is literally closed and locked after 11:30am, leaving those who arrive between midday and 4pm to wonder what is going on and where they can leave bags.
Unfortunately if you are a lover of privacy and don’t really like stepping into and out of the shower with others around you – this may not be the hostel for you. There are male and female bathrooms provided on each of the 3 floors, however there is only 1 shower and toilet per bathroom. The shower is at one end with a standard shower curtain, and the toilet at the other with it’s own door. Whilst I was there the shower drain was most of the time blocked with water filling the standing area. Therefore the small shower was not the ideal place to get dried and dressed, so the only other option is to step out from behind the curtain into the main area people walk through to use the basins and toilet.
To the left is the bathroom doorway leading to the corridor, to the right the shower and main basin area
The hostel was located a short walked from it’s name sake the Lion Monument, and easily accessible by public bus from the main bus and train station. It is any easy walk from the hostel into Old Town as well as Lake Lucerne, and there are plenty of restaurants and supermarkets within the area. I only spent 2 nights in Lucerne and rain unfortunately prevented me from exploring as much of the pretty little city as I would have liked, however hostel was fine for my short time there and was reasonably priced for expensive but beautiful Switzerland.
I remember Lucerne – the place with the lion in the rock. Except it was under restoration or maintenance of its restoration. Beautiful beautiful place.
Oh that’s a shame that you missed the sculpture, it is one of the most moving I have ever seen.