The Grand Tour of Europe was once a rite of passage for young men of means, shaping their cultural education long before smartphones could summon the world’s great art and music instantly. Lucerne, Switzerland, welcomed many English and American writers, artists, and aristocrats on their Grand Tours, becoming an important stop on this formative journey.
The rise of rail travel in the mid-19th century transformed how people explored Europe. Thomas Cook, a British pioneer of organized tourism, played a key role in making travel accessible to a broader public. Switzerland became a regular highlight on Cook’s itineraries, beginning in the summer of 1863 when he led the Junior United Alpine Club on his first conducted tour of the country. In his book Slow Train to Switzerland, Diccon Bewes retraces that era and argues that the expansion of rail travel helped shape modern Swiss prosperity while opening travel to people beyond the traditional elite.
Switzerland’s dramatic landscape and engineering ambition made it a natural leader in mountain transportation. The country developed solutions to traverse steep terrain and challenging geography: Mount Pilatus is home to the world’s steepest cogwheel railway, Mount Stanserhorn introduced an innovative open-deck cable car, and Mount Rigi opened Europe’s first mountain railway in 1871. These achievements reflect Switzerland’s longstanding commitment to connecting people with its alpine scenery and cultural sites.
Today, Lucerne remains a vivid reminder of both the Grand Tour tradition and the transformational power of rail. Its lakeside setting, historic architecture, and proximity to iconic mountain railways continue to attract travelers seeking culture, scenery, and the engineering feats that made alpine travel possible. The legacy of early tourism pioneers and the rail innovations they popularized endures in Switzerland’s reputation as a premier destination for accessible, scenic journeys through Europe’s mountainous heart.