Flashy lights and spinning wheels of fortune are found at the Grand Casino (also known as Casineum). You can try your luck at 140 slot machines. Poker, roulette, and blackjack are also available.
On a more cultural note, if you speak German, you can enjoy performances at the Stadttheater. Directly on the lake on the rail station side of town, it’s the home of Lucerne’s major theater group. Operas in their original language are also staged here. The Allgemeine Musikgesellschaft Lucerne is the local resident orchestra, presenting performances at the KKL Congress Center from October to June, or at the Kultur und Kongress Zentrum.
In the late 1990s, the city of Lucerne inaugurated one of the most dramatically modern, large-scale buildings in central Switzerland, the Kultur und Kongress Zentrum (KKL), as a glittering showcase to corporate conventions and the performing arts. Poised beside the railway station in starkly modern contrast to the spires and alpine architecture of the rest of Lucerne, its controversial shape may remind newcomers of an enchanted “music box” that glitters with acres of glass and metal panels in shades of forest green, dark blue, and red. It was designed with a spectacular copper-sheathed roof by noted Parisian architect Jean Nouvele. Its auditoriums have some of the best acoustics in the world, thanks to rotating panels behind the stage. Expect heavy use of this site for classical, rock, and heavy-metal concerts.
The Altstadt (Old Town) always brims with pubs and cafes. Mr. Pickwick’s Pub, is the most authentic looking and the most popular British pub in Lucerne, with a sudsy, woodsy-looking decor that’s awash with Brits, beer, and anyone else who simply wants to toss back a pint or two from a riverfront location near the northern end of the Old Town’s covered bridge. It generally stays open nightly until 1am, which is very late by the standards of Lucerne.
Suite Lounge, on the top floor of the Hotel Monopol, is a favorite nightclub in Lucerne. To reach it, you’ll wait in line on the lobby level of the hotel, a Belle Epoque beauty that sits across the plaza from the railway station.
The Loft, is a serious contender for the title of the hippest and with-it nightclub in a town that’s loaded with worthy competition. Music is a sophisticated blend of whatever you might have expected in London or Los Angeles, and the crowd is young and beautiful. The decor includes at least two bar areas and a balcony that overlooks a high-tech dance floor ringed with free-standing candelabrum, whose candles seem to flicker in rhythm to the music.
The terrace of the Penthouse Bar at the Hotel Astoria, offers a panoramic view over the rooftops of the city and the dramatic mountainscape beyond.
