When we rolled into Lugano, Switzerland, we didn’t even check in to our hotel: we went right to the spot where we’d start hiking Monte San Salvatore.
We were on our 16-day epic adventure through the Alps in Europe and had just left the heat and urban crush of Milan. We were ready to stretch our legs and see something new. So on a brilliant summer day we pulled into Lugano and jumped right onto a funicular to the top of Monte San Salvatore.
But in our eagerness, we were a little unprepared. And so our first hike in the Alps ended up being memorable but also not smooth! Our kids, who we started bribing to hike at the tender ages of 5 and 7 (no regrets), are no strangers to hiking. But this stretched their limits in a way we were surprised by. Mistakes were made.
The challenge didn’t have to do with distance or elevation. It was the mental challenge that comes when there isn’t a clearly established plan. When we altered our path mid-mountain (due to distance and elevation), and continued to revisit our decisions for the next mile, it made for some very grumpy children. They didn’t know how much longer they had or what they were being asked to do. Yet they also weren’t empowered to make their own decisions since we were together, as a family. These feelings are, I think, very human. This is your reminder that children are humans, too … with all the attending feelings.
Today we’re sharing what we learned doing this hike so you can enjoy it more than we did!
Our Adventure in the Alps
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But first:
Why did we choose Monte San Salvatore over Monte Bre?
The internet. And location. That was all that went into our decision. We knew we wouldn’t have the time or the resources to do both, so we picked the one which everyone said had better views. It also was pretty easy to get to as we drove into Lugano from Milan.
Getting to Monte San Salvatore
Before attempting any hike in this region, I recommend checking out our post on The Eiger Trail & More About Hiking in Switzerland. There are some quirks to hiking in Switzerland that we weren’t totally prepared for.
For this hike, we started at the funicular station for San Salvatore, located in Paradiso. This was very easy to find (Google maps worked great), and it is in a quiet urban area. There is a pay-for-parking garage next door (which was not cheap but did have available spots). We could not find any free parking or on-street parking options.
The funicular is also accessible from the Paradiso railway station should you be traveling via rail.
The funicular runs every 30 minutes during the summer.
Learn more about the funicular here: www.montesansalvatore.ch/en
It wasn’t cheap to take a family of four up the funicular, either. To go up and back, it was 32 CHF for an adult and 14 CHF for kids under 16, and the conversion rate of the USD was not great at the time of our visit. It was 100 CHF for our family of four.
We did, however, have the “Ticino Ticket,” which was sent to us electronically from our hotel. That entitled us to a discount. Then the clerk gave us a better rate for a “family ticket.” It was still expensive, but at least we didn’t pay full fare, so it almost felt like a bargain!
It turns out that we wasted some money, too, since we ended up hiking to the halfway station at Pazzallo and taking the funicular back from there instead of from the top, which would have been cheaper. Again, mistakes were made!
The ride up the funicular was crowded and hot, but a quick one with good views.
Restaurant at Monte San Salvatore
Since we were driving in with all of our luggage, having just checked out of our Airbnb in Milan, we needed to get lunch.
We didn’t discover much at the base of the funicular station itself so decided to eat at the restaurant at the top – Ristorante Vetta. The views were exquisite here.
The cuisine was Mediterranean meets Italian and, honestly, I really liked my salad.
As you can imagine, it wasn’t a bargain price tag to dine on top of a mountain (16 – 25 CHF for plates), but it could have been worse.
We loved the panorama views and the location was a great starting off point for our hike. Many people bring picnics to the top.
Hiking Monte San Salvatore
This is where “mistakes were made.” We were so eager to get hiking (it was, afterall, the main motivator of our entire trip: hiking in the Alps) that we were under-researched. And, for our family, under-researched doesn’t go well. With two kids who like to know the plan when doing a hot, sweaty, hard hike, there were meltdowns.Â
But the entire mountain is littered with connecting trails, and it is on a MOUNTAIN. So it required a significant amount of forethought to make decisions about turns, which trails, where we’d end, and what elevation we wanted to tackle (and in which direction). We simply hadn’t thought through much because we THOUGHT we had a plan. It was just a bad plan.
The official “hiking map” is available here: www.montesansalvatore.ch/en/activities/hiking/
We started the hike intending to do what this website recommended: hike down to Carona and then back up again. But within the first mile of hiking we had already dropped 1,000 feet in elevation. It was STEEP. (See the total hike elevation map we captured below.)
We realized that absolutely no one wanted to walk back up that, including our now-very-cranky-and-hot-12-yo.
That left us in the middle of a trail without cell signal looking at the photo above that, thankfully, we had thought to snap in advance.
The problem wasn’t that we didn’t have anywhere to go – the problem was that there were TOO many places to go and we weren’t sure, given we were abandoning our initial plans, where we’d end up or how we’d get back. This included back to our car, since we knew at this point there was no way we were hiking back to the funicular at the top of Ste Salvatore to take it all the way back down.
We made a spur of the moment decision (at a spur) and decided to go towards a different path, in a different direction.
We made it to Ciona, then kept walking on to Carrabia. Eventually, we were in Pazzallo, saying prayers that the little icon on the yellow signage meant that the funicular came through there and then saying extra prayers that we could get on it (we remembered on our way UP the mountain that it stopped at midpoint, so we had hope).
Things were well-marked, but we found we still had a difficult time at moments finding the trailhead as it disappeared behind shrubs, driveways and walls.
We also found ourselves walking on road at times (NOT a mistake, that was where the trail went), looking at oncoming traffic. Nothing ever felt dangerous and drivers were extremely courteous. But it wasn’t the most fun during those moments, especially with nervous mom energy. My European vacation would only go well if I kept my kids safe.
We did nearly have a fullscale family meltdown when trying to find the actual funicular station at Pazzallo. It wasn’t well marked and it felt like mid-station visitors were discouraged from getting on here. But we were able to access some online maps and walk the neighborhood roads to find the Pazzallo funicular station, waiting on the ride down. Thankfully, they let us on at the mid-station, no questions asked.
But taking a step back from the knowledge gap that hurt us and that stress that comes from being in charge of two kids and not really knowing where you are and where you are going – this path was beautiful. And the trail we did great.
Hiking from Monte Ste Salvatore, to Ciona, to Pazzallo, then taking the funicular back down from the midway station was a great idea! If only we had thought of it in advance!
We strolled through some very quiet Swiss towns that felt like Tuscany. We rambled through woods. We tiptoed along farm fields with majestic views.
I think we would have thoroughly enjoyed this had we not felt so confused and flummoxed by our trajectory, our path, the options, the places we wanted to go. It was a reminder that hiking is always more successful (for our family at least) with a little bit more research ahead of time. (Oh, and also a reminder that kids are humans, too.)
For more information visit: www.montesansalvatore.ch
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