Our first stop was Lugano. It is located in the southern part of Switzerland in the Ticino region and the locals mainly speaks Italian. This beautiful city is surrounded by mountains and Lake Lugano. It was one of my favorite city that I’ve visited and left a pretty good impression.

From Zurich Airport we took a train to Zurich Main Station which took about 10 mins. Thereafter, we board another train to Lugano which took about 2 hrs 15 mins.

I would suggest that you download the SBB Mobile app prior to your trip so that you can check out the timetable of the train schedule. I am so impress with the transportation in Switzerland. The schedule are all on time, should there be any delay the app will notified the us.

At the train station there will either be escalator or flights of stairs plus a ram so that local/tourist will have an easy time lugging the luggage to the platform. I’m very grateful as I don’t had to carry my heavy luggage up flights of stairs.

While transportation in Switzerland is very convenient, I strongly recommend you to bring a small – medium size luggage. The reason I suggest this was because depending on your train schedule you may need to make a few transfer. Furthermore, you will not want to luge your heavy luggage each time you transfer.

Sometime the gap between the platform and the train were wide or there may be a few steps that you need to climb up from the station platform to train. I struggle carrying my heavy luggage each time I transfer train; therefore, I will look at the train schedule where I do not have to make many transfer.

Also on board the train, they do have limited space where you can store your bigger luggage. If your luggage is small or medium size you can store your luggage above the seats or in between the gaps of two seats.

Upon arrival to Lugano train station, we decided to take a walk to our Hotel as we didn’t want to wait for the bus. Initially, we got slightly lost as I didn’t read the map carefully. But it was all good when we finally arrive at our hotel – Villa Sassa Hotel a beautiful 4 stars Spa hotel. I was quite bummed out as I totally forgot to bring my swimwear to try out the spa… Oh well, I guess there always next time…

Upon completing our check in, there was a staff that lead us to our room. Thereafter, he even show us the shortcut to head to the city center.

The hotel has also kindly upgraded us to a bigger suite which come with 02 bed rooms (1 queen + 2 single beds), dinning area and a balcony. Also we arrived on Christmas day and there was a welcome gift awaiting in the room.

I must say the view outside the balcony was amazing especially during the night when the lights from the building accross starts to sparkles against the dark sky. Dusk was beautiful as well when the sparkling lights shimmer as the day begins to break.

As we have some time to spare before dinner, we decided to explore the city. We ended up at walking to Parco Ciani – a park which I wanted to visit unknowingly. Parco Ciani is a beautiful park, while walking through the park main gate you will get to see picturesque Lake Lugano on the right.

It was a beautiful day and there were many family taking a stroll on Christmas day! There was this street performer which I was curious about, I wonder what was his story. He was playing the Barrel Organ (I think!). Being as a noob this was my first time seeing such musical instrument! The music played from the Organ sounds lovely! We had a lovely time at Parco Ciani.

Thereafter, we decided to have dinner. Thankfully, restaurants were open on Christmas Day! There were a few options and decided to try Argentino. In my opinion, their pastas & pizza were amazing!

The waiter gave us the above chilli oil to drizzle over our food. Looking at the colour, I thought how spicy can it be!! Omg, I was wrong its was so SPICY! My tongue was literally burning!

After dinner, we went to explore the city center for a while before heading back to the hotel. We got slightly lost as we could not find the short cut back to the hotel. After many tries, we finally found our way back! Being awake for more than 24 hours (due to the time difference) we crashed for the day.

XOXO