Easy Round Tour on Seebodenalp below Rigi Kulm

Wednesday September 3, 2026 -- Urs had to work this week on his normal mid-week day off, so I invited a friend to come visit me in Küssnacht, for a fairly easy walk around the Seebodenalp above the town of Küssnacht. 

The visibility wasn't quite the best although we did get good enough views of Lake Zug, Lake Küssnacht, the Vierwaldstättersee (also known as Lake Luzern), and Mount Pilatus. As kids are currently on fall vacation from school, and the Seebodenalp loop trail features some very nice marble runs, there were a lot of people going up to this lovely high plateau, and we had to wait half an hour for the ride up. But then the people spaced out somewhat, and we had a pleasant walk, even enjoying watching the kids working the marble runs.

We started rather late because this part of the mountain is in shadow for quite a long while at this time of year, but by the time we started on our walk at 10:45, it was already getting quite hot. And to my great dismay, the Swiss Military thought it was a good idea to do a 45-minute helicopter training up there which I thought was really a bad choice for a place where families would be trying to enjoy a sunny afternoon (after having paid to use the cable car to get up there...).  

First a walk through the village of Küssnacht from the bus stop to the Seebodenalp cable-car station. 

At the lakeside promenade in Küssnacht you get a nice view of Mt.Pilatus to the south. (Closer to the train station you also see the Bernese Alps with Eiger-Mönch-Jungfrau). 

We got to the Seebodenalp cable-car station at 10:20, expecting to ride the 10:30 run, but there were so many people waiting to go up on this beautiful day, that we had to wait about 30 minutes. When there are lots of people, they run constantly, so we got on the third run. 

There's our cabin coming down from the Seebodenalp high plateau, at 10:45. 

View down on the Küssnacht arm of Lake Luzern and Mt.Pilatus in the background, as the cable-car makes its way up the hill.

Half-way point of the approximately 7-minute ride. The cabin holds a maximum of 15 people. (We had 12 adults, two small children and a baby stroller!)

View of Küssnacht as we near the top station. 

After exiting the top station at 11 a.m., here is one of the first of many intricate marble runs on this approximately 6-km loop trail. 

Very near the cable-car station is a small chapel which we first had a look at. It's called "St. Wendelin's Chapel". It was erected here in 1942. 

The little chapel at Seebodenalp, where they hold church services every Sunday during nice weather on the open space in front of the church (there were lots of benches). 

At first we were going to head south along the Panorama Trail and then head up the hill on the left for the return, but decided to do it the other way around. This is the trail we then walked on the way back. 

We are walking on the "Seebodenalp Panorama Loop Trail", a 90-minute, ca. 6 km trail that took us 3 hours! (We started here at 11:25)

This 6-km loop is a nice easy stroll on the Seebodenalp Plateau. It takes 90 minutes of straight walking, but we spent over three hours up here. 

A short and easy uphill stretch takes us to the upper trail, with the summit of Mt.Rigi (Rigi Kulm) ahead of us. The trail heads south at the building behind the cross. 

This is the upper trail of the loop, heading south along the flank of Rigi Kulm.  

View of Lake Zug to the northeast. We would have hoped for more clarity of visibility, but it was still pretty good!

And this view is to the west to the lower hills on the other side of Lake Küssnacht. The larger community on the lake in the center of the photo is Merlischachen. 

The day was turning out much warmer than expected, and we were glad to find this view bench in the shade. As it was now already 12:30, we had our picnic lunch here, and a very long break!

View toward Lake Zug from our lunch bench. 

View down onto the Seebodenalp Plateau, to the crest trail we will be walking along on the way back. 

And now continuing on our walk, we see where our trail will take us past the little lake and then up to the restaurant at Altruedisegg. From there we head back northwards along the tree-lined alleyway. 

Now our trail heads downhill, with another interesting marble run alongside the trail. 

VIDEO:

A section of the marble run next to the walking trail

A close-up view across the open meadow to the tree-line alley which we are going to be walking back along. 

There are a couple of farms up here. 

A detour to the little lake we had seen from further up. 

At the edge of the lake we were in awe at how calm the water was with the most perfect mirroring on the surface. 

.... and then the military helicopter came to disturb our peace for the next 45 minutes or so. Two soldiers descended from the helicopter and were practicing hooking a string of spheres onto the helicopter, which then flew off in a loop and returned again, doing this dozens of times. I still cannot understand why they chose this place to do their training, on a lovely day when loads of families paid to come up here to enjoy time with their children. 

There's the helicopter dropping off two military personnel who ended up for a long time practicing how to attach weights onto a long cable/rope from the helicopter. 

VIDEO:

The noise of the helicopter as it hovers to get the weights attached on the cable.

Fun to watch for a while, but 45 minutes of training here was just too long.

I did get some nice close-up shots of the helicopter. (Since this is not a military base but a public space, I think this would be allowed). 

At the Altruodisegg farm (with a restaurant) there was a very elaborate marble run, where the kids had to work very hard to make their large wooden "marble" pass through the course!

VIDEO:

This marble run was so interesting 

that we spent quite a bit of time here watching the kids "at work".

A cute little house up here across from the barn and restaurant buildings. 

As we now head back along the "ridge" trail, we have more great views over the Küssnacht arm of Lake Luzern and the town of Küssnacht at its north end, plus the lower hill called Mt.Rooterberg on the other side. 

From the other side, a closer look at the little platform on the lake where we had detoured to before. 

Just visible now is Rigi Kulm summit, as our trail heads parallel to the tree-lined road, where there were also people walking (better with the push-carriages). 

Here is the smaller foot-path parallel to the road trail. Along the way are many opportunities to rest, and for the kids several more stations to run their wooden "marbles". 

The only thing to mar the afternoon was that military helicopter flying its circles above us, back and forth, attach the weights then unattach, for about 45 minutes. 

Some interesting places to take a break and enjoy the view! (Mt. Pilatus at the back). Nearby was also a family grilling station. Definitely a lovely place for families to spend this afternoon!

This little fellow had a hoot chasing down his "marble" and running back up to the top of the run! We commented on the unique way for him to run off energy, but his mom said he'd then be too tired for the rest of the tour!

Directly beneath Rigi Kulm Summit now. 

And back at the Seebodenalp cable-car summit station at 2:30 p.m. Having started here at about 11 a.m. means we spent more than three hours up here!

Cable-car ride back down to Küssnacht. This time there were only 6 of us descending. (We had just missed the 14:30 descent and were afraid we'd have to wait an extra 30 minutes as they only do extra runs if there are 8 people or more. But as it turns out, more people were coming up, so they did an extra run just five minutes after we got here!)

Passing the other cable-car now, with still more people coming up to enjoy Seebodenalp. 

What our loop hike on Seebodenalp looks like on Google Satellite Maps. 

We know this area well, and have done very many hikes in the region around Mt. Rigi.