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Where Lucerne stops being flat and starts going up a mountain.
Kriens sits immediately south of Lucerne at the point where the town runs out of level ground and the slopes of Pilatus begin. Half the commune is ordinary suburb. The other half is on the mountain.
On a map Kriens looks like a straightforward Lucerne suburb, and the lower part of it is exactly that: level streets, post war and later housing, adequate lifts, nothing to plan around.
The upper part is a different proposition. The ground rises hard towards Pilatus, and the residential streets climbing it narrow, steepen and turn in ways that a long vehicle cannot always manage. Some properties are reached by approaches that no removal lorry will take.
The distance between those two situations is a couple of kilometres. The difference in the quote is considerable. So the useful thing to send is not the town but the street, and whether the approach to your building climbs.
Kriens also appears as Pilatus and Lucerne agglomeration. Whichever version you searched for, this is the same city and the same page. Give the mover the address exactly as it appears on your Swiss lease.
Kriens is where a good deal of Lucerne lives, because the city itself is compact and expensive and the commune next door is neither. Full households, families, longer stays, and dates driven by when a property becomes available.
The mountain is the other draw. Properties on the slope have the view and the quiet, and they cost more in every sense, including on moving day.
Because the whole agglomeration is served together, a lorry delivering into Lucerne is delivering here too. That helps shared loads fill and shortens the wait.
Above a certain line the streets here stop behaving like suburb and start behaving like mountainside. They narrow, the gradient bites, and the turns tighten to the point where a long vehicle either cannot make them or should not try.
Where that is the case the answer is a standing point lower down and a shuttle in something smaller, which is arranged in advance and priced as its own stage. Crews working the Lucerne area do it regularly.
Properties with stepped approaches from the road are also common up here, which adds carrying time on top of the shuttle. Both belong in the quote, not in a conversation on the day.
These three are the ones that actually get asked about on a Kriens move. Movers working this route are asked about these three more often than the rest.
What a shuttle up the slope does to the number.
Furniture up a steep approach or a stepped path.
Sharing a lorry on the Lucerne run.
Kriens is its own commune with its own administration, even though it runs into Lucerne without a visible break. Registration on arrival and any parking application go to Kriens, not to the city.
That distinction is easy to lose because everything else, work, transport, shopping, points into Lucerne. It is the same pattern as Carouge beside Geneva or Meyrin beside it on the other side.
Everything is German speaking, and the town name is the same in every language, so the address gives no trouble once the commune is named alongside the postcode.
Because Kriens has two halves. The lower part is a level Lucerne suburb with ordinary access. The upper part climbs towards Pilatus, where streets narrow and steepen and the turns tighten beyond what a long vehicle can manage. The two are a couple of kilometres apart and priced very differently.
The vehicle stands lower down and a smaller one shuttles up. Crews working the Lucerne area do it regularly, so it is not a difficulty, but it is arranged in advance and priced as its own stage rather than improvised when the driver looks at the hill.
No, it is its own commune with its own administration, even though it runs into the city without a visible break. Registration on arrival and any parking application go to Kriens rather than to Lucerne, which is easy to forget when everything else about daily life points into the city.
Common on the upper slopes. Properties there frequently have steps between the road and the door, which adds carrying time on top of any shuttle. Say if yours does, because it is the sort of thing that turns a two hour delivery into a four hour one.
It does for shared loads. The whole urban area is served together, so a lorry delivering into Lucerne is delivering here too, which helps a shared vehicle fill and shortens the wait for one. If your dates have any give, that is worth money.
German, in the canton of Lucerne. The commune, your lease and the utilities all work in German. The town name is the same in every language, so the address itself is straightforward once the commune is named alongside the postcode.
Space and price, mostly. Lucerne itself is compact and expensive and the commune next door is neither, so it attracts full households and families rather than the shorter stays a city centre draws. Properties on the slope add a view, and add cost on moving day.
Collection address, the Kriens delivery address, a room by room list and the window you can work with. One vetted moving company from our network checks the route and the access, then comes back to you.
Send your move detailsOperated by DATACONTEXT (UK) LTD, company number 07425576, ICO registration ZB022743, registered at Norman House, Saint Saviours Estate, Abbey Street, London SE1 3DH. Running since 2010. We work with vetted moving companies in the AGM Group network.
Written by Darren Benjamin, founder of International Removals Companies, who has run the business since 2010. Last checked 5 August 2026.