You won’t go wrong with either.

Lucerne has scenery, atmosphere, great boat rides. good food, nearby mountain excursions, and history (a bit like Zurich, more scenic, but lacking the great art). Many find the transportation museum interesting.

Amsterdam has great art, flowers (if you time it right), history, and atmosphere. There is a good variety of food and entertainment. If you choose this one, try and fit in day trips to the Hague (more great art) and Haarlem (a scenic town with a church housing one of the best organs in the world, try to time it so you can be there when they are practicing).

Honestly I’ve never been to Amsterdam because it seems to me everyone under 40 who goes there does so just to get wasted. Being in an American college town is crazy enough in this regard, so it has sort of soured my image of what is essentially the pot nest of the known world.That said, I’ve also heard there’s a lot of good things about the place, you just have to pick your spots.

As for Lucerne, well I have a soft spot for Switzerland, so this would be my choice hands-down. But it’s obviously up to you

Amsterdam would be my choice for a young person. You’ll have a great opportunity to meet other young people from all over the world and a fair chance of meeting friendly locals. IMO, there’s very little chance of meeting a friendly local in Switzerland, and most of the young one’s will be partying in some other country that’s “looser” like Amsterdam or considerably cheaper.

I have not been to Lucerne, so I can’t really answer this question, but I have been to Amsterdam and I didn’t care for it. It’s just another big, busy city, IMO, and I also thought it was really dirty. Yea you can meet up with new people and party a lot, but you can do that in tons of other places.

There are some things I enjoyed (Van Gogh museum, Anne Frank house) but really wasn’t impressed with Amsterdam at all and glad to have gotten the hell out of there after 2 days.