We are planning a 3 week trip this September. Thinking of flying into Zurich and then train to Grindlewald area. From there we plan to make our way over to the Dolomites, Alpe di Siusi. Next is possibly down to Cinque Terre, though I am open to other destinations in Italy. From Italy head over to the Cotes du Rhone area of France since that is my husband's favorite wine. Our plan is to fly back from Paris stopping at small towns along the way. We hope to do this trip using trains. Does that make sense? We are open to any suggestions. Thanks.
Posted by
Brisbane, Australia
7175 posts
Fly in to Pisa, and train to Cinque Terre - 3 nts
Train to Venice - 3 nts
Train to Bolzano for Dolomites, Alpe di Siusi - 3 nts
Train to Innsbruck, Austrian Tirol - 2 nts
Train to Interlaken for Grindelwald - 3 nts
Train to Lausanne/Annecy - 2 nts
Train to Lyon for Cotes du Rhone - 2 nts
Train to Paris - 3 nts
Posted by
Forest Grove, OR
11314 posts
Sounds like fun! We are big fans of hiking in both the Dolomites and Switzerland. Here's how I would structure my time.
Zurich to Grindelwald is reasonable to do the day you fly in if you arrive fairly early in the day. However it is a long long day on the train when you decide to go to the Dolomites. So instead I'd say
Fly into Milan. Assuming early arrival (before noon) go immediately to Bolzano and on to Ortisei in the Val Gardena. You should be able to get there by late afternoon if your flight lands in the morning. Long day but worth it. Spend at least 4 nights. You can get to the Alpe di Siusi from Ortisei by lift, and also many other wondrous venues for hiking in the Puez-Odle and other spots in the Val Gardena.
Train to La Spezia (almost 6 hours), where you can make your way to the Cinque Terre town of your choice, 3-4 nights
Train to Grindelwald, 8 hours. Really long travel day. Make it worthwhile by staying 4 nights (at least).
It will be another long train day to go to the Cotes du Rhone region, likely 7-8 hours depending on where you plan to stay. It might be worth looking at flying from Zurich to Lyon. You'd probably need a car in this area. Not a bad trip into Paris by train from Provence, though.
Just some thoughts without adding too many stops. We like to savor a location rather than hit a lot of places for 2-night stays
I think you have plenty of time to do this if you want to devote all that time to train trips. I love the long train rides and with three weeks at your disposal, you can certainly manage.
Posted by
Vernon, Canada
32201 posts
Ann,
As I may have mentioned in another reply, southern France is the "outlier" in this case, so you'll have to be prepared for a longer travel day to get there. A few thoughts......
- If you want to start in the Dolomites, you could consider inbound flights to either Munich, Venice or Milan. Travel time from each of those spots to Bolzano appears to be about the same.
- I'd suggest booking accommodations in the Cinque Terre soon as that area will be busy in September.
- One of the quickest trips from the Cinque Terre to the Grindelwald area is a departure from Monterosso at 07:33, arriving Interlaken Ost at 14:28 (time 6H:55M, 3 changes). From Interlaken to Grindelwald is only a short trip. Have you considered staying in any other locations in the Berner Oberland?
- One of the quickest trips from the Berner Oberland to southern France is a departure from Interlaken Ost at 07:29, arriving Nice Ville at 16:00 (time 8H:31M, 2 changes). You might want to spend at least one night in Nice, as travelling to other locations in that area will add time to an already long travel day.
Happy travels!
Posted by
Granite Bay, CA
1914 posts
I'd be inclined to drop CT. It seems too far out of the way. You are covering a lot of ground. I would try to choose your top sites and try to move in a tighter space so your travel times are not so far. We try to keep it under 4 hours between sites, but 2-3 hours is better yet. I know it is hard when you want to see different places, but your desires are really spread out.
I haven't looked up train travel times so I don't know for sure, but I'd think fly to Venice- do the Dolomites, maybe onto Verona or Lake Como, then the Berner Oberland, over to France (Cotes du Rhone) and end in Paris.
It just seems so far. We did a similar trip by car and spent a month, but we broke it up into places closer, yet it was still a lot of driving for us.
Ours was: Fly to MUC- rented a car- Mittenwald, Germany- Dolomites (La Villa/Stern, Italy)- Verona, Italy- Lake Como (Varenna) Italy- Berner Oberland, Switzerland- Burgundy France-Alsace France- Frankfurt, Germany to visit Friends- Mosel River area and Rhine area and then Koln- dropped car and fly home. It was fabulous!! Love the mix of all the countries and seeing alps in Italy and Switzerland on the same trip.
We always rent a car so I'm not sure about train travel.