How to Travel From Italy (Cinque Terre region) to Swiss Alps? Best Transportation Method

Plug in your departure location (such as Monterosso, etc.) to Milano Centrale on the Trenitalia website. https://www.trenitalia.com/en.html
Three hours is the minimum train you can get and that is the same as driving so no benefit to a car (among other reasons)
Where are you going in Switzerland? Others will have to advise on that leg.

Depends on the time of the year.

I personally prefer to drive a rental car. Most going to Switzerland from the south will go to Milan and north to Lake Como or Lugano, SZ. It's just about 45 miles up there. They'll go into the Swiss road system from there.

Another popular route is from Venice north into the Dolomites. I especially like going over the Grossglockner High Alpine Road that ends at Zell-am-Zee, Austria. Most of my Alps travel is in Tirol and western Austria because it's easy to travel throughout the region and it's less expensive than Switzerland. The mountain scenery is about the same too.

David,
Do you rent the car in Italy and drop off in another country? If so, where do you rent the car from?

Valadelphia,
Destination is Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland

Do you rent the car in Italy and drop off in another country?

You can, BUT expect to pay an extra $600-$1000 to do so

At least four train changes, maybe more - but you are asking a difficult itinerary:
Monterosso - Milano - Spiez - Interlaken Ost - Lauterbrunnen
Once you are in Switzerland, connections should be easier as the Swiss railway system is geared to frequent but easy connections.
You can look for timetables on sbb.ch, but I do not know if you can buy the Italian leg of the ticket from them.

Monterosso - Milano - Spiez - Interlaken Ost - Lauterbrunnen

Lachera is right in that this is a multi-train itinerary. Most of your time will be spent getting to Spiez but from Spiez to Lauterbrunnen, if that is your destination, is quick (under and hour) and easy despite involving two more trains.

You can book the whole journey at SBB.ch/en. If you are willing to leave at 7:29 am, you’d be in Lauterbrunnen before 15:00. I recommend booking at SBB as if you have a Half Fare Card the appropriate adjustment is made.

If you can confirm that the Lauterbrunnen area is where you are headed, we can fine time. For example, a local pass for the Berner Oberland might make sense and will play into your ticket purchase and cost.

Thank you very much. Yes, Lauterbrunnen (Murren specifically) is our destination!

If Mürren is the destination then book your train ticket all the way to Mürren on the SBB site. There is no need to break your journey to go find a ticket office. In Switzerland you can travel to every town and village on one ticket.

I have viewed the SBB website and the Trenitalia website. I can't determine what train station to use from the Cinque Terre Region to get to Murren. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thank you!

You use the train station closest to your accommodation. Without knowing where in the Cinque Terre you are staying we can’t help you.

Exactly: all 5 of the CT villages have train stations as do the 'gateway' cities of La Spezia and Levanto. You take a train from whatever town you're staying in. As said above, there is no single train to Murren; you will be changing trains along the way.

The Cinque Terre has five villages - Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore.

If you are staying in Monterosso al Mare select that village.
If you are staying in Vernazza select that village.
If you are staying in Corniglia select that village.
If you are staying in Manarola select that village.
If you are staying in Riomaggiore select that village.

If you don't know what village you will stay in yet, choose La Spezia which is the nearest larger town.

Thank you. According to the Trenitalia website it will take 8-9 hours to get from the Cinque Terre region to Murren, SW. We are concerned about the amount of time spent on the train, and may divide the trip, or possibly look into renting a car for a portion of it.

1. Will there be stops that allow passengers off of the train to move around at stations?

This is the argument for choosing places that are closer together, but could you add any time in to break up the trip in the lakes or Milan area? That would be ideal.
Even if driving made things easier (not sure it would), by the time you add in picking up and dropping off the car, it's likely a wash. If you get the right train, it will be the same length of time as a drive, about three hours from Monterosso to Milan (I am assuming a train change in Milan).

You'll do your moving around when you change trains. How much moving around you'll be able to do depends on the time you have between getting off one train and getting onto the next. You can also move around a bit on the trains.

Thank you. Valadelphia, your poins about time lost in handling a car rental and staying in the Lakes Region or Milan is something I have considered. A couple of us would prefer the Lakes and a couple of us Milan!

I'm so sorry I'm slow getting back. i would always turn a car in within the country I rented it.

From the Milan Malpensa Airport, you can catch a bus north 45 minutes to Lugano and the train station there can get you into the Swiss Rail system. Or you can go into Milan's main train station and catch a train up to Lake Como--again about 45 minutes.

I don't profess to be any expert on Switzerland, however I have been there a couple of times. I spend my Alps travel in Austria in Western Tirol and back over to the Zell-am-See area. I find Austria easier and cheaper to travel thru, and the mountain scenery is just incredible too.

Getting from the CT to Mürren will use up travel day no matter which way you do it. The best way to do this is by train. I regularly take train trips that long and they are not the drag you think. You'll be traveling through a varied lanscape, and will be able to stretch your legs when changing trains. You might meat interesting people and end up talking the whole trip.

Getting to Mürren will always involve a lot of changes. But if you look at the timetable details you will see that most are near the end. Getting to Mürren involves a series of trains and cablecars, but they are all linked, and run frequently, so you should not worry about this part. Even from nearby Interlaken it's two or three transfers...

Your trip will normally be something like: Local to Levanto, IC to Milan, EC to Spiez, and then a series of locals again You will spend the bulk of your time on these IC and EC trains, and will have a generous time to change trains in Milan. Enough to explore the impressive station, and see if you can find Mussolini... The EC has a restaurant, so you could have lunch en route.

If you want to break the trip en route be aware that from the Italian lakes to Mürren will take time too. Only a break in Stresa would make sense if the aim is to shorten the maximum amount of train in a day...

Please note that train is likely faster than driving. Trains travel through a couple of railway only tunnels; the road itinerary would be different and longer.

Thank you David and WengenK for your helpful posts!

synapse,

You've received lots of good advice so far and I have a few thoughts to add.

I've done that trip a number of times and it's actually fairly straightforward, but will require a longer travel day. I did a brief check of the rail schedules using an arbitrary date of 15 May, Monterosso as the departure point and Lauterbrunnen as the destination. The trip I would use is a departure at 07:29, arriving at 14:55 (time 7H:26M, 4 changes). The number of changes may sound onerous, but they're actually quite easy. Arriving at about three is a good time, as rooms should have been serviced by that time so you should be able to check into your Mürren hotel right away (more on getting to Mürren below).

On that particular rail solution, note that legs 2 & 3 are on express trains so will have compulsory seat reservations, which will be provided with your tickets.

Which of the five Cinque Terre towns are you planning to stay in? If you haven't decided, Monterosso is a good choice as it's the largest of the five, has the greatest number of accommodations and other tourist facilities, and a larger rail station.

For the trip from Lauterbrunnen to Mürren, you have two choices and you need to specify which one you'll be using when you buy the tickets, which are:

• The most direct and probably easiest is the "BLM" route. When you exit the Lauterbrunnen station, walk across the street to the cable car station and take the short ride to Grütschalp; transfer to the small mountain railway which will be waiting and in a few short minutes you'll be in Mürren.
• The other method is to take the Post Bus from Lauterbrunnen station to Stechelberg, which is a short distance down the road. Once there transfer to the Schilthornbahn cable car. You'll arrive first in Gimmelwald, where you'll walk across the platform and transfer to another cable car, which will take you to Mürren in a few minutes. The first segment up to Gimmelwald is rather "spectacular" so if you don't like heights, don't look down!

You can buy tickets for the trip from Lauterbrunnen to Mürren on the SBB website, the SBB app (if you're travelling with a smartphone), or at any SBB ticket office, including the one in Lauterbrunnen. I often buy at the ticket office or from a kiosk, as it doesn't take long.

I prefer spending a longer travel day so that I can spend as much time as possible sightseeing in the magnificent Lauterbrunnen Valley.

I have done this before, all on trains. Our route was: Riomaggiore (where we stayed) to La Spezia, to Genoa, to Milan, to Spiez, to Interlaken, to Lauterbrunnen, and then to Gimmelwald via Stetchelberg. The only difference is that you will go from Lauterbrunnen to Murren.

We left early in the morning (I believe around 7) and were there by late afternoon. Late trains caused us to almost miss our train in Milan, but we sprinted through the station and hopped on the train with less than a minute to spare. If you have cell phone access, it can be handy to have the Trenitalia and SBB apps so that you can see which platform you need to go to at each station, since this route involves several transfers. Good luck!

Thank you Ken for the detailed information! I will be sure to reference this info as I do additional planning. Thank you Meg for the warning about missing a connection and the advice of using the apps to keep track of what platforms to use!