I've trying to research the easiest and quickest way from Milan to Chamonix. I've spent hours googling it, but I seem to reach a dead end everytime. SAVDA BUS: the website lets me buy online a bus from milan to courmayeur, but thats as far as it lets me go- what about courmayeur to chamonix? How do I get onto that bus/where do I buy the tickets? TRAIN: bahn.com seems to have a 5 hour train ride from milano centrale, but when I try to book on trenitalia webiste, it comes up as a 9-10hours train ride, and also unpurchasable. Which info is correct? And is it simply the case of only allowed to buy those tickets in Milan?
Does anyone know exactly where to board the savda bus? Is it near the metro Laampugnano? Thanking everyone in advance! Oh, I plan to leave Milan on Friday night or Saturday morning!
Posted by
Seattle, WA
17400 posts
Bahn.de is correct. It is a little over 5hours if you catch the right train from Milan. You can see the route on the Swiss rail site as well
Www.rail.ch or www.sbb.ch Trenitalia probably doesn't,t have all the post mid-December fares posted on their website yet. It is difficult to buy on their website anyway, although that may not apply to purchases from Oz. If you want to purchase in advance, you can do that on the Swiss website, but you have to be far enough ahead for them to mail you the tickets, and you pay shipping. It should be fine just to buy them in Milan when you get there. We've done the part from Brig to Chamonix and it is a very scenic trip.
Posted by
Vernon, Canada
32349 posts
sparky, Are you currently in Europe and planning to travel this Friday night or Saturday morning??? For that particular trip, I'd travel by train rather than Bus. As you've noticed, the shortest trip is 5H:08M from Milano Centrale to Chamonix Mont-Blanc, with at least two changes in Brig and Martigny (depending on which train you choose). I'm not sure whether you'll be able to purchase tickets on-line, as the Trenitalia system doesn't seem to work will all foreign cards. In the same circumstances I'd just buy tickets at Milano Centrale, either on the day of travel or a few days prior. When travelling from one country to the next, I've found in a few cases that it's only possible to obtain tickets to the first stop inside the neighboring country. For example, on a trip from Nice to Stresa last year, SNCF would only provide a ticket to Milan. When I arrived there, I had to buy another ticket for Stresa. Therefore, you may have to buy a second ticket (which will probably be very cheap) from Martigny to Chamonix. Good luck and happy travels!
Posted by
OP
melbourne
2 posts
thanks guys, for all your valuable words of advice! my trip is actually April/May 2011 so I'm doing the research for it now. I was just a bit worried about travelling to Chamonix from Milan - the websites aren't the most user friendly with my poor knowledge of italian and french!