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Strasbourg, France to Lake Como in Summer 2023

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My husband & I are just starting to form some ideas about an itinerary to cover some areas of France, Germany, Switzerland (mainly passing through Switzerland to get to Milan) and Lake Como. This will be our 3rd trip planning on our own since 2017. I was inclining toward doing a Rick Steves tour or one of the small boat cruises because of the amount of time I have spent in the past doing all of the research & planning as well as the fact that we will be 70 & 71 on the next trip, however, I think we have one more trip in us at least where we do it on our own. And there is a lot of fun in the planning. We enjoy walking all over wherever we are to just enjoy the general sights like architecture, parks/gardens/ cafes/ churches, ruins. We like day tours to see castles & countryside. We are not big museum/art people. I love music as I am a professional musician. One of my fondest memories is a concert in Mirabell Palace, touring Mozart's homes in Salzburg and Franz Liszt's home in Budapest.
This is a very rough sketch of what we have in mind:
Fly into Paris or Frankfort, then take train to Strasbourg. Stay in Strasbourg for 5-6 nights. Take day trips via train to Colmar, Baden Baden, & Heidelberg. Take one bus tour (Viator or similar) for the Alsace wine tasting & one or more castle tours in that area (Charteau du Haut-Koenigebourg).
Train from Strasbourg to Basel, then from there to Milan. I am not sure if we would spend a night in Basel, probably depends on the timing of everything. Then train from Basel to Milan to get to Lake Como where we want to spend at least 3 nights.

Transport back to Milan and fly out of Milan back to the US.

Any general advice is appreciated. A couple questions come to mind:
I know very little about Lake Como other than it looks gorgeous. How do you get there from Milan if you don't want to rent a car and can you get by not renting a car if you are staying in the Lake Como area? I would like advice on lodging in Lake Como.
Would the train from Basel to Milan pass by some of the beautiful scenery in Switzerland? Is Basel a nice city to spend a day touring?
Are there any other places we will be close to with this itinerary that should not be missed? We would be shooting for 2 weeks total.
Thank you!

Posted by
6587 posts

We liked Strasbourg and Colmar. We liked the small winery villages in Alsace even more. You need a car to visit the smaller places, but you could do with a tour as well. Viator is a consolidator/middle man. I would try to book with the tour guide directly. The RS guide for France does have recommendations for guides.

Basel is beautiful. It is on a river, but no mountains in sight. The old town area is charming and very colorful. We spent an enjoyable day and a half there. Luzern is close to Basel and is drop dead gorgeous. If you can spare a couple days, I'd go there, too.

We took the Bernina Express from Chur to Tirano and another train from Tirano to Varenna (Lake Como). The views from the Bernina Express were stunning though I think every train ride in Switzerland is stunning. If you want to do the Bernina Express from Basel, you could get to Chur via Zurich, and I'm sure other cities as well.

Posted by
21222 posts

In the summer, there is a bus from Selestat station (between Strasbourg and Colmar) to Chateau Haut Koenigsbourg.
The route through Switzerland to Varenna on Lake Como is indeed scenic. You might want to spend a few days in the Swiss mountains on the way between Colmar and Varenna. Pontresina is a good spot. You do not need to take the actual Bernina Express train to get to Tirano (unless you really want to) as there are regular trains every hour on the same route. In Tirano you get an hourly train to Varenna. From Varenna it s by hourly train to Milan.

Posted by
11608 posts

We loved Strasbourg where we spent several nights before moving to a wine village, Riquewehr. We toured other charming wine villages and also went to Colmar which we did not care for.
We have been to Bellagio on Lake Como four times for as much as two weeks. We’ve hired a driver service to pick us up at MXP or in Milan and take us to Bellagio. Our driver retired but you can find others. The most beautiful part of Lake Como is mid lake with views of the Alps. There are nice hotels in Bellagio, Varenna, Mennagio, Cadenabia. You travel on ferries around the lake. A car is useless there.
You can take a train to Varenna from Milan or to a station near City of Como and then walk to nearby dock and take ferry up to Bellagio, either a regular ferry or a high speed one( hard to see out.)

Posted by
2816 posts

We took train to Lake Como from Milan. The train runs up east side of lake. Mid lake is prettiest and the ferries make a triangle. -Varenna has train station so easiest to stay in. Bellagio and Mennagio require ferry ride.

A car is not that helpful and by carefully choosing your lodging, you can get by comfortably without one. We were there last summer for 5 nights without a car.

Posted by
6587 posts

Re. Sam’s comment. To concur with Sam, We took the panoramic Bernina express train from Chur. It has bigger windows. You can take a regular train on the same route. Swiss trains are very nice. I did the Golden Pass route on a “regular” train. It was very enjoyable. For me, I didn’t think spending the extra money on the panoramic train was worth it, but I can see why others may enjoy it.

Posted by
237 posts

Thanks to all of you, this is amazingly helpful, I can't wait until I have time to really dig in to the planning now!

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