Switzerland - Lake Como - Venice

Lauterbrunnen and Wengen are a little redundant. You could just about throw a rock from Wengen and it will land below in Lauterbrunnen. Stay in Wengen if you can afford it. Car free.

With 2 weeks, if you left on a Friday and returned on a Sunday 2 weeks later, that would be 15 nights, you have already allotted 5 nights to Lake Como and Venice (flying out of Milan will add another night). That leaves you with 10 nights in Switzerland. Limit yourself to 3 locations, 2 would be better. Every time you pull up stakes and move on is time consuming, and with 3 little ones, the logistics are enormous.

I agree with Sam on the 3 Swiss destinations, maximum. Don’t spend time in Zurich; head straight to Lauterbrunnen, Wengen, or Luzern from the airport. Make Pontresina your last stop in Switzerland. Then you can take the beautiful Bernina Pass route to Varenna on Lake Como.

Best way to connect Switzerland to Lake Como is to end your Swiss travels (wherever they take you) in Chur. Chur is a nice town, reachable by car or train, in the southwest of the country (near Liechtenstein).

From Chur, you take the Bernina Express (or the regional trains that run on the same line but in less fancy cars) to Tirano in Italy.

In Tirano, you arrive at the Swiss station, and walk across the square to the Italian station. From there, there are direct Trenord regional trains to Milan. These stop at Varenna and Como and perhaps other locations along lake Como.

One thing to watch out for is that on the Bernina Pass route, the rail link from Tirano to Colico (on the way to Varenna) is under repair until early September and this is by replacement bus service. One more connection.

The OP did not say whether they were planning on using a rental car. Since there would be impossibly high international drop charges to rent a car in Switzerland and drop it in Italy, they should drop the car off in Switzerland before moving on to Italy, if that is the plan.

Thank you for the recommendations and the insight into the connection closure!! I think we will look into having a driver pick us up in Tirano and take us to our hotel in Como instead of taking that train as well.

How does this itinerary look?

< Arrive in Zurich - Train to Wengen: Spend 4 nights in Wengen
< Train from Wengen to Lucerne: Spend 3 nights in Lucerne
< Train from Lucerne to Chur: Spend one night in Chur so that we can take the early Bernina Express train to Tirano the next day
< Transfer from Tirano to Como: Spend 3 nights in Como
< Onto Venice from Como: Spend 3 nights in Venice and depart from Venice airport back to the states (no real reason to go to Milan)

thank you again for the advice!

Posted too soon: We do not plan on renting a car at any point during our trip. With the itinerary I have suggested above - will we see "enough" (because can you ever see enough!?) of Switzerland?

Do you mean Como the city, or a general location somewhere on Lake Como? Difficult to get from Tirano to the City of Como, but there is a better way to get to the City of Como from Switzerland.

From Luzern, you can take the Treno Gottardo to Bellinzona and then get a train from there to Como San Giovanni station. The Treno Gottardo uses an older route that goes over the Alps, and is much more scenic than the new route that uses the new Gotthard Base Tunnel, burrowing completely under the Alps in a 35 mile long tunnel.

In fact, there is special scenic train called the Gotthard Panorama Express that goes once a day except Mondays that starts with a lake cruise to the far end of Lake Luzern (Vierwaldstaettersee) then transfers to an all 1st class train with panorama cars to Lugano. From there, a connecting train to Como.

Hi Sam - I meant the general area of Lake Como. We are looking at a hotel in the Bellagio area.

You can get a bus from Como San Giovanni station to Bellagio, or a ferry boat after a bus or taxi to the water front. If you go the Bernina route, you can get a ferry from Varenna a short way to Bellagio.

I've been to Switzerland a couple of times. But when we're wanting to travel to the Alps, we go to the Tirol section of Austria--just north and east of Switzerland's most scenic vistas. I've found places in Austria (and northern Italy) that are every bit as beautiful as Switzerland.

We find Austria easier to travel through, and much less expensive. It's also easy to get there flying through Munich which is a good gateway airport. It's also easy to get over to Salzburg and Vienna--other worthwhile cities.