Train journey from Dolomites (Dobbiaco) to Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland

You need to take a bus or drive to Innsbruck and then take a series of trains from Innsbruck to Lauterbrunnen.
You can search the train portion here: https://www.sbb.ch/en

I would use SBB.ch/en, the Swiss transportation site. It is a long day by train of 9 to 11 hours with several changes. Any chance you have time to stop for a night along the way? The routes available pass thru Innsbruck and/or Zurich, which would break it up. We are do similar transfers most years, from Ortisei to Lauterbrunnen, and while we usually stay in Milan this year we are staying in Zurich to make arrival in Lauterbrunnen an easier day.

You can book the entire route between the two countries at SBB.

Thank you! Would you use SBB even for the Italian/Austrian parts of the journey? That's where I'm getting hung up.

We considered a night stop, but frequently do 10-12 hour travel days by car and want to maximize our time in the Bernese Oberland region, so if possible we still plan to do it in a single day.

When I try to use SBB to book the full journey, I get this error message:

Your journey could not be booked. The train is already fully booked or has been cancelled due to engineering work.
You have the following options:

We recommend selecting another connection.

For connections with changes: It may be possible to complete the purchase if you split the booking into the individual legs.

What day are you trying to book it for?

July 30, 2024

Trains are mass transit. It is not needed to book train travel months in advance, and if you get errors when trying to do so this usually means you are just to early. Trains do not "book" out weeks in advance. They would be useless if they did,

That you can book travel involving trains in Italy, Austria and Switzerland on SBB is normal. This because the different railways of Europe can act as agents for each other. However they do depend on the other railways providing them with the needed info. And schedules for dates far in the future may not yet be final.

Especially regional trains in Italy can often not be booked far in advance.

What I would do:
- Plan on starting early. This is going to be long day. And you do not want to risk getting stranded halfway. Delayed trains, missed connections etc do happen. If you leave early that only means a later than expected arrival, not an unexpected stay at a hotel halfway.
- Use www.bahn.de to plan your schedule first, and have an idea about what routes are available. You will see that the fastest routes go north to Insbruck, and then across, but you an also go south to Verona, and then across. Use dates this week, as the schedule for regional trains in Italy is not online yet for dates in the summer.
Possibilities are for example:

What I would do is book Franzenfeste - Lauterbrunnen now on www.oebb.at, and aim for one of the EC/RJ departures. The local ticket from Dobiacco to Franzengeste you just buy locally at the station.

You can use bahn.de to see the whole journey. I used Dobbiaco to Interlaken Ost as you have to get there to reach Lauterbrunnen, 20 minutes away.

There are two routes, roughly equivalent in time (9.5-10 hours). Some have additional train changes to what I listed below, and some have fewer. Just look at them all before you decide.

When we do this journey we break it up with an overnight somewhere we would like to visit, so keep that in mind. We book as two separate journeys, lone day on Trenitalia and the second on SBB.ch

One route is Dobbiaco—-Fortessa—-Innsbruck—-Zurich——Bern—-Interlaken Ost (note that you can reach Innsbruck by train; you do not need to take a bus)

The other is Dobbiaco —- Fortessa—-Bolzano—-Verona—-Milan—-Spiez—-Interlaken Ost

However, for much of the summer, (June 9-Sept. 8) there is a construction interruption between Milan and Spiez that requires a bus link between Milan and Domodossola. This make it take longer. You can instead go from Milan to Luzern using the Gotthard Pass route, and change to the train from Luzern to Interlaken. This is what we did last September (with overnights in Weggis on the lake and Desenzano on Lago di Garda). And we will do that again this summer, with overnights in Locarno and Salo on Lago di Garda.

Thank you so much everyone! I will plan to book out a little bit later and hopefully the journey will be available. While we're on the topic, does anyone recommend a certain version of the Swiss Train pass? Half fare/7 day, etc.?

Bahn.de is showing the Innsbruck route as being available on your travel date. Depart Dobbiaco at 8:25 and arrive in Lauterbrunnen at 17:56. You have some 5- or 6-minute changes on the way.

But I see SBB doesn’t not show the Innsbruck connection at that departure time, only later. And attempting to book produces the result described. You might try splitting it into 2 bookings, one on Trenitalia from Dobbiaco to Innsbruck,

I see that SBB will sell you a ticket on that same connection from Innsbruck to Lauterbrunnen I mentioned above, using RJX 160 departing Innsbruck at 11:47. So if Trenitalia will sell you the proper connecting tix from Dobbiaco to Innsbruck (departing Dobbiaco at 8:25 and arriving Innsbruck at 11:11 after several changes on the way, you should be good to go.

Right now SBB offers a Saver fare of 48 CHF for that route, but if you are splitting tickets like this that is risky—-you might not make that connection in Innsbruck. Even the Saver Flex will not offer you the flexibility you need—i the notice says that fare is “refundable with conditions” but not exchangeable.

A Saver Day Pass on SBB is as flexible as you can be—-but it only covers the portion within Switzerland’s GA travel zone. You would still need a ticket from Innsbruck to wherever the Swiss Pass coverage kicks in.

So you need to get some good advice on what kind of ticket you buy. I am not the one to know.

Also, be careful to check and re-check the date on SBB. The website has a tendency to change the date to one day earlier—-something to do with the time difference between US and Europe, I suppose.