Trip Itinerary Help: Paris, Swiss Alps, Cinque Terre (with a mini-tourist in tow) :)

I would not call that "intense", with the 3-4 night stays in most places. But you do have some long travel days, particularly between Mürren and Cinque Terre. I suggest you break that one up with an overnight along the way. Stresa is rich in the train route, before Milan, and supposed to be quite nice, right on Lago Maggiore.

I can highly recommend the Hotel Edelweiss in Murren. It has a spectacular location/view and would be family friendly. We did their half-board program which got us breakfast and dinner, which turned out to be very convenient at the end of a long day. The transportation up to Murren from the Interlaken train station seems complicated, but in actual fact is seamless and even stroller-friendly. http://www.edelweiss-muerren.ch
On that trip we flew in/out of Amsterdam, did several different German cities and some of Switzerland in two weeks. We had a railpass, which makes your travel VERY flexible. The train system is so well-connected that you can always find a way to get from A to B, and a railpass will greatly undercut point-to-point fares. Check out the DB (German train) website for more information about connections and timelines between the destinations you are interested in.
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Colleen,

Your proposed Itinerary sounds very reasonable, and the pace is somewhat relaxing so you'll have some time to enjoy the locations you visit. A few thoughts and questions.....

• Does your 14 day time frame include your two flight days?
• Paris - four nights is good, but as I'm sure you've found on past trips, jet lag will slow you down for the first day or two.
• Mürren - the trip from Paris will be about six hours, with 2-3 changes. One of the easiest trips will be a departure from Gare de Lyon at 07:19, arriving Lauterbrunnen at 13:25 (time 6H:06M, two changes at Basel SBB and Interlaken Ost - the latter change is inevitable). I only researched the trip to Lauterbrunnen, as there are two ways to reach Mürren from there, with slightly different travel times.
• Cinque Terre - you'll first have to decide which of the five towns you're staying in, and I used Monterosso in researching rail times. It's the largest of the five towns and therefore has the most hotels, restaurants and other tourist amenities, as well as the best beaches. I've travelled the route between the Berner Oberland and Cinque Terre several times, and while it's a bit of a long day, my preference is to get to the location rather than spend a night somewhere that I'm not really interested in. While I sometimes do use that method to break up long rail journeys, I stay at least two nights. In your case, I don't believe you have time to spare for that. One night stays are a bit of a waste of travel time (IMO), as they usually only allow a few hours to look around. One of the easiest trips will be a departure from Lauterbrunnen at 07:03, arriving Monterosso at 15:03 (time 8H:00M, 3 changes at Interlaken Ost, Spiez and Milano Centrale - there are some routes that are slightly quicker, but with more changes - your choice). That gets you to the C.T. at a reasonable hour, so after check-in you'll have time for a quick walkabout before dinner.
• Final location - that will depend to some extent on the best availability of flights back to your home destination. You might consider Milan for one night, as there are LOTS of flights from MXP. If you stay at a hotel close to Milano Centrale, you can walk to the station and take the Malpensa Express to the airport. You could also stay near Via Dante and use the other Malpensa Express route from Milano Cadorna station. I was there in October, and it's all rather easy.
  

Good luck with your planning!

Late May or June in the Alps may be more reliable for better weather than early May, and if we have a hard winter this year (who can tell?) more snow will be gone later.

Check that nothing will have their annual shutdown for maintenance if you plan to go in early May.

Thanks everyone! These are all very helpful replies and much appreciated! I'm traveling from ATL and including the travel from US day in the night to Paris. From what I've read and seen, do prefer Murren (and read much is closed in April/May) and Monterosso. However, it does concern me with how long the trips are in between destinations (particularly the 8 hour Murren>Monterosso option). I am now wondering if I should instead do a London>Paris>Murren trip with return flight from Zurich. I'm not sure how fun London would be for a toddler though, and I always have a longing for Italy. This is so hard!

Why not do the trip younwant---to Italy--- with a reasonable accommodation to the child's needs? Although I usually agree completely with Ken's advice, I do not think itis such a bad idea to stop overnight at Stresa to break upnthelong journey between Mürren and Monterosso. We do that ourselves all the time,mas we do not like to spend more than 4-4.5 hours on the train in one day if we can possibly help it. Also, we do not like the stress of early-morning departures. with a toddler it is even more difficult.

Since you are actually staying in Murren, not Lauterbrunnen, the journey from there to Monterossonis more than 8 hours,mand you would have to leave Mürren on the train at 6:36 am to make that 7:03 from Lauterbrunnen to Spiez that Ken suggested. Instead,mif you stop overnight onnthelake at Stresa, you have a journey of 3-4 hours that day. The 3-hour journey is with a noonish departure from Mürren to catch the 12:33 fromnLauterbrunnen to Spiez. This journey has only 2 changes, unlike others on this route which require 3 or 4. You could pick up supplies in Mürren for a picnic on the train, and then after boarding the train at Spiez there are no more changes, so hopefully the child could nap. You would arrive in Stresa after check-in time at your hotel and have the rest of the day to walk and explore.

The next day's journey, to Monterosso, is a bit longer, but not much. if you depart Stresa at 9:33 am ( again, a civilized, non-stressful hour), you have a choice of two journeys: with 3 train changes, you could be in Monterosso 4h 40m later. Or spend 90 minutes in Milano Centrale and take the direct train ( no more changes) to Monterosso. Total journey time this way is 5h 24 minutes, but you are only on the train for four hours of that time.

Of course London is very nice----we include a few days there on every trip---but if you really want to go back to Italy, why compromise and go to London and Zurich?

Good article in the New York Times travel section today on the Cinque Terre. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/30/travel/the-cinque-terre-on-a-budget.html?ref=travel&_r=0

I have to say that when we were staying in Santa Margherita Ligure our host tried and tried to dissuade us from going to the Cinque Terre...even wondered why Rick Steves sends everyone there. We went anyway...I'm not sure I'd go again and wished I would have listened to our host. But it's is a persoal preference and not knowing his tastes and trusting Rick we went. Most of the recommendations for Rick work out but we've learned his tastes versus our tastes.

Not to put a damper on the above but I question the wisdom of taking a small child of that age on such a trip. This in not like going to Disney or even Hawaii and friends who have done what you plan to do have told me they wish they had waited until much later when the child could appreciate what they were seeing, perhaps after they had studied some geography or history in school. How old are the grandparents and have they been to Europe before? If not, they would probably get more out of the trip with just you and your husband to show them around. Is their health and stamina good and how long can they spend touring about without rest. I've taken my now 90 year old mother in law on three two week trips to Italy, France and the UK and she is in excellent health, but we still moved much slower than if it were only my wife and I. Lastly, Europe, and especially the CT and other parts of Italy, are not accessible friendly for seniors and there are often lots of steps to climb if you stay in a small hotel. Take a light stroller for you may have to often carry it up those steps. Hotels with elevators typically are more expensive. Good luck.