Hi! Putting this here since it involves crossing from one country to another. Would the Italy part of the forum be more appropriate?
We are planning for Switzerland as our first stop. Group of 4 (mom, 70+), daughter, son, and daughter-in-law. Mom is footing the bill and the two highest priority places for her are the Alps and Rome. Timing of late Sept. or early Oct.
Our current plan is to fly out of the US to Zurich and on arrival, take the train directly to Wengen or Grindelwald. We'll spend 5 nights. Exact plans will be weather dependent. Only planning one walk/place per day so we can also be flexible. Looking at the Mannlichen Panorama trail; Grindelwald First, visiting Murren/Gimmelwald and maybe Schilthorn. And then we have a 4th day as an open day or bad weather make-up day.
We plan to go from here to Rome and Naples. More on our dilemma below. We originally thought to simply visit Pompeii as a day trip from Rome using a tour. But 1) those are really long days, like 12 hours and 2) your actual time at Pompeii is limited by the tour and 3) the son is a geologist who would like to visit Vesuvius. (I know some of the tours offer this, but not all of the 4 of us want to do this.)
So, we are planning on adding 2 nights? (maybe 3) in the Pompeii/Ercolano area but aren't sure where!
Now we hit the problem area. Trying to decide on best way to get from Jungfrau area to Rome or Naples.
Thoughts on these options?
Option 1: train to Basel and fly EasyJet to Naples; pro: quicker than the train/just one travel day; con: we'll each have a bag to be checked and probably a "large" (by EasyJet standards) cabin bag plus 2 of the group have CPAPs. So between the ticket cost and the bag fees, this starts adding up to 200CHF per person as best I can tell for the date I was checking. also looked like only 2 flights per day and one was at night, arriving Naples around 11p.m., so really just 1 flight we would consider. If it is still available by the time we want to book.
Option 2: train all in one day! pro: leisurely? may have a couple transfers, but mostly sit and relax and read; if we take the Luzern or Zurich to Lugano route, it would be the Gotthard route; con: 11 hours or more on the train...that is a long long time; arriving after dark
Option 3: train, but split the journey; day 1 Lauterbrunnen to Lugano or Milan; day 2 on to Rome or Naples; pro: have a little time to maybe walk around Lugano or Milan; not as tiring as doing the journey all in one day?; con: using up most/all of a 2nd travel day and a hotel night used
I guess I'm wondering if there is an option I haven't thought of? Or what else we should consider in choosing among these options? Or has anyone done of these options and what are your thoughts?
We're also trying to choose our order. If we do Switzerland-Naples-Rome then we minimize hotel changes, but that puts 2 of our 4-5 days in Rome on a weekend. How do weekends affect Rome? Alternately we could do Switzerland-Rome-Naples-Rome where we could just come back to Rome for a single night and stay in a hotel near the airport before departing.