Travel help from Lake Como to Munich

You may want to repost the Lake Como to Munich query under the "Italy" section. People who know more about the rail system in Italy can probably give you a better answer. From what I'm seeing, most routes from Lake Como go through Lugano and/or Zürich, with some requiring changes in Schaffhausen and Ulm. Trip duration varies from 6 to 8 hours.

Trains between Munich and Berlin run every hour, and take about 6.5 hours. There is one night train. You may want to consider flying between these two cities. Many of us find that we can't get a lick of sleep on night trains, and we need a nap upon arrival, hence killing the purpose of riding at night.

You can get all the information on German rail at the Deutsche Bahn website.

Because Deutsche Bahn does not get the train schedules from Trenord, it will not show you the fastest route. That is likely to be: ferry to Varenna, Trenord train to Milano Centrale, Freccia train to Verona Porta Nuovo, EC train to Munich. You can see that schedule at www.trenitalia.com. There is also a scenic route with more changes going north to Tirano from Varenna, then train to St Moritz over the Bernina Pass, then several more connections to St Margrethen, then an EC train to Munich. You can see that schedule at www.sbb.ch putting Tirano in as a stopover. Lastly, you can take the ferry in the other direction to Menaggio, then a local bus to Lugano, then EC train to Zurich, then another EC train to Munich.
All of these can take from 8 3/4 hours for the first option, to up to 12 hours for the others.

seth,

Travel from Lago di Como to Munich is basically going to be a fully day, so I'd suggest using the shortest travel time possible. One of the shortest on that route is this one....

• 07:37 Depart Varenna-Esino
• 08:38 Arrive Milano Centrale
• 09:05 Depart Milano
• 10:27 Arrive Verona Porta Nuova
• 11:02 Depart Verona
• 16:24 Arrive Munich Hbf

If you're staying in Bellagio, you will of course have to be up very early to take the Ferry to Varenna and then walk up the hill to the station. There are similar departures at 10:37 and 13:37 but my preference would be to take the earlier one as it gets you to Munich at a decent hour. One other advantage of the 07:37 departure is that you'll be travelling through the beautiful Brenner Pass in daylight (between Verona and Munich), a trip I always enjoy.

The trip from Munich to Berlin is very easy. There's a direct ICE departure (no changes) at 09:16, arriving at 15:20 which is the one I'd use. If you need to buy tickets in Munich for the trip to Berlin, try the EurAide office which is (as I recall) at desk 1 in the main ticket office (to the left as you go through the door). They have English speaking staff, and are very helpful.

Happy travels!

An alternative would be to to stay at one of the fine towns surrounding Lake Garda, you may save precious hours coming in from Florence and definitely on the way out to Munich.

Otherwise it might be best investing in a flight direct from Milano to Munich. Sometimes they can be had for 99€.

DJ