We're in our 60s. A daughter of a friend married a Swiss and they (w/ 3 daughters) live in Zurich.
We've visited them before. Just snagged cheap airfare for next April, into May 2019 ($430 rt from Minneapolis!)
We'll probably spend the first weekend with them. We're debating about going into S Germany (Freiberg) or N Italy (Chinque Terra?)
Have any of you made a short trip (4 day?) from Switzerland to ANY northern Italy location that you'd like to comment on?
Thanks
I've traveled in both Switzerland and Italy but haven't tried making side-trips from one to the other. I'd print out a map covering Switzerland and northern Italy (can be done from Google Maps) and play around with the train schedules on the user-friendly Deutsche Bahn website.
This will help figure out what might be possible and what just isn't practical. For example, from Zurich to the Cinque Terre will take between 7 and 8 hours each way. Not good.
I'm looking to do a 4 day trip. Not a day trip.
Flying and train are both options.
Wow, great price on the plane tickets! We have traveled from Switzerland to Italy on a vacation trip. We flew to Zurich and immediately went to Wengen for 3 days and then took the train to Stresa, Italy on Lake Maggiore for a couple of days and then to Florence, Siena, Grosseto and down to Rome. We flew back from Rome. Another town that we like in that general area is Torino.
You can look on www.rome2rio.com to get an idea of possible routes from Switzerland to locations that interest you.
Have you been to Lake Constance (Bodensee)? That would be a nice spring destination from Zurich. We took the train from Zurich to a lakeside town this summer in just a couple of hours. Lindau and Überlingen are my two favorite resort cities on the eastern side of the lake that are on a train line. Mainau Island would be beautiful to visit by ferry from across the lake. The many apple orchards would probably be in bloom.
We’ve also gone to Lake Como by train, about 3h and then used trains and the ferry system to get around the lake. Favorite cities on Lake Como are Varenna and Bellagio.
If you’ve got 4 days or so for your getaway you can go to so many interesting places. Enjoy your planning.
Sorry, Evan, my response wasn't clear. I understand that you are looking for a multi-day excursion. I just don't think spending two days in transit in order to have two days in the Cinque Terre would be a good use of your time. Or money, given the very high cost of Swiss rail fares.
The Cinque Terre are not particularly close to an airport, so it would still be a slog if you flew to Italy. Don't forget the bit about being at the airport probably 2 hours before flight departure time.
We haven't done a four-day trip from Switzerland to Italy and back, but we routinely fly into Zurich to get to Italy. We like the Zurich airport and Inam always happy to spend a bit of time in Switzerland.
For you, I might suggest Zurich to Varenna on Lake Como (4 hours by train, via Monza), then to Venice (4 hours from Varenna via Milan). Spend two nights in Venice. Then return to Zurich via Lugano and Luzern.
Cinque Terre is way too far for a four-day trip. It is a 7-8 hour journey by train, as explained above. You "could" fly into Pisa, which is the closest airport, but the journey would still eat up most of a day by the time you do the airport security, and train from Pisa to one of the Cinque Terre villages. And that assumes there are direct flights from Zurich to Pisa.
Just so you know, its an 8 hour train trip with a single 1 1/2 hour train change in Milan to Monterosso, or 7 hours making several changes along the way.
Zurich to CT has no quick n easy travel solution. As Sam has already noted trains will take ~8 hrs and using planes does nothing to meaningfully shorten the journey as Genoa has no non-stops from Zurich, and its still more than an hour by train to CT from GOA
Logistically, Venice looks like a good choice, if you have not already been there.
Thanks for the feedback.
My wife and I have been to Italy together (and I, alone, decades ago) - to Venice/Florence/Rome (15 years ago).
We have friends that want to go to Italy with us in 2020. We may hit that same route with them.
Milan and CT probably won't be in the 2020 trip, so that's why I thought of CT.
We were in Spain this April (2018) and it was cold and rainy.
Milan is so much farther north than Spain that I'm concerned w/ cold/rain again!
P.S. I'm self employed, so I take rather short trips.
When I go to Italy, I always fly into Zurich and take the train down into Italy. I would recommend Lake Maggiore for your short trip. Several towns along the lake would be great to visit. My favorite is Cannobio. There is also Stresa, Baveno.....
You can take one of the boats all around the lake and visit other towns. If I remember right, it is about 4 hours from Zurich into Northern Italy from the airport with a change at the main Zurich station. Beautiful train ride with tunnels, waterfalls, chalets....great scenery.
Don't know how helpful this is but I have kind of done that on 2 different trips.
Once with a base of Zurich we took a train south to Lake Como ; stayed one night and then trained back to Zurich.
That was really easy and I think was covered all or most all with the Swiss Pass we had at the time since Lake Como was close enough to the border.
On way back, since we were in one of the towns along the lake we took a bus to a border town to catch the train back.
Second time was this summer, we stayed in Zermatt and drove all in one day from there through Italy to Eze on the French Riviera ; that drove us past Lake Maggiore (we took a break in Stresa and rode the ferry over to Isola Bella and saw the amazing gardens, villa and white peacocks while there, a perfect break from driving)
Anyway that drive goes south throught Italy until turning west in Genoa where it follows the coast until crossing over into France.
Point being that drive would be quite similar to driving to the Cinque Terre ; even longer actually than CT. If driving to CT, you would turn east when we turned west in Genoa.
I did not find it an overly taxing drive if you were going to stay 3-4 nights in the Cinque Terre I would have no issues with it and then driving back.
Public transit would be much longer than driving for that location whereas it was much faster and more convenient to Lake Como area.
We flew in and out of Milan, picked up car after a few days in Milan,drove and stayed on Lake Maggiore, drove to and stayed in Grindelwald, Switzerland, drove to/stayed in Pontresina, Switz( near St-Moritz,drove to/stayed in Bellagio on Lake Como, returned car at MXP Milan, stayed at airport hotel, fly home. This itinerary flowed very well and was a total pleasure.
