Driving from Venice airport to Interlaken, Switzerland?

I haven't taken this route by car but know that in Switzerland you will need to get a vignette to drive there - basically it's a toll sticker for your windshield that allows you to drive anywhere. It's mandatory. Just pick one up for about 40CHF or so at a manned border crossing, post office, or major petrol station near the border. The fine is very steep if you don't have one affixed to your windshield - about 200CHF if I remember correctly.
Gas in Switzerland is very expensive and gets more expensive the further up into the mountains you are. Last summer we were paying about $160 to fill the tank of the Volvo SUV we were driving. Just be prepared with a sufficient budget!

Lynne,

It may not be "much cheaper to rent a car" as there will probably be a hefty charge for renting the car in Italy and dropping in Switzerland. Note that in addition to the Vignette in Switzerland, EACH driver will require the compulsory International Driver's Permit for driving in Italy, which is used in conjunction with your home D.L. You'll also have to contend with the ZTL (limited traffic) zones which are increasingly prevalent in many Italian towns (ie: hefty fines again).

Travel by high speed train will not only be faster (since no car can travel at 300 kmH), but more relaxing and you won't have to spend money to stay somewhere enroute. Travel by train may also be cheaper if you pre-purchase your tickets well in advance and manage to get one of the discounted fares.

Lynne, www.viamichelin.com shows this journey to be 327 miles and 7.0hrs to drive it. Lots of 40kph areas. Tolls and fuel are estimated at 111Euro. Plus, you must obtain the Swiss vignette at about 40CHF (32.80Euro). Then, add-in two more items. 1) you will most likely pay full CDW to rent a car in Italy. It is wise to do so. 2) dropping off a car in a country in which you did not rent it is quite expensive. I bet that it will at least match the train fare of one traveler.

Now the possibilities on the train fare. Looking 90 days out (late July). I can see train fares to Milano Centrale from Venezia Santa Lucia as low as 9Euro. Mostly, I see 19Euro as the limited 9Euro fare on most runs has been gobbled up and the next limited fare up is 19Euro (regular fare is 37Euro). Both of these limited fares are non-refundable. You can buy these tickets from www.trenitalia.com. For the run from Milano Centrale to Interlaken Ost, you buy the nice 51CHF ticket from the Swiss at www.sbb.ch. Regular fare is 88CHF ($100). Total travel time is about 6.0hrs. Note that the trains from Milan to Interlaken via Spiez are limited and you would be advised to leave Venice and arrive in Milan by about 10:30-10:45 so that you can catch the 11:25 departure to Spiez. You will change trains there.

If you are willing to make the effort and work with two different train websites and you are willing to accept non-refundable tickets, your fare to Interlaken from Venice will be about $75. Regular fare if you purchased the tickets there would be about $150. Compare all of this with your estimated rental car cost.

Thank you all so much for your replies. They have been very helpful to us in making our decision to spend this trip only in Switzerland,. We will save Italy for another time when we can devote the entire trip to that country.

So you're not going to Italy because you can't get a rental car??? That doesn't make sense. You simply step on the train in Venice and step off the train in Switzerland. The lack of a car really doesn't prevent you from any part of your original trip.

We are trying to take this trip with a specific budget in mind. Plus we are taking my 79 year old Mother. We all love Murren but wanted to add someplace new for us all.
Adding Venice is more complication than we want with her along. It would not be stepping on the train in Venice and out in Murren. There would be several changes of trains with Mom managing her own luggage. I thought renting a car would simplify that issue for her. However, that route on Google maps is packed with construction icons. Then there is the additional cost of dropping the car in Switzerland. We know Switzerland is expensive, know about the vignettes since we have been there 10 plus times. It is just simpler to concentrate on Switzerland with her along & do Italy on our own later.

Lynne,

It would still be easy to add a stop in Italy. You could (for example) fly inbound into Milan and spend a few days there, staying somewhere near the Duomo. You might enjoy having a look at that as well as the Galleria Vittorio Emmanuele, The Last Supper, Sforza Castle, etc.

Using the Malpensa Express from the airport to Milano Cadorna is very easy and a Taxi ride from there to the hotel would be short. If desired and you have time, you could take a day trip to beautiful Lago di Como and the town of Varenna (one hour each way by train, no changes).

For the trip to Interlaken Ost, there's a departure from Milano Centrale at 11:25 that has only one (easy) change in Spiez and a travel time of only about 3 hours. That trip is very pleasant, with nice scenery as I recall.