Lake & Dolomites Itinerary Help

If after Varenna on lake Como you plan to do the Dolomites I recommend you get a rental car at the Milan station and go by car. After a couple of nights in Varenna, you could proceed north to the Valtellina and make your way to the Dolomites via the Stelvio pass. From the pass you would come down to the High Adige Valley into Merano/Meran. Merano is a pretty city to visit for a bit, but for the Dolomites proper I recommend the Val Gardena (Gardena Valley). Ortisei in particular is my favorite as it is slightly bigger than the other villages and it's the hub in the valley. That is an excellent base for the area.
I know Rick Steves loves Castelrotto in the Alpe di Siusi, but that is not technically the Dolomites yet and frankly I don't think it's as beautiful as the Val Gardena. He must be receiving a kick back from some local hotelier in Castelrotto :-).
If you absolutely must visit where Big Brother Rick Steves tells you to go, you can drive to Castelrotto from Ortisei in 20 min. (one day I want to have a video similar to the 1984 Apple MacIntosh commercial, with Rick Steves on the screen and everybody mesmerized at what he says).
If you stay at lake Como longer you can probably do without a car, but if you want to go to the Dolomites I highly recommend a car.
One more thing. Lake Garda, the largest lake in Italy, is closer to the Dolomites in case you want to visit a lake that is not on Rick Steves' list (I'm again throwing a wrench on the "1984" screen).

Roberto, thank you so much! As much as we'd love to have the flexibility of a car our whole trip the logistics of renting a car in Italy with a car seat is so expensive for some reason, and we decided not to lug ours from home. We read about Ortisei, and it looks like we can get to Bolzano by train and then Ortisi by bus. That might be a long day traveling from Varenna and we would have to stay our last night in Bolzano or Verona in order to get to the airport on time. I would be open to that possibly.

Where would you recommend by public transport in Lake Garda? I had heard mixed reviews, so I guess I didn't look much into that option. That would probably make the travel day between towns more reasonable. We'd like to spend more time on vacation that traveling from place to place (like we normally do).

Hi, I'll throw out this idea, just because the transportation time is so much shorter which would increase your time to enjoy being outside & it's all train - no buses.

Day 7 - head to Stresa on Lake Maggoire (1 hour by train from Milan)
Day 9 - Lauterbrunnen/Swiss Alps (3 hrs by train) Check out a map; the train route is almost straight NW.
Day 11 - fly out of Zurich?

Stresa is a gorgeous town with two islands, Isola Bella & Isola Pescatori that are wonderful to explore. Kids love riding on a ferry boat! If you love gardens, check out photos of Isola Bella. Stresa has a gondola to Mount Mottarone & even has some type of small zoo/park at a stop halfway up that your son might enjoy.

Check rental cars with a consolidator:
www.kemwel.com
www.autoeurope.com
(the above are part of the same corporate group, but check prices with both as they differ)

I know that AVIS charges 49.50 euro per rental for the baby seat. Europcar charges 20 euro a day up to a max of 60 euro for an entire rental period. The AutoEurope website above (on their the Italian site) says the cost of baby seat rental in Italy varies from 40 to 62 euro on average (per rental).

There are only 3 of you traveling together (actually 2 and 1/2), so all you need is an economy car. Last July I rented from Europcar an economy car (It was an Opel Corsa, which is about the size of a Toyota Yaris or Honda Fit) through the consolidator Kemwel for $283 for 14 days (2 weeks), full no deductible insurance included. You need a car for about a week, even with a baby seat at 60 euro, it can't be more than $300 for a week.

I just checked prices on Kemwel with pick up in Milan on June 11 and drop off at the VRN airport a week later for an Economy car with Europcar. The cost is under $200/wk. Even if you add 60 euro + 21% VAT for the seat, you are still under $300 for the week. That's not bad. Train tickets for 3 people are not going to be free. From Varenna to Bolzano it's almost 50 euro per person one way (kids under 4 get a 50% discount if they want their own seat, otherwise free if on parent's lap). Add all the bus fares in the mountains and the train cost from Bolzano to Verona and you are not that far behind the cost of a car, including fuel (and you see much more).

I am going to "second" Jean's suggestion of Stresa for your Italian lake town, but modify the Swiss portion.

The car-free village of Bettmeralp is only 1.5 hours from Stresa by train plus cablecar (departures at 9:21 or 12:21) and only two changes: one at Brig where you transfer to a train for the short ride to Betten! and one at Betten where you wheel your luggage onto the large and sturdy cable car for the ride some 4000 feet up.

The village is perched on a bench high above the Rhône valley, facing south into Italy. This is on the "sunny side" of the Alps, with generally better weather than the Lauterbrunnen valley. The village is so family-friendly it has won such designation from the Swiss tourist federation.

http://www.aletscharena.ch/sites/en/bettmeralp/families/stroller_friendly_hiking_trails.html

There are paved walking paths ( stroller-friendly if you want to rent one), playgrounds, a lake for swimming (cold in June) or row boating, minigolf, and a nice indoor swimming pool which we have enjoyed on rainy days. On hikes from the town you will encounter cows which delight your little one. Or ride a gondola or chairlift to the top of the ridge behind the village for amazing views of the Aletschgletscher, Europe's longest glacier. You can also get a distant view of the Matterhorn.

It is a 20- minute walk on a level path to the next town ( Riederalp) which is larger and has additional facilities.

The benefit of a car-free village is that your child can walk safely with no worries for you about traffic ( we found Ortesei pretty full of traffic once you left the small pedestrian zone). There are some small electric vehicles in Bettmeralp for transport of goods and luggage, but they move slowly, watching out for pedestrians, and are infrequent.

It would be quick and easy to return to Milan from here for your flight home, or possibly Geneva would work as well ( I did not check travel times).

Photos:

http://images4.schweizmobil.ch/image/Bettmeralp_589_a.jpg

More in another post.

The village and lake seen from above:

http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/01/2e/89/3c/la-descente-vers-bettmeralp.jpg

The glacier from one of the viewpoints:

http://images.gadmin.st.s3.amazonaws.com/n26194/images/buehne/bettmeralp__046_l.jpg

One of the trails along the glacier:

http://web115.sr14.firestorm.ch/images/aletschgletscher.jpg

The cablecar ride up:

http://www.funimag.com/photoblog/20060827-001.jpg

Have you considered flying from Nice to Venice? Easyjet has flights That run 4 times a week.
Flight time is 1H05m and leaves Nice around 11:20. From Venice, train to either Verona or
Peschiera del Garda. This is a beach town with good transportation connections via train, bus
and ferry. Train to Verona takes 14min.

WOW! Thank you so much for all your suggestions so far!
Jean, you read my mind! I originally had Lauterbrunnen valley picked, but this would be my fifth trip there. I obviously LOVE it, but I really want to branch out and try something different. Stresa sounds nice though, so maybe we could do Varenna and Stresa or would that be too much of the same?
Lola, Bettmeralp sounds nice, but is it too remote? I would want to make sure that there is enough to do. I’m having a hard time finding good reading on it or even places to stay.
Gerri, you also read my mind! Apparently Easyjet does fly Nice to Venice as I looked yesterday EXCEPT not on 6/2 for some reason. Ugh! That would have really helped my situation.
So now I’m thinking maybe Stresa & Swiss Alps (not Lauterbrunnen), Varenna & Stresa, all 5 nights on Lake Como and ferry around towns during day, or Lake Garda & Dolomites….

Bettmeralp is not remote at all, at least in terms of time and connections to get there. As I noted! it is only a 15- minute train ride from Brig ( a major hub) and then the 10-minute ( or so ) cablecar ride up to the village. Easier to reach than Mürren, for example.

The village is comparable in size and amenities to Mürren, with shops and restaurants ( most of which are in hotels but open to all), playgrounds, sports center, etc.

http://www.aletscharena.ch/sites/en/bettmeralp/index.html

We generally spend three nights there at Hotel Panorama and never run out of things to see and do ( hiking is our priority).

The next town over, Riederalp, has a nature center, small botanic garden, alpine museum, and a golf course, so it is considerably larger.

St. Moritz is as close to Varenna as Bolzano. Might consider this as an overnight on your way to Val Gardena/Caselrotto or Cortina. The drive from St. Moritz to Tirano, Italy is beautiful, then on to and through Bolzano.