Hello! We will be on the Village Italy tour in September/October and plan to spend a week in Switzerland once the tour ends in Lake Orta. Looking for advice on how to get from Lake Orta up to Lugano in Switzerland.
Thanks in advance!
Posted by
Wengen
3114 posts
This is not going to be straight forward. You want to travel East in a place where the geography forces all traffic either North or South...
There are two interesting routes though. One is to take the train up to Domodossola, then the Scenic Centovalli Line to Locarno, and then a train from there to Lugano.
Another interesting option might be to somehow get to Stresa or Arona (maybe a car transfer), and take a boat to Locarno from there. There is one through services in the morning. Might a a pleasant way to do the transfer.
https://www.navigazionelaghi.it/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Arona-Locarno-1.pdf
Or if you have not settled on a plan for Switzerland maybe travel north to Brig first, and start your Switzerland there. You should not assume that in the Alps places that appear near on a map are actually easy to travel in between. Geography matters...
Posted by
Wengen
3114 posts
Another option just popped in my mind: I assume that a lot of participants in the tour will just be headed to the airport afterwards. So if a transfer to Malpensa is organised just ride along on that. From Malpensa there are direct trains to Lugano every hour.
Posted by
OP
3 posts
Thank you so much! Will definitely consider your suggestions - we aren’t totally set on heading to Lugano first.
Posted by
CA, USA
1327 posts
Last year we took the Village Italy tour. Towards the end of the tour your guide will arrange transportation out, grouping people into taxis to the airport or train station based on what time they need to be there. We were going to Rome via train and to make it easy we told the guide either was fine. We ended up splitting a taxi with other people to the airport, taking the shuttle train to the Milan train station, then onto Rome. You can tell the guide you want the train station if you prefer but it sounds like you can get a train right from the airport to Lugano.
Wonderful tour, BTW! We've been on a few RS tours and this is one of our favorites.
Posted by
OP
3 posts
Thank you John!
Great information - we will discuss with our tour guide.
We now have a change of plans. We will be skipping Lugano and instead heading up to Chur where a relative will pick us up. Our plan is to travel from Milan to Bellinoza (via train I believe) then hop on a bus up to Chur. If anyone has any insight into this new plan of ours please share!
This forum is awesome…
Kristin