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Landing at Malpensa airport from JFK and wishing to take a train into Lauterbrunnen

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Hi Guys, So I've purchased bargain rountrip JFK-Malpensa airfare and promised my fellow vacationers to plan a wonderful vacation going to Switzerland, visiting my relatives in Friuli, and then continuing on to the Italian Riviera. This is in August this year. I have a history of planning really great trips in Europe but this is when I was much younger and bought full fare multi leg airfares and also rented large expensive station wagons - so now everyone expects me to plan an incredible trip but this time, at this stage of our lives (we have a 6 year old boy as well now) I decided to try to do train travel on this trip as I'm just not up for driving everyone (total of 4 adults and 1 child) all over and Milan is central enough that multi leg with stopover flights seemed extravagant, plus we'd need a huge suv and get tired with all the driving, so train travel it is.

Now, I will get to the meat of our train travel logistics. Our flight into Malpensa is due to land at 6:30 am and we're not checking any luggage, just carry ons. I'm fairly confident we'd clear passport control and customs by say 9 am but really who knows. I've looked at the trenitalia website and it will let me buy tickets to Spiez or Domodossola in advance with a seat reserved i believe (but I can't actually buy tickets for August yet so I'm just substituting closer in dates. But isn't it true if I buy tickets in advance with a reserved seat that then if theres a flight delay or delay at passport control and we miss our train then our tickets are worthless? But yet I read that all seats are reserved on these trains so i don't know if we can just arrive at malpensa and buy tickets to Spiez or Domodossola at the station (is there a train station and ticket booth even at Malpensa?) Once we get to Domodossola or Spiez then I know we could buy swiss tickets at the layovers at these stations along with a half fare and family card. So do i have to buy the Italian leg of the train trip in advance or can I buy day of travel?

Now you might say Oh my Gosh that's amazing that you maybe can get from Malpensa eventually to Wengen but then after 4 nights in Wengen I bragged to my fellow travellers we'll go visit my family in Friuli. I now regret saying this (and like a big shot I also called up told family in Italy so now they're expecting us) due to realizing its about an 8 hour train ride from Wengen to say Pordenone where we can rent a car for 4 days. This is all great except for 8 hours on trains. Has anyone here done a marathon train trip like that and is it a lot easier than driving? I'm hoping it'll be ok.

Then wife and I have become enchanted with the thought of going to Rapallo and bringing our weary entourage with us. So after 4 days in Friuli where we'll no doubt tour the Dolomites and visit San Daniele and other mountain towns we're going to drop the rental car back off in pordenone and attempt to travel by train from pordenone to Rapallo. I thought about dropping off the rental car in Rapallo but the reviews of the europcar in Rapallo are horrible (1.5 stars with all kinds of horror stories) and the pordenone rental car vendors all have great reviews so I think we'll just return the car to pordenone and take roughly 6 hr train trip to Rapallo. Anyone have experience with taking train from Venice vicinity to Rapallo?

Then lastly we still have 6 nights left at this point when we get to Rapallo (which we thought would be a good base to explore the I. Riviera, we did Cinque Terre 3 years ago so this time figuring to stay close to Santa Margherita, Portofino etc. But Rapallo is still over 2 hours by car and even more by train to Malpensa so thought maybe do 4 nights there and stay at Hotel Excelsior Palace as our splurge, then train to Como on lake Como for our last 2 nights because it should be a relatively easy transfer, especially on a sunday (our departure day) back to Malpensa to fly home.

Does this all sound doable?

Posted by
5766 posts

You get kudos for all the planning. One small note [our experiences] - the trains from the Lake Como towns to Milan on Sunday nights are usually packed. You can't reserve seats, as it's like a commuter train. So- just expect that you all may be jammed in and standing for the hour train ride. A small price to pay for such an incredible trip.
Safe travels!

Posted by
4 posts

Thanks for your kind and thoughtful reply, Pat. I probably should have added we're going to most likely be staying mon, tues, wed and thurs night in Rapallo. Then take a Friday morning or around noon train to Como or a town on Lake Como from Rapallo which I think is about 4 hrs trip. Then Fri and Sat night in Como or a town on lake Como that has a good transfer point to Malpensa. We'd then need to transfer to Malpensa airport from Como or town on lake Como for an 11 am departure back to JFK. So we'd need to get to Malpensa by 8 am. Probably taxi is the way to go here? Should be about an hour drive. But the reason I thought of Como was i thought it would be an easy transfer to Malpensa actually any town on Lake Como would be grand especially if it had a direct train transfer to Malpensa but worst case we can do the taxi.

Posted by
3812 posts

All train tickets can be purchased either in advance or on the day of travel; some tickets will always include a seat reservation while other won't.

Posted by
5766 posts

Regarding airport trains to Malpensa- [based on our experience]- your designated train can just get canceled , then obviously you must wait another 30-40 minutes for the next train. We had a very stressful experience when this happened, but thankfully we did arrive with sufficient time, [and the Milan airport seemed only moderately-sized and was not overwhelming. ] I hope you don't think I'm focusing on the negative. Our trip to Lake Como was wonderful, and we are going again this spring, but now we will set our schedules with realistic expectations .

Posted by
1223 posts

I'll jump in on your arrival day at MXP, as I did exactly what you are doing back in Septmeber (final destination for me was Mürren). Because Trenord (the regional train company in Lombardy) was on strike the day I arrived, I pre-arranged a car transfer from MXP to Domodossola. Took about an hour once we got in the car at MXP to get to the train station in Domodossola. I had also used my Swiss half-fare card to get a Saver Day pass for the day I arrived, which was very cost-effective for me and covered the entire train portion of my trip. I don't know how this would compare to a family pass (I was travelling solo) but you might want to compare Saver Day and Family passes if you haven't already done so.

I had originally planned, like you, to take trains to get to Domodossola, but the strike did not allow this. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise for me, as it was nice to plunk down in a car for an hour after a long day and night of flying and not worry about bus/train connections right off the bat. Perhaps you could look into this for your group.

Posted by
2331 posts

Just adding another plus for the Malpensa airport. It's refreshingly easy to manage.

Posted by
34172 posts

Have you considered staying in Stresa or Bevano on Lake Maggiore? Another nice, and different, lake with 2 islands with fabulous gardens just off shore. Perhaps more convenient for the airport.

Posted by
4 posts

Thank you guys for your kind and thoughtful comments! We have fond memories traveling to Bellagio on Lake Como many years ago but Lago di Maggiore is also so beautiful as well. The couple we're traveling with have visited Maggiore before and we have as well so this time thinking Como. Honestly our biggest hurdle is the long train ride from Lauterbrunnen to Pordenone 8 hrs, and also the other not quite as long train ride from Pordenone to Rapallo 6 hrs. I found that there are easyjet flights: from Basel, Switzerland to Venice and from Venice to Nice which maybe could be introduced as substitutes. Do you guys think longish 6-8 hr train rides arent so bad? Are easyjet flights a good idea or potential problems (never flew them before). These 2 long train rides are what is giving me the biggest worries. We could for example fly from venice to nice then take train from nice airport to Ventimiglia or Finale Liguria (stay 1 or 2 nights) and continue by train to Rapallo (stay 2 or 3 nights). In general, is it better to take short hop flights on easyjet and save some time but potentially have delays or baggage problems or have predictability and room to stretch elbows on longer train rides?

Posted by
21274 posts

It will take you 3 hours to get from Lauterbrunnen to Basel airport with at least 2 changes along the way. Easyjet requires you to be checked in at least 1 hour before departure. So with deboarding, it will be at least 6 hours to get to Venice airport, where you can rent a car and drive to Pordenone. In the end, it will still be about 8 hours, with all the joys of airline travel. Easyjet has cheap prices, but add in luggage fees, seat selection fees, and the prices are not as attractive.

I see it is 8 hours and 11 minutes from Lauerbrunnen to Pordenone with 4 changes. 1 hour will be spent at Milano Centrale station, so time for some brunch. You could short cut that by renting a car at Venezia Mestre station. That will cut it to a 7 hour train journey. Then you could return the car there for the train to Rapallo. That makes it a 5 hour train trip with a single change at Milano Centrale.

As far as from Malpensa to Lauterbrunnen, there is a train at 9:19 am to Domodossola with a single change at Busto Arsizio. Takes 1 hour and 40 minutes.

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