We are landing in Lugano but the car is at Milan airport. I understand there is a bus or the train to get to the Milan airport. Can someone please answer the following questions: -What is the price and time to use each (bus and train) -Do we need a reservation, we will have just landed and don't want to reserve a specific train and then have the plane be late -If using the bus, is it direct to Milan Airport? Where do we catch the bus in Lugano airport -If we use the train, what are the stations called at Lugano airport and Milan airport. Can we purchase the ticket on the Italian railway site? Thank you so much for any information.
Cindy
Posted by
US Pacific Northwest
10344 posts
Yours may be a tough question for us to answer, since I'm guessing few on this site would have personal experience doing exactly what you want to do. To make this easier for everyone, if you could provide some additional info and clarify the following points: 1) You said Milan airport - which Milan airport? There are two Milan airports, Linate and Malpensa? 2) Approximately what time are you landing at Lugano? (This is being asked to make sure you have time to get to whichever Milan airport you're going to, before dark) 3) There's undoubtedly a reason why you're landing at one airport, but picking up the car in another airport that's some distance away. But it's not obvious what that reason would be, and we might be able to give more useful answers if we had a little more background info? I'm hoping someone here will take a shot at helping you, but a little more info would help all of us - thanks!
Posted by
Catadupa Alamere, CA
515 posts
I just asked The Google: "train lugano to milan airport". The first page of hits gave me plenty of useful information.
Posted by
OP
Libertyville, IL, USA
7 posts
we are getting into Lugano around 1pm on a friday afternoon. the Milan airport is Malpensa. the reason for picking the car up in Milan rather than Lugano is the $500 surcharge for dropping a car off in Italy when you pick it up in Switzerland. We have picked up a cqr in Switzerland and dropped it off in Germany and the drop off fee is reasonable. thank you
Cindy
Posted by
Vernon, Canada
32212 posts
Cindy, I'm not completely clear on what you're trying to accomplish? It appears that you're flying inbound to Lugano and then travelling to Milan / MXP solely to pick up a rental car. Where are you going after that? It's probably going to take you the better part of 3 - 4 hours to get from Lugano Airport to MXP, using either train or a combination of train and Bus. From Lugano Airport, you could take the Shuttle to the train station. The trip by train from Lugano to Malpensa will be about 2H:25M, with about two changes (one of which may involve a trip on the Milan Metro to Cadorna station to connect with the Malpensa Express - there's also a "regular" train to MXP, but I didn't research that connection). From Milano Centrale, you could also use the Malpensa Shuttle (Bus) to Malpensa. Travel time is about 55-minutes. This seems like a somewhat convoluted, costly and time consuming method for simply renting a car. Note that for driving in Italy, each driver will require the compulsory IDP, which must be used in conjunction with your home D.L. Failure to produce an IDP if requested can result in fines on the spot! Happy travels!