Manarola to Lake Como

When is your trip? This month or next? Or next year?

The most straightforward route from Manarola is to take the direct train from Milano Centrale to Zürich. This train does make a stop in the town of Como and you could simply get off there for an overnight stop on the lake, and continue the journey the next day.

However, that is not the best part of the lake, so I would consider the one-hour detour up to Varenna--change to the Regionale train at Milano. We did this journey from Manarola ourselves a few years back. We booked the direct train IC from Monterosso to Milano Centrale, and reached Varenna in early afternoon.

One advantage is this plan is you might be able to get an excellent price on the direct train from Milan to Zürich if you book well in advance. ( We saved 99 CHF per person this). But it is likely too late for these discount tickets for August orSeptember this year. And you would have to make sure of the timing, as the trains from Varenna back to Milan are ot all that frequent---like every two hours. So check the schedules carefully.

You could instead head north from Varenna and take the Bernina Express route to Chur and on to Zurich, but that is impractical as a day journey unless you enjoy spending all day on the train.

Lucerne.
Great little city and lots to see especially on a short time period. Very close to Zurich, if you are spending a lot to time in Zurich I would spend more time in Lucerne and less in Zurich.

Given the time it's going to take to get to Varenna (probably about 5-6 hours), I'm not sure a one night stop is worth the effort. By the time you arrive there, it will be mid-to-late afternoon and you'll basically only have a few hours that evening to see the sights.

While Lucerne is a beautiful city, that's also not a good option as the trip from Manarola will take ~8.5-10 hours, so same problem with not much sightseeing time.

One suggestion you might consider would be to spend one night in the town of Como. There are trains from Manarola to Como S. Giovanni with a travel time of 4H:15M, so that's more reasonable. At least you'd be able to achieve your goal of seeing Lago di Como. While Como is not as scenic as Varenna, it has some interesting historical aspects (great place to buy silk items as I recall).

For your ongoing trip to Zürich, there are direct departures from Como S. Giovanni with a travel time of 3H:25M.

Is the city of Como on the lake? I like your ideas as given our limited time I really am just making a pit stop but would love to see Lake Como. Love your input exactly what I was looking for. Should I buy train tickets in advance or when we travel? Our trip through CT to Zurich is Sept 30 in Manarola 2 nts, put stop Oct 2 and staying the night of the 3rd in Zurich to fly home on the 4th

The town of Como is on the lake. That is why I mentioned it in my first post. The train station for that line is not on the lake, but you could get a bus or taxi to a hotel closer to the water. Or perhaps you could get a TreNord train that would get you to one of the stations closer to the lake. But you would still need to depart from the main Como San Giovanni station to get to Zurich.

Whether it would save time, and how much time, over going to Varenna, depends on how long you would wait for the transfer train in each case. If there is only a 30-minute difference or so, I would go to Varenna as it is so charming, and we love Albergho Milano and their restaurant. However, October is getting on toward rainy season. We were there on October 1 ourselves last year, and it was too dreary to dine on the terrace, so slightly disappointing.

As Lola mentioned, Como is indeed on Lago di Como. There is a closer station to the lake, Como Nord Lago, but that will be a longer trip than to Como S. Giovanni. I'd just take a Taxi from San Giovanni to the hotel.

There are lots of hotels to choose from there. You could check the guidebook or have a look on Trip Advisor. While in Como, you could also take the Como - Brunate Funicular up the mountain for some great views. Your trip to Zürich is not too long, so you could take a few hours on departure day to do a bit of sightseeing. Your hotel will probably be willing to store your luggage for a few hours after checkout.

Buon Viaggio!

I followed your suggestion but I already booked the train out at 11 am as it was the only direct train that I found. Maybe we will rise early and get to check that out. Just a quick evening in Como. Any suggestions for a dinner restaurant with great Italian food and views?

Also are there any evening sunset or dinner cruised on the lake that you are aware of that would fall on the 2nd of October? We don't arrive until the early evening and I think I have found a nice B&B.to stay at. We would love to get on a boat while we are there.

We stayed in Luzern last year on the way from Milan to Zurich. Real easy with a direct train to both places. Loved the mountain hiking on Rigi and Pilatus.

Here is an update about Como from last week with refugees being stopped at the border to Switzerland and sent back to Como. http://www.thelocal.it/20160819/refugee-aid-group-decries-confusion-at-swiss-italian-border