My family of 4 needs to get from Milan to Chamonix on August 15, by 4pm at the latest. RailEurope indicates "At this time, our online system can't find tickets or schedules for this trip." and the SAVDA bus site says "Travel solution can't be sold."
What should I do? We are starting a Tour of Mont Blanc that evening (group meeting), and MUST be in Aegentiere, France! Does anyone know of a way to reserve in advance, or it is easy to get tickets once we are in Italy? Grazie!
If you want to go rail all the way, get schedules at www.sbb.ch. That would go Milan to Brig to Martigny to Chamonix-Mont Blanc. 4 hr 47 min.
one thing to keep in mind is that that day will be Ferragosto, a huge holiday in Italy, and public transport schedules are likely to be minimized.
To begin with, DON'T use Rail Europe as they're not a reliable method for searching rail routes. Use the SBB site mentioned in the previous reply.
For the trip from Milan to Chamonix, according to the Bahn.de website your best bet is probably a departure from Milano Centrale at 08:23, arriving Chamonix-Mont Blanc at 13:10 (time 4H:47M, 3 changes, reservation compulsory on first segment which will be provided with the ticket). That will provide a bit of a "cushion" in case of train delays or whatever. There's an earlier departure at 07:23 if you'd like to arrive at 12:10.
If you buy tickets in Italy, they may only be able to sell tickets for the first segment from Milan to Sion, and you'd have to buy tickets locally when you arrive in the other stops. The SBB (Swiss rail) website should be able to sell you tickets for the entire route, but I haven't checked. Although your destination is in France, you'll be travelling through Switzerland to get there.
As the first segment from Milan requires reservations, you might want to purchase tickets in advance on that train. You should be able to purchase tickets for that at Trenitalia, CapitaineTrain.com or ItaliaRail.com. The tickets will be specific to that train, date and departure time, so choose carefully as they will likely be non-refundable and non-changeable.
I know there is a bus from Courmayeur to Chamonix, it was mentioned in Europe Through the Backdoor. :-) You could take a train to Aosta where you can catch that bus.
https://www.autobus.it/IB3.24.2/savda/Tabellone.aspx
Airport transfers are available from Milan - all the way to Chamonix
https://www.j2ski.com/ski_resorts/France/Chamonix_transfers.html
Good luck getting a route that works.
