Milan to Switzerland via train

Take a look and research a bit at what you'd like to see in Switzerland. You can start from this very same website. All of Switzerland is relatively easy to reach from Milan:
https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/switzerland

For travel estimates also use www.rome2rio.com to see approximate time and cost of travel to the destination(s) you want to see.

Once decided in detail, You can use www.bahn.com to see European train schedules from Milan to anywhere in Europe.

Then you can come back to this website forum, and enter specific questions on accommodations in Swiss towns in the Switzerland section of this forum. There will be expert travelers there giving advice on that beautiful Alpine country.
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/switzerland

I am happy to make a couple of suggestions based on my travels in Switzerland. It is my favorite country and what I chose for my 60th birthday celebration with family (husband and adult children). Two are small, pretty villages with classic flower-bedecked chalets, and cows in the meadows just outside of town. Both are less than three hours by train (and cablecar) from Milan train station. The third is a loop trip with more train time but some of it on the most scenic train ride in the Alps.

1). Kandersteg is a small village in a dramatic valley, large enough to have hotels and shops but not a city. It is a trip of 2 hours 49 minutes with a single change, at Brig. Above town there is a beautiful lake surrounded by granite cliffs. You can overnight at the rustic but very comfortable mountain inn on the lakeshore, and be serenaded by cowbells in the evening. Or you can visit the lake during the day. Either way you ride a gondola to get up there. Photos:

http://www.oeschinensee.ch/sommer/

If you want to stay in town, Hotel Adler is one possibility, an easy walk from the train station. But we always stay at the lakeside inn ( Hotel Oeschinensee).

2). Bettmeralp is a small car-free village perched on a bench high above the Rhône valley, with views to the south into Italy, and to the west you can see the Matterhorn ( quite small). It is 2 hours 37 minutes from Milan by train and cablecar. One train change at Brig, then you ride 15 minutes to Betten and board a large cablecar to ride 4000 feet up to the village. There are small shops in the village, and paths lead to nearby villages, or you can ride a gondola up the Bettmerhorn for a view of the Aletschgletscher, Europe's longest glacier. There are cows grazing in the Alps above town. At some point in the autumn they invite the cows into town to thank them and allow them to graze on the lawn by the little church. We like Hotel Panorama here and take half-board. The food is excellent.

http://www.wanderland.ch/en/services/places/ort-0154.html

3). The loop trip will have you moving each day, with a train travel time of about four hours each time. You will see more of Switzerland this way, but the towns/villages are not as pretty as the two I suggested above. Day 1 would be to go from Milan to Luzern, a lovely small city on a lake. It is a city, not a village, and lodging is more expensive there, but Hotel Goldenen Stern is a good option for reasonable prices. Day 2 you travel from Luzern to Samedan (2 train changes on the way) in the canton of Graubunden. This is in the mountains but the buildings tend to be stucco rather than wooden chalets. The village itself is not as pretty as the ones I mention above, but it is a good base for the next day's trip, which is a ride on the very scenic Bernina Express route. This is the most scenic train trip in Switzerland, as it goes over the Alps, not under them in tunnels. On Day 3 you ride this route to Tirano on the Italian border. ChNge there to an Italian train, and ride as far as Varenna on Lake Como for your overnight stop. This is a lovely lakeside town. I suggest Albergo Milano for your hotel.

Between the three options, I can never choose between (1) and (2) so we usually do both Oeschinensee and Bettmeralp. I mention option (3) with the qualification that it will be more expensive, and lacks the quintessential Swiss alp experience of wooden chalets with flowers on the balconies and cows grazing outside of town, but it does include the scenic train ride and a visit to Luzern, which I expect some people will recommend.

People may also suggest going to one of the Berner Oberland villages like Mürren, but that would be a much longer train journey. And not better, in my opinion, than Bettmeralp, if you want a car-free village with traditional chalets and gorgeous views.

It's been over 20 years since I've been to Switzerland, but I traveled there with my 70-year-old mother, so...

I'd try to make at least one of the border-crossing train trips a fabulous one. The Centovalli run between Locarno, Switzerland, and Domodossala, Italy, is great (http://matadornetwork.com/trips/14-scenic-rail-routes-europe/) I don't think there's anything much in Domodossala, so you'd want to plan for only a short layover there. My mother and I loved this trip. Locarno is a big old resort city, attractive enough and situated on a lake, but not what I'd call charming.

The Bernina Express between Tirana, Italy, and St. Moritz/Chur, Switzerland, is highly touted but I've not taken that train myself. It's a priced-for-tourists train with special viewing cars. If you're interested in it, the Seat61 website explains how to book it relatively cheaply. It would be another fabulous way to move between Italy and Switzerland. Before paying full price for this or any other special train, be aware that weather in Switzerland can be iffy at any time of year. Heavy rain and fog can roll in, sharply curtailing your view of the scenery and making that $$$ train fare a painful proposition. The same caveat holds for the costly private (cog-wheel, etc.) trains up mountains.

There are many gorgeous train routes within Switzerland, too. The rail system is superior (though pricey on a per-mile basis), so you can see at least a couple different areas of the country in 3 or 4 days if you don't mind spending the time in transit. Typical connection times are just a few minutes, so it's easier to make day trips from a single city rather than moving from hotel to hotel every day or two, encumbered by luggage. If your stops are in smaller cities/towns, you may not need more than 3-4 hours in each one. Switzerland, for me, is mostly about the beautiful environs rather than specific tourist sites.

Try to fit in a Postbus ride up a mountain valley or across a high pass, unless one of you is prone to motion sickness. The buses are great, but those mountain roads are something else. The Val Verzasca bus out of Locarno is considered one of the nicest.

A boat ride on one of the lakes would add variety, too, if time permits. You don’t need a day-long or even half-day boat trip to get nice views.

It is extremely difficult to find an unattractive city/town (or an unclean hotel) in Switzerland, so where to go depends on terrain preference and how much time (and money) you are willing to spend on Swiss trains. I think a day in the mountains and a day on a lake would be a good combination, but the rolling dairy country around Appenzell is also nice.

Places I remember liking from earlier trips include the aforementioned Appenzell (pop. 6,000; be prepared to smell the cows, and this is about as far from Milan as you can go), Thun (pop. about 40,000, on the lake of the same name), Fribourg (historic town of similar size, on a hill), Murten/Morat (walled town also on a lake, pop. about 8,000). Gruyeres (cheese!) is a much smaller town near Fribourg, but I believe it's quite touristy.

If your mom has mobility or respiratory issues, check altitudes and terrain before committing to a destination. It's a warning sign if a place has no train service. That often means it's up in the mountains.

For ideas, I suggest checking out the destinations visited by the RS tours. I'm sure they are carefully selected. Since your primary destination is Italy, you may want to choose Swiss destinations outside the Ticino. That’s the Italian-speaking area, which includes Locarno, Lugano (my favorite), and Bellinzona (convenient RR junction with a castle). However, if you happen to hit bad weather, this might be the place to head. It tends to be sunnier than many other parts of Switzerland.

Just so you know---there are many regional trains that run frequently on the Bernina Pass route, so you are not confined to the special designated trains. We rode a regional train and almost had a whole car to ourselves, which was nice as we could move back and forth across the aisle depending on the view. By buying the tickets is advance on sbb.ch, we paid only 32CHF.

We did this last September ( late in the month) and the weather was fine--not totally sunny, but not raining or foggy. The previous day we hiked around Samedan and it was bright and sunny. But of course on any given day in the mountains it can be rainy, foggy. . . Or sunny. You do not get to choose.

There are many wonderful places in Switzerland, including all of the ones mentioned in the post above. But I tried to limit my suggestions to the best places within easy access from Milan. The Centovalli Railway from Domodossola to Locarno would be another option if you like riding historic trains, but honestly, the Ticino area ( Italian-speaking region of Switzerland) does not feel as "Swiss" to us as the Valais, Berner Oberland, and other areas a bit north and more in the Alps. The Ticino looks and feels more like Italy.

But you should ask your Mom what she is hoping to see.

Thanks for all the quick replies. I appreciate it!

I've looked into several of the links/pages however, it appears I may have gotten the proverbial 'Cart in front of the horse"....do they speak enough English in Switzerland that foreigners who speak no German can get along or would that be a bit difficult ?

Learn a few basic phrases like please, thank you, may I, I would like, hello, do you speak English, goodbye in the local language and you will be fine.

So, that is the basic phrases in German and Italian.

Rick even has a phonetic micro phrasebook at the back of all his guidebooks.

People dealing with the tourist trade will speak enough English that you will be fine, and often signs are bilingual.

From your post it seems you have two options: starting in Switzerland (your mom's quote) and going to Switzerland from Milano. I would suggest flying into Zurich, immediately taking the train to your first destination in Switzerland (lots of cities to choose from, sometimes I just google "images" for a city or country to get an idea of what I want to see). Or get a guidebook with good photos (Insight Guides is great for this).

Switzerland is expensive compared to the rest of Europe, so staying in a smaller town is probably a good idea. I have been to Switzerland many times (usually a stop on the way to somewhere else), and English is widely spoken. Each of the cantons has a language preference, but German is probably the most common.

You could check booking.com for hotel or B&B listings, you can filter by price.

Zurich to Milano Centrale is only about 4 hours, so wherever you stay in Switzerland will cut that time down significantly.

You may want to post a question about what to visit in Switzerland in the Switzerland forum for more responses.

I always START in Switzerland and train down into Italy (a gorgeous trip). I fly into Zurich on Delta and take the train from the airport, usually change at the main station downtown and then usually again in Milan. I bought a RS Swiss Transfer ticket last time and it worked great.

The trouble with flying into Zurich is (1) it is usually more expensive than flying into Milan, and (2) if your flight arrives in the afternoon you might have to spend a night in Zurich before moving on. Zurich is a big city and not the charming Swiss village most people want. Plus travel on Swiss trains from here is expensive. The above-mentioned Transfer Ticket will get you to the Swiss-Italy border for around $75, but you must complete the travel in one day so no time is spent in Switzerland. It won't work for travel around Switzerland. You can get a train ticket online from SBB for the Zurich to Milan direct train for 21 CHF instead of full price of 82 francs, but again there is no time in Switzerland other than Zurich. You could travel from Zurich to Lucerne at regular fare and then use this type of ticket to go from Lucerne to Milan, though.

Travel on Swiss trains is based on distance traveled and type of train, and is more expensive per kilometer than say, trains in Italy. So to keep costs down you should limit the distance traveled within Switzerland, unless it is worth it to you to take long scenic train rides. Is your Mom limited in mobility and more interested in seeing Switzerland from a train than walking around quaint villages and alps?

I have been to both villages described by Lola above ( actually we were on the same hiking club trip 15 years ago) and I will say that Bettmeralp is picture-postcard pretty. So is the little hotel by the lake, although we only stopped for ice cream and did not spend a night there. These villages are in the German-speaking region of Switzerland, but many people speak good English. Kandersteg is the location of a scouting center that draws Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts/Guides from all over the world but particularly from England, Australia, etc., so you almost hear more English than German in the town. I do not speak a word of German and had no trouble at all communicating in English.

Flying into Zurich may or may not be more expensvie than flying into Milan (as always these days with flight prices, you never know). But no matter when you land in Zurich, you don't have to spend any time there at all. There is a train station right in the Zurich airport, with some direct routes to places like Luzern, and with frequent service to Zurich Hauptbahnhof (Zurich main station), with service to the whole country.

The same is true of Geneva, by the way, in case you get a better flight there. I flew into Zurich and flew out of Geneva, but didn't spend any nights in those cities at all. Instead, I took a train right from Zurich airport to Luzern to start my trip, and a train from Lausanne to Geneva airport to end it.