Piedmont - better to rent a car at MXP or take train and rent car in Turin or once we get to Alba

No. 3 is the most sensible choice. All others imply more hassle, more time, and more money (trains and taxicabs aren’t free). Picking up at an airport location is usually more expensive than picking up in the city center, but that extra rental costs (up to $50 more a week) will be offset by the saving of train and taxi fare for your party.

thank you for your input!

Just in case you choose a different option- you would take the Malpensa Express ( train) from MXP to Milano Centrale.
A taxi would be super duper expensive and probably take much longer than the train due to traffic

We are travelling to Turin in early October. Just as an FYI, we are coming from North America and our choices of flights through Amsterdam. Frankfurt and Munich all have flights to Turin.

If you end up flying to Milan (which would not be surprising, as it has the most flight options):

If you are first stopping in Turin for a few days before heading into the Langhe, there is an airport bus that goes from the Milan airport straight to Turin. Then use public transportation there until you want to rent your car and start your countryside touring. There isn't any need to take a bus into central Milan to get a train to Turin. The airport is already on the "right" side of the city that you are closer to Turin.

If you are going straight out to the Langhe, then just rent your car at the airport and head to the Langhe (taking breaks if you feel fatigued from jet lag, of course).

thank you all for your responses! thanks for the info on the bus from Milan to Turin also. I once again looked at options to fly from Chicago to Turin. The best flight option has a connection through Munich with a 55 minute layover. That scares me a bit. Last year we went through Frankfurt to get to Puglia and I think we had two hours. A bit of research looks like it can be done in Munich but has anyone actually done this? And if we miss that flight, I would assume there are others that fly from Munich to Turin. Do we eat that cost of another flight or does the airline help with that? We are using United miles for the flight. thanks!

Depending on day of the week you are travelling, Lufthansa shows 2 or 3 flights per day from Munich to Turin.

Hi Claire, thanks, yes, I just looked that up as well. Our flight from Chicago would get in at 7:20 am Tuesday Sept 24 to Munich, but after the morning connecting flight at 8:15, there is isn't another until 3:15pm or even later at 9:45 pm. Unless we want to have a stop in between, which we don't. So I guess its a matter of risking getting on the 8:15 flight or flying into Milan and taking a bus or train to Turin. thanks for your help :)

Fly to Milan MXP, especially if you have the option of a non stop from Chicago.
The drive from Milan Malpensa to Alba is not much longer than the drive from Torino Caselle airport to Alba. It’s less than a half hour difference in driving time. I wouldn’t go through the trouble of looking for a flight to Turin just to save 25-30 min in driving time.

thank you! Makes a lot of sense when you put it in that perspective. :)

Rent the car! MXP is driver friendly. Be aware of the automatic radars for speeding on the highways and when you get onto smaller roads and into towns be vigilant and you should be fine. Last year we drove problem free from MXP down through Genoa to the coast and then back to the Milan area and Bergamo before returning to MXP.

awesome! thank you!

We have done what you want to do a couple of times. We fly into to Malpensa, take the express train to Centrale and then the fast train to Torino. That train is under an hour and is a pleasant ride, quite inexpensive as well. There are a number of car rental companies operating out of the Torino Nuova station and it is generally cheaper to rent a car there than at Malpensa, but if you are not staying in Torino, it is faster to pick up the car at Malpensa and drive straight to Alba. Torino is a nice place to start your trip to get acclimated to Piedmont if you have time to do so.

If you want to take a train all the way to Alba, it does get complicated to get there by train even from Torino and car rental options are limited in Alba. One thing to note is that most rental car companies have very limited weekend hours at their non-airport locations. Most seem to close at noon on Saturday and are closed all day on Sunday.

As far as places near Alba to stay, we like Neive, Al Palazzo Rosso, nice small hotel with a very nice breakfast and wonderful owner.