Train from Chamonix to Varenna on Lake Como

I've never done that transfer, but I've done the Panoramic Mont-Blanc to cross between Italy and France. It is not set up for using as a transfer. There isn't space for luggage and I highly doubt you could get the luggage up the mountain to begin with. I believe there is a bus from Chamonix to Courmayeur. From the Aosta Valley, bus is probably the fastest way onto Milan.

Take the train from Chamonix to Martigny, Switzerland (with a train change at the border town of Valorcine), then to Brig, then to Milan, then to Varenna.

HK, thank you. We will look into a bus!

For that journey— as with the trains—you’ll need to look into two or three different buses taking 10-13 hours.

Day 12: Tour Over After Breakfast
From Chamonix, you can book a convenient two-hour shuttle bus ride to Geneva's airport. Your tour manager will help you with any post-tour planning, leaving you well prepared for the road ahead

It seems the simplest thing to do is bus to GVA and fly to Milan and then ride the rails to Varenna

Trying to do a ground transfer from Chamonix to Varenna looks to take 10+ hours

You are trying to get from a place North of the Alps to one South of the Alps, so you need to Cross the Alps. You are also going from France to Italy. And you are trying to use public transit in France to go to somewhere that is not Paris.

So unfortunately the deck is entirely stacked against you.

Route by train could be:

• Chamonix - Martigny - Brig - Chur - Tirano - Varenna. The scenic trout through Switzerland. Would need to break it somewhere though.
• Chamonix - Martigny - Brig - Milano - Varenna. Fastest all train route.

Partly by bus:

• Chamonix to either Torino or all the way to Milano by coach. The on by train. Would not be my thing,

Alternatively: If all you want to do is spend some time on an Italian lake go to Stresa in stead. Closer, and a lot easier to get to. Route would be Chamonix - Martigny - Brig - Stresa.

Try to see if you find a Flixbus from Chamonix to Milan. I would expect the direct service to be only at peak tourist times; at other times you are routed through Lyon and it takes a lot of time. But if you are lucky enough to find a direct service, you are in Milan in four hours or so. The route is through the Mont Blanc tunnel so it can be bus only, not on trains.

In Milan, the flixbus leaves you at the Lampugnano bus station, so you have a underground transfer (including a change of lines) to Centrale and then train to Varenna. While this could be the most practical travel solution, it does not sound practical at all; be sure not to have heavy luggage that would make it even more impractical. The point here is that travel in the Alps follows some itineraries, but if you choose two arbitrary points not on the same itinerary it can take forever.

Flixbus has a 715AM departure on select days, not everyday, that gets to Milan at a bit past 5PM

Some days there is no service and on others only a ~14 hr overnight trip.

Its really a 'pick your poison' situation, doing an all land transfer.

Good luck!

If you look the days just before Christmas, Flixbus sometimes addes direct runs to Milan in four hours. But not only the runs are not daily, they are limited to periods in which high tourist traffic is expected.

We've taken the train (it's actually a bus to Vallorcine) from Chamonix to Visp where we changed trains to go north to Murren. There was nice scenery on that route which will continue on to Milan.

I love Varenna and Lake Como!

(it's actually a bus to Vallorcine)

It is a train, unless the the trainline is shut down for repairs. Depends on the time of year.

Also look at busses to Torino. In Torino the bus drops you one block away from the Torino Porta Susa station.

From there you can continue buy train with one change in Milano Centrale.

Or look for an airport transfer to Malpensa.

There is also a public bus run by SAT that goes from Chamonix to Aosta & Turin:

SAT bus

Note that any connection through the Mont Blanc tunnel is subject to delays depending on
traffic. That is why you cannot buy a through ticket, but only one from Cham-Courmayeur and then
another one onwards.

From Turin you should be able to get a train to Varenna.

Note that a bus from Cham to Geneva takes about 1:15, and it's a 10-15 minute walk from the bus
station in downtown Geneva to Cornavin station. So the Geneva option is probably 10-11 hours
altogether. The train from Cham to Geneva is ~twice as long.

I wondered. They told us it was shutdown for repairs, but when I looked yesterday it was still a bus.

Thanks for the info.