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Travel from Milan to Bern, Lyon and Lake Como, Itinerary help request

Posted by on

Good Morning,

My husband and I got a great deal on a flight to Milan at the end of April (April 25-May 4) and now we’re trying to figure out what to do while we are there. Here’s our possible itinerary. I would love your opinions! Do you think these destinations are too far apart for the length of our trip? Will the weather be good for touring that area? Would you suggest any alternative cities/areas, instead? Should we skip Switzerland and just do Milan, Lyon and Lake Como? Thank you!

Some background on us: We’ve been to Italy once before and saw most of the big spots south of Milan. We have never been to Milan. We LOVED Cinque Terre, Siena, and Rome. We don’t really have a desire to see Venice on this trip. We love good food, hiking, nature, farmers markets, music, etc.

25 - get to Milan around noon, sleep in Milan

26 - travel to bern, sleep in bern

27 - full day bern, sleep in bern

28 - travel to lyon, sleep in lyon

29 - full day lyon, sleep in lyon

30 - full day lyon, sleep in lyon

1 - travel to lake como, sleep in lake como

2 - full day lake como, sleep in lake como

3 - full day lake como, sleep in lake como

4 - travel back to milan from lake como and head home

Thank you for any suggestions or opinions you might have :)

Posted by
8889 posts

Your choice of locations is a bit strange.

  • Bern 2 nights. That is a very nice city, but you don't go to Switzerland for it's cities, you go there for the mountains. Picvk, Luzern, one of the places in the Berner Oberland above Interlaken (Grindelwald, Lauterbrunnen, Wengen, Mürren, ...), or Zermatt.
  • Lyon 3 nights. Why Lyon? you are going a long way west just to double back to Milan.
  • Lake Como 3 nights. You need to pick a location on Lake Como. "sleep in lake como" you would get very wet! Which location you choose affects how easy it is to get too or from. I would recoment Stresa on Lago Maggiore. Lovelly lake, with boats and places to visit, and on the main rail line from Switzerland to Milan, convenient for Milan Malpensa airport.
Posted by
16893 posts

Train schedule notes: The fast Milan-Paris TGV trains are not stopping in Lyon, except for the 6:00 a.m. departure (which also seems to be hard to buy online). So that route takes about 6.5 hours with a connection at Chambery (France) or in Switzerland. These train tickets can be expensive if not purchased in advance; currently they start at €50 per person. In the reverse direction, the direct train to Milan leaves Lyon at 8:30 a.m., so it's a little more attractive. From Milan to Varenna on Lake Como is an additional hour. To compare, connections from Milan to the Lauterbrunnen area take about 4 hours.

How to Look Up Train Schedules and Routes Online gives you the DB train schedule link and tips for using it. However, for local trains running along Lake Como, such as Milan-Varenna-Tirano, see either the Swiss rail site www.sbb.ch or the Italian www.trenitalia.com; these sites also sell tickets for their countries.

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