Hi
Planning (or dreaming) for a trip in June. Would like to combine trips to Italy and Switerzerland - or rather the Alps. Like easy walks to accomodate range in age 80-17. Like smaller cities . Goal for Switzerland is to see Alps. Thinking of Bernise Express or Galcier Express . I would like to add a stay on one of the lakes. Can anyone suggest a one week iternary for Venice and alps? Any expreoences with Bern? express . Thanks so much
Diane
Posted by
Green Bay
21370 posts
I would suggest that for one week, stay in Italy. Venice, Lake Garda, Dolomites. That would certainly be enough in one week and they are all close together.
Posted by
Long Beach, California, USA
3398 posts
If you only have a week I would choose one country or the other. You will kill most of a day of your trip travelling between Italy, and Switzerland. That said, it is possible to spend time in both if you stay in the corner of Switzerland, France and Italy that are just over the border from each other near Aosta and Verbier. The alps in this area are beautiful. You can experience Mont Blanc and Chamonix with easy walks via gondolas - spectacular views! Verbier, Switzerland is about an hour and a half by car from Chamonix and that town also has great gondolas that will put you up very high into a wide-ranging area called "The 5 Valleys" with beautiful walks and views to die for! From Verbier you can travel about an hour north to Zermatt or cross over to the Berner Oberland - about 1.5 hours from Verbier.
Just a suggestion for a few places where you can get what you want without too much travelling!
Posted by
Northbrook, Illinois, USA
316 posts
Hi,
We did this in July/Aug 2013. Started trip in Florence, then went up to Varenna which was on the train line. Stayed in Varenna on Lake Como for two nights, then got back on the same train line north to Tirano where we boarded the Bernina Express (there are two train stations, side by side, and you walk from one next door to the BE). The BE stops in Chur around dinner time. We had been on the train most of the day so Chur made sense for a meal and a charming hotel. We walked from train to hotel, stayed one night, spent a day in Chur up in the Alps via the local cable car, then went to Zurich the next day and flew home from Zurich.
I would imagine you could cover a wider area with a car, but I like the trains in Europe - very easy. Chur was pretty cool, not sure how far it is from Bern.
The Bernina Express is not to be missed! I don't have experience with the Glacier Express.
You can send me a private message if you want some specifics on what we did. Our ages were 50s (my husband and I) and three teenage sons. We DID see quite a few "seniors" up on the mountains in Chur. It's an easy cable ride up and they were hiking around all over the place!
Happy travels.