Affordable but scenic train from CT / La Spezia Italy to Zurich?

Do you want to do this in one day? If you want to se some scenery, go to www.sbb.ch/en. Put in La Spezia Centrale as the start point and Zurich HB as the end, then put in via Goeschenen. It will take 10 1/2 to 12 hours with 3 to 5 train changes. This way takes the older route that goes mostly over the Alps. If you do not put in via Goeschenen, you will be routed on the new Gotthard Base Tunnel which goes about 35 miles completely under the Alps. Gets you to Zurich faster, but not so scenic.

Another scenic train route that would follow the route of one of the world’s most scenic train rides — the Bernina Express — would be La Spezia to Tirano, Italy, ( about 6-7 hours) then to St. Moritz, Switzerland and then onward to Zurich. ( about 5.5 hours) You would want to overnight at Tirano or Pontresina, Switzerland near St. Moritz depending on the daylight. You can take a regular train on the route of the Bernina Express as the spectacular scenery is the same between Tirano and Chur, Switzerland. The train fares from La Spezia to Tirano run about $40. The regular Swiss train fares add up to about $85 but buying a “Saver Day Pass” train fare or similar in advance could bring that down making this train trip— which actually is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site—an unforgettable experience at a bargain price.
La Spezia to Milan 3.5 hrs; Milan to Tirano 2.5 hrs;
Tirano to Pontresina, Switzerland 2 hrs; Pontresina to Zurich 3.5 hrs
Cheers!

www.SBB.ch/en

What you see on Trenitalia is a domestic Italian train till Milano, where you will change to a jointly operated Trenitalia - SBB train. If you book this in advance it is going to be the cheapest option.. The scenic options suggested will all make it more expensive. On www.sbb.ch you will find the same trains.

What are your plans for Switzerland? You may be better of targeting another place than Zurich. Zurich is just a pretty standard central European city, just very expensive. You do not go to Switzerland for its cities.

Wengenk is making more sense than some of the other postings. Once in the mountains trees and rocks arranged in thousands of different ways tend to be very common -- with a degree of sameness. I don't know what you mean by "affordable" or even "scenic." We have made the run from Milano to Zurich. I would view it as scenic and affordable. Trains in Italy and even elsewhere are pretty affordable -- whatever that means to you. And I would answer your question --- with ---- YES.

Kenko's suggestion sounds nice, but when you look at real world schedules. Milano Centrale to Zurich HB is actually at least 8 hours. With La Spezia Centrale to Milano Centrale at 3 1/2 hours, you then have to add in a practical train change time 9could be over an hour) you end up with at least 12 1/2 hours. This route would be good if you did it over 2 days.

A Saver Day Pass can save considerable money if you have a high-mileage day in Switzerland, but those are not sold at a fixed price. They are released six months ahead of time at a price of 52 Swiss francs (or 29 francs if you have a Swiss Half Fare Card, which comes at a substantial extra cost). As some of the inventory is purchased, the price creeps upward, and eventually all are likely to be sold out before the travel date. I was able to buy at the initial price of 52 CHF for my own trip earlier this year, but I purchased the Saver Day Pass the day it went on sale.

I don't know whether the pass would save you money if you took a direct train to Zurich; you'd still be paying separately for the part of the trip falling in Italy. For a circuitous trip including the Bernina Express route from Tirano, it would be useful. To maximize your savings, you'd want to spend the night in Tirano, pushing all the Swiss mileage onto the day for which you'd purchased the Saver Day Pass. If you plan to move around Switzerland a lot, a different Swiss pass might be better for you.

I am starting to think that breaking the trip up over a couple days would be best based on responses I'm seeing!

And perhaps a stayover in a more scenic Swiss town on the way if there's one not to miss! We are flying out of Zurich but haven't made any plans for stays yet there... so if there's a better more quaint town to stay in for 2-3 nights we'd be happy to do that and just go to Zurich the day before we fly home on May 8.

what time is your flight out? Have you considered Luzern? Just 1h15 by train right into the airport.

Take a look at this rail map of Switzerland, with the scenic routes highlighted. Tunnels are shown with dashed lines.

https://www.travelswitzerland.com/en/download/swiss-travel-system-map-en-2023/?wpdmdl=14294&masterkey=63a023c8da36c

Any route into Switzerland from Italy will start in Milan, and either go under the Alps in a tunnel, or go over them by one of the “scenic” routes. The route suggested by Sam, the Gotthard Pass route, is highlighted in blue as #5. They show it as ending at Lugano, but you can easily reach LUgan from Milan, which is just off the lower edge of the map, below Como.

Coming from Cinque Terre, you can take a direct IC train from Monterosso to Milan via Genoa. There are only a few each day; the best is IC 666 which departs Monterosso at 10:33 and arrives at Milano Centrale at 13:55. (I used a date in late March as the April schedule is not showing yet). You can save 10-20 euros on this ticket by buying 3 months in advance, depending on whether you choose 1st or 2d class.

When you arrive in Milan, you change to a train heading into Switzerland in the direction of Luzern. For most flights from Zurich, you can spend the previous night in Luzern, only an hour away from the airport. There are various options for this journey, depending on whether you want to avoid the deep Gotthard tunnel or not, and also whether you want to spend the night somewhere along the way.

My personal preference would be to do both—-spend a night on the way to Luzern, and take the scenic route over the mountains instead of the fast route through the tunnel. If you wish to do that, the simplest option would be to take one of the direct trains to Locarno, departing at 00:43 after each hours. You can book this either on SBB.ch as RE 80, or on Trenitalia as a Trenord train. There are a number of hotels right close to the train station in Locarno, some on the lake with views.

The next day you can catch the Treno Gottardo which goes directly to Luzern with no changes. This departs Locarno at 9:33, 11:33, etc. and arrives in Luzern 3 hours later. This is a regional train and reservations are not necessary.

If you want to have a really nice experience, you could change at Flüelen to a boat the length of Lake Luzern (Vierwaldstättersee). We have done that and everyone loved it. If your are interested in this, I suggest you get Saver Day Passes (mentioned above—-buy them nowfor April travel and you should get the 52 CHF price. Then you are not committed to any route, train or boat—-you can decide on the day of travel, depending on the weather, etc. But note that this Saver Day Pass is good ONLY on the date you choose when you purchase.

@Nigel - our flight is 10:10am from ZRH on 5/8. We check out of the Cinque Terre on 5/4, staying in Vernazza. I would feel best staying in ZRH near the airport on 5/7, so we have a couple days of time to work with in Switzerland. We will have luggage with us so originally we were going to just stay in ZRH for 4 nights. But my friends and are I open to a 3 night stay somewhere along the route for sure! We do love cities but the thought of having some time in a smaller village by a lake or mountains is appealing for sure.
Lucerne may be a good option?

You could follow the suggestion at the end of the last post, taking the boat from Flüelen north toward Luzern, but leave the boat at one of the villages along the lake where the a boat stops, either Vitznau or Weggis, . Stay in the village or, if you are using the Saver Day Oass, you could ride the cogwheel train or cablecar up from the lake to the village of Rigi Kaltbad, for free. There are several hotels there ( we enjoyed hotel Alpina).

https://www.rigi.ch/en

Next day explore Rigi and the views before heading to Zurich at the end of the day for an airport hotel.