Lake Maggiore to Geneva

It's unclear - You will be going from Maggiore to Annecy via Geneva ? Are you thinking of Domodossola , the border crossing via The Simplon Pass ? EDIT - you don't need to go to Bern if Im reading this correctly , there is a southerly option , more directly connected to Annecy with some nice choices for two days

So you are looking to spend 2 nights between Lago Maggiore ( where on the lake?) and Geneva?

If you look at a rail map of Switzerland and nearby areas of France and Italy, you will see that a “southern route” to Annency is possible but complicated.

https://cdn-doc.myswissalps.com/docs/default-source/rail-network-maps/swisstravelpass.pdf?sfvrsn=7788603a_56

If you are starting in Stresa, there is a fast route on an IC train with no changes, taking 3 hours to Geneva. The train does stop in Domodossola before entering the Simplon tunnel on the way to Switzerland, but I don’t know that it makes a good overnight stop. Never been there because we avoid the long tunnels on train journeys.

But if you want to take that route, there are some nice overnight stops possible in Switzerland, including a lovely car-free village perched high above the Rhône Valley, accessible by cablecar and a 10-minute detour from Brig. I won’t post details until you say you are interested.

People may well suggest others, maybe better options. But it would help to know your starting point on Lago Maggiore.

My post was not really clear . And then I did better research last night snd realized that we COULD take a southern route from lake Maggiore ( no hotel there yet ) to Milan snd then on to Turin. We could spent our two nights in Turin before heading to Annecy.

Any suggestions about preferred areas to stay on lake Maggiore ? Thank you so much for your responses!

Unless you have some burning desire to visit Turin , what you propose is not practical nor the best use of your time . I assume you are counting on a more or less direct connection between Turin and Geneva ; DB only shows a connection via Milan and then the train Lola mentions going through Domodossola to Geneva . ( 6 hours plus ) My suggestion is fairly simple - Take a hotel in Stresa , its beautiful , lots to see there . Leave Stresa on the EC train going through Domodossola ( Simplon Pass ) and change at Brig to the train headed west to Martigny . At Martigny continue west on the Mont Blanc Express ( easy cross platform change ) to Chamonix , two days there would be lovely ( Stresa to Chamonix about 3 hours ) Also , the leg between Martigny and Chamonix takes you along the top of The Trient Gorge , striking views . Leaving Chamonix going west on the MontBlanc Express , to Le Fayet St Gervais ,change to the train headed north toward Geneva but change at La Roche sur Foron to the train to Annecy ( Time on rhis trip 2 hours 15 minutes ) If Lola checks in , she will have some good ideas , being extremely well informed

Thanks for the compliment, Steven. The route through Martigny and Chamonix would be my recommendation as well, especially if they are starting in Stresa.

They could make their overnight stopover to break up the journey in Bettmeralp, our favorite vlllGe in the VLais region of Switzerland. This would be a short diversion from Brig—12 minutes east to Betten, and cablecar up from there to Bettmeralp. Or they could change at Mörel, closer to brig, for a cablecar up to Riederalp, a slightly larger village.

https://www.aletscharena.ch/en/aletsch-arena/places/bettmeralp

From either village they would return to Brig to take the westbound train to Martigny, changing there to the very scenic little train over the mountain pass to Chamonix. From there on to Annency as described by Steven. I believe there are also bus connections between Chamonix and Annency.

Thank you for all of the advice. Very interested to learn of Bettmeralp.