Hello,
Would love to get feedback on the best way to plan to get from Wegen to Cinque Terre in Italy. We are looking to leave Wegen on August 3rd (but could leave on the 2nd if needed). We have allowed two travel days (with one or two overnight stops) before getting to Cinque Terre and would like to take a scenic route (We were hoping for the Bernia express, but not sure if this is the most feasible or realistic option)? Would love any feedback and/or tips on how to do this!
Posted by
Washington DC
27198 posts
There are a lot of possible routes for your trip:
Several sort of standard routes running fairly directly south, which will pop up if you just search for Wengen to one of the Cinque Terre towns on a rail website like SBB or Deutsche Bahn. The transit time will be about 13 - 14 hours, so even this would be better as a 2-day trip. Someone else here can probably suggest which of those options would be the most picturesque.
A detour through Chur and Tirano to allow you to experience the Bernina Express route (with or without the specific BE train, which I think runs only once a day)
A somewhat shorter detour through Locarno and Domodossala (Italy), between which you'd be able to experience the picturesque Centovalli rail line. I've done that trip twice, though not recently, and really like it. I'm sure the Bernina Express is more dramatic, but the Centovalli shows up on lists of the best rail trips in Europe.
You can play around with the Deutsche Bahn website (which I find easier to use than others for initial research), clicking the gray "Further Options" button, then using "Add intermediate stops" on the next screen. You enter a specific stopover time if you want to.
For the Bernina Express route, your stops should be Chur and Tirano. I think any sane person would want to overnight somewhere along that route. Once you decide on where you'd like to do that, you may be able to use that location instead of Chur on the itinerary, but do verify that you're still getting the Chur-Tirano leg. Just "Chur" doesn't produce that route; it sends you to Chur and then back west through Zurich!
There's a wide range of trip lengths for that routing (15+ to 22+ hours), and it looks like you'd need to take the 8:33 AM departure from Wengen to avoid an incredibly long trip. I'd probably depart at 8:03 AM instead, to buy myself a bit of time in case something very odd happened on one of the connections (would be shockingly rare in Switzerland). You will in any case have a large number of connections to make, so I hope you are traveling light and are good at paying attention to where you are at all times! The Swiss connections are usually very quick.
To take a look at a routing that includes the Centovalli trip, use Locarno and Domodossala as intermediate stops. This is a 13- to 14-hour trip (I used Monterosso as the destination), doable in one day only if you can check into your CT lodgings quite late, so an overnight along the way would be a lot more pleasant. Either Bellinzona (less touristy) or Locarno (on a lake) would be fine.
Posted by
OP
Nova Scotia
2 posts
Thank you so much for your help! Thinking we may do an overnight in Chur and in Milan....Does that make sense?
Posted by
Washington DC
27198 posts
Schedule-wise, Chur works, but I've never been there so can't vouch for its desirability from the tourism standpoint.
Certainly Milan has things to see. If you want to see The Last Supper, check into the ticketing situation as that definitely sells out rapidly.