After we finish up in Milan Italy, we want to make our way to Interlaken area to hike around Lauterbrunnen or Grindelwald and go on some toboggan slides. What is the easiest way to get there via train? What connections are easier? I have searched trenitalia and the Swiss railroads site and they are confusing to me.
Posted by
Knoxville, TN, USA
7209 posts
From: Milano Centrale
To: Lauterbrunnen BLM
put in your date and time and press search. It's a straight-forward trip (4.0 - 5.5 hour), and we do it almost every year. We travel Venezia S. Lucia -> Milano Centrale -> Murren BLM which is just about 20 minutes beyond Lauterbrunnen.
Do search with the SBB website as the Italian (Trenitalia) doesn't recognize Lauterbrunnen or Murren.
Don't waste your time in Interlaken which is NOT in the alps. It's close, but an additional 20 minutes between Interlaken takes you to a whole different wonderful world of dramatic alpine scenery.
Posted by
Vernon, Canada
32350 posts
gisselle,
That's a very easy and straight forward trip. There are a couple of departures from Milano Centrale to Lauterbrunnen with a travel time of 4H:02M, and 2 or 3 changes. A departure from Milan at 08:23 would get you to Lauterbrunnen at 12:25, in time to check-in, have a fine lunch and do a bit of exploring. Use the Bahn.de website for researching the various solutions. There's another (longer) departure at 08:29 which arrives at 13:25, and another four hour trip departing at 11:23, arriving 15:25. There are lots of choices!
If you're willing to commit to a specific departure, you can easily buy tickets from Milano Centrale to Brig or Spiez on the Trentalia website or at www.captaintrain.com. For the tickets from Brig or Spiez to Lauterbrunnen, you can easily buy tickets at the station for the remainder of your trip, or buy them in advance on the SBB website. Just to clarify, I'm not sure "Lauterbrunnen BLM" is correct for the route you'll be travelling.
Note that there are two stations in Interlaken, and you'll want Interlaken Ost, which will be the second stop. Once there you'll transfer to the Berner Oberlandbahn for the 20 minute scenic trip to Lauterbrunnen. Which of the towns in that area will you be staying in? I don't remember any "toboggan slides" in that area, but perhaps I missed them? Are you planning to hike around Grindelwald (which is more of a posh resort) or Gimmelwald (which I believe has lots more hiking opportunities)?
Posted by
Rick Steves' Europe
16895 posts
None of the connections will be hard. Switzerland, in particular, often has the connecting train only a track away. Those search engines tell you the fastest connection points, so that you don't have to look at a map to design a route.
Posted by
OP
4 posts
Thanks for the advice. I really appreciate the help. I really don't know why it was so confusing to figure out. I did look up the Milano Centrale to Lauterbrunnen and it did show me a time table and trip of 3:33 hours duration so that was reassuring.
So we want to stay in Lauterbrunnen for sure because it's been recommended to us a couple times already. Then I planned on Grindelwald because this site shows a toboggan slide there http://www.myswitzerland.com/en-us/season/season-1-1/adventure-sports-summer/tin-toboggans.html Not sure how accurate that website is, but I hope it's true that there is a slide out there.
Originally we had so many different ideas like going to the Matterhorn, and possibly a train route similar to the Glacier Express, but we really don't have much time in Switzerland. Would you recommend other areas?
Posted by
Knoxville, TN, USA
7209 posts
Yes, indeed there is a summer tobboggan run in Grindelwald. Here is the direct website:
http://www.pfingstegg.ch/index.php/en/
Read what others have written about their experience:
Posted by
OP
4 posts
Thanks Tim! That's some great information.
Posted by
Green Bay
21140 posts
You might want to just go to Grindelwald instead of Lauterbrunnen. Depends on what else is on your to-do list. Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen are in adjacent valleys. In fact, the train from Interlaken splits at the junction of Zwei Luetchinen, with half the train going to Lauterbrunnen and half going to Grindelwald. They are also connected "over-the-top" by the Wengneralpbahn. All that traveling can get expensive. You can look at a Berner Oberland pass or some type of Swiss Travel Pass or Half fare Card.
Posted by
OP
4 posts
Yeah, we were thinking about getting the Swiss travel pass for that reason :)