Short itinerary from Zurich to Lake Como

Hi,
I would do the following. Zermatt is a long day trip from just about anywhere, so I would rather stay there, allowing 2 nights.
The likelihood of clear days in August is thankfully quite high, and the mountain scenery around Zermatt is beautiful even if the Matterhorn stays shy.
As for the Mürren vs. Wengen debate, to me it depends on whether you want to go up Schilthorn or not. It is a bit of a trek from Wengen, but super easy from Mürren. Otherwise, Wengen is a little bit quicker to reach, but only by a few minutes (and there is one fewer transfer), and it is about twice the size of Mürren, but still a village.

• Sat: Zürich - Berner Oberland
• Sun: Berner Oberland
• Mon: Berner Oberland
• Tue: Berner Oberland - Zermatt
• Wed: Zermatt
• Thu: Train Zermatt - Como S. Giovanni (via Visp or Brig and Milano Centrale), then a short bus or cab to Cernobbio. Approx 5 hours with the best connections, and stopping in Lugano does not help.

Take a ferry up the lake. Walk or take taxi from Como S. Giovanni station to ferry. We did this easily, walking with our wheeled luggage.

I've wanted to do this very trip for the last 2-3 years. The problem is always getting from Zermatt to Lake Como, it usually ends up being a whole day of travel. Still, I think going straight to Murren for 3 days is perfect then on to Zermatt. I'm jealous, I would love to do this trip but we're already committed to going to Sweden and Norway next July.

Sounds good, thanks! I was hoping I was missing a secret faster route or something, but sometimes a travel day is nice for downtime.

Balso gave you the order of travel—- head straight to Mürren or Wengen after landing in Zurich on Saturday, then Zermatt after that.

If you play with the train schedules, you will see that a later departure from Zermatt offers a good connection to Milan, with a shorter overall travel time. I looked at this for another person and here is what I found:

“The best train connection from Zermatt to Milano Centrale departs Zermatt at 13:13 and arrives in Milano 3h 27min later, at 16:40. Earlier trips can take from 5 to 6 hours (but still less than the travel time from Lauterbrunnen for the similar itineraries).” This 13:13 departure from Zermatt takes you to Visp in ample time to connect with the Eurocity 57 train which goes directly to Milan, omitting the usual transfers at Brig and Domodossola.

This gives you the whole morning in Zermatt and another chance to see the Matterhorn, since morning is often the clearest. The train ride to Como San Giovanni is very short, and you can take a bus, taxi, or ferry from there to Cernobbio to arrive by early evening.

Here is a map of the Swiss rail system ( showing the lines into Italy), in case you haven’t seen one:

https://cdn-doc.myswissalps.com/docs/default-source/rail-network-maps/swisstravelpass.pdf?sfvrsn=7788603a_52

Thanks, Lola! That's super helpful and I appreciate the additional info!