Hello, we arrive into Milan in the morning and are planning on heading to Bern as our next destination before heading into the Oberland and then eventually east to Austria. As we are traveling with two smaller children, we'd rather not subject them two a 3-5 hour train journey after just coming off an overnight flight. Instead, we're looking for a small town within a 1-3 hour train ride of MXP that would allow us to recombobulate and settle before moving on, either on the Brig/Spietz route or the Lugano/Luzern route. We're open to something in Italy or Switzerland.
Posted by
105 posts
We were in Stresa last year and it was a lovely relaxing lakeside town. If you have time to spend 2 nights there, you can take the ferry to 3 different islands. It would be a grea place to get over jet lag!
Posted by
Arctophilia, Northamptonshire, England
36366 posts
Are you going Milano - Bern - Lauterbrunnen in order to do something specific or thinking that you need to route via Bern so that's why it is there?
If you go Milano - Luzern you can turn left and go via a very beautiful narrow gauge route - via Brünig Pass - which is much more direct than via Bern. A stop in Luzern is a very good choice. It isn't a small town but feels like one.
If you are considering Brig - Spiez, you turn right at Spiez and you are moments from Interlaken. You could stop at Spiez but you are so close. You certainly don't need to go via Bern and backtrack unless you want to.
Posted by
OP
2 posts
Bern is a destination, so we'll be headed there no matter what.
Posted by
108 posts
We liked Stresa too. Pretty boat tours of the islands and the castle on the 3rd one was really neat.
If you do that…Make sure you go INSIDE the building down at the docks to buy your tickets if you want the official ferry. There are flocks of hawkers out front that act like they are the ferry but are just private companies. The one we picked also did not abide by actual timing and instead seemed to go once they had a full boat.
Posted by
Green Bay
23073 posts
You can get a bus direct from Malpensa airport to Stresa.