Switzerland & Dolomites/Venice with Family

d) No car needed in Switzerland.
e) Train from Zermatt to Visp or Brig, then train to Milano Centrale, then train to Venezia Santa Lucia.
f) In both Wengen and Zermatt, most hotels have electric vehicles to come to the station and get you and your luggage to the hotel.
Swiss train schedules at https://www.sbb.ch/en/buying/pages/fahrplan/fahrplan.xhtml

If you buy a Swiss Travel Pass or Half Fare Card, you can get the free Family Card and then the kids travel with you for free.

There are plenty of rentals in Wengen with full kitchens. We stayed at Chalet Gerbera and loved it. Traveling from Lauterbrunnen to Wengen with luggage is as easy as any other train. There are no steps up into the train, so it is even easier than some. It’s worth the trip to be up in the mountains.

Airbnb operates in Switzerland. You’ll also find apartments on booking.com. Many rentals advertise on multiple platforms. Some also have a private site (such as Chalet Gerbera). Prices are often better if you book direct, since the platform takes a big cut.

You do not need a car in Switzerland. You will need to use trains or cable cars to get to the best views, so you will probably end up getting train passes anyway, so there is no savings.

If you’re not staying in Venice, maybe it would be better to go from Zermatt to Bolzano. Rent the car there and return it in Venice.

Download the SBB app for train info.

BTW, I am just back from Zermatt, and "car-free" is rather a joke. Between electric taxi's, electric hotel shuttles, electric delivery carts, electric bikes and scooters, you need to watch out. Nonetheless, the rules seem to be, if you are walking in the middle of the street, and an electric vehicle comes up behind you, they will not honk their horn, but slow down and follow you until you step aside and give way.

I suggest you do don't stay at Cortina because of the construction for the next winter Olympics. Bolzano is good and so is Toblach.

Veg eating may be a big challenge in the Dolomites , Italy.

If you are OK with cheese in your diet, Switzerland will be no problem. Fondue (melted cheese and bread), Raclette (cheese melted over potatoes with pickles on the side), Roesti (cheesy hash brown potatoes, tell them to hold the fried egg if that is a no go), are staples. Plus, Swiss like ethic cuisine, so you will find a fair number of Indian restaurants. As was said, Dolomites could be less variety, but don't forget the Pizza Margherita, a straight cheese pizza that is delicious with just a light cheese and tomato topping.

Speaking of veggie food, tibits in the Luzern train station is a highly rated vegetarian buffet restaurant.
https://www.tibits.ch/de/essen/menuekarte

There should be a Coop in most towns in Switzerland to buy yours veggies.

Re: food - In the Dolomiti at the rifugi we visited
(while hiking alpe di Suisi ) you can order knodel (canaderli in Italian) dumplings which are delicious and vegetarian - served in three ‘colors’ (beet, spinach and cheese)

I can't speak for the Dolomites, but as a pescatarian myself I never have any issues in Switzerland - even without the fish options. I usually see vegetarian options on restaurant menus, and even hotels with half-board have always been flexible. The situation is much better than in many regions of France!

If you stick to 2 large suitcases, i.e. one per adult, and smaller items that the kids can carry, it will be much better. It is nice to have a free hand when you travel by train, and you might struggle to fit three inflexible suitcases in the boot of the car.

Zermatt to Dolomites is OK by train; I would take the train to Mestre (better than Bolzano for Cortina IMO) and rent a car there. You could reach Cortina that same evening with an early start.

Thank you so so much guys, this forum is amazing! Thanks for all your advice around lodging and food.

So far, I have booked only my flight tickets to Zurich and back from Venice. I willl now start making my hotel reservations.

One quick question - does anybody see anything wrong with my itinerary? Too many days at any place or too few? Like mentioned in my opening post, my main purpose is to see spectacular views, so don't want to compromise on those.

Also, looking at Zermatt to Cortina d'Ampezzo (or Mestre or Bolzano), nobody has recommended taking flight from say Geneva to Venice. I am looking at the train situation and it seems there are multiple changes involved. I am tad concerned about the crime situation in Italy - have heard too many stories recently of people losing luggage to organized gangs of thieves. Should I be concerned? Being into photography, I also travel with expensive camera gear and was thinking of avoiding train travel in Italy. Should I be concerned?

If recommended, I can post these questions to Italy forum as well but seems like a lot of folks here have done parts or most of my itinerary.

Thanks!

If you can get a very early start from Zermatt on July 14, you can get a train from Brig that is direct to Venice, so you will not have to make any train changes afterward. That means taking the 5:37 am train out of Zermatt, There is actually a 6:13 train from Zermatt that can make this connection, but it is tight. The reason I would worry about this connection of only 7 minutes is that the train from Zermatt arrives in Brig outside of the station in the street, so depending on where you are on the train, you have to walk to the crossing point then across the street into the station proper, then to your platform. The 5:37 will give you a comfortable 42 minutes.

Assuming you will rent a car for your time in the Dolomites. If going to Cortina, you could get off at Venezia Mestre and rent the car there. Venezia Santa Lucia is in the no-car part of Venice so you would have to walk over a rather large stepped bridge to get to Piazzale Roma where you could rent a car.

Of course, flying from Zurich is a viable alternative. It is 3 1/2 hours to Zurich airport, so with check in time and flight time, it really does not save any time. Then you would rent a car at Venice Airport. Zurich has more flights and is actually closer to Zermatt than Geneva time wise.

Somebody posted that there could be a lot of construction in Cortina for the upcoming 2026 Winter Olympics. I really know nothing of this, so it warrants further research. Alternative is to go to the Val Gardena, ie Ortisei, Selva, Santa Christina. This is my favorite part of the Dolomites with truly spectacular scenery. In that case, you could get off the train in Verona and rent a car there.

Nonetheless, the rules seem to be, if you are walking in the middle of
the street, and an electric vehicle comes up behind you, they will not
honk their horn, but slow down and follow you until you step aside and
give way.

That is because offcially it is a "begegnungszone". What they call a "woonerf" in The Netherlands (where the concept was invented). Basically this means that legally it is a pedestrianised area where cars are tolerated as long as they behave, but pedestrians have the absolute right of way.

Bascially the way most down town areas in Europe are getting organised these days.

i highly recommend you book your hotels asap as you will travel in peak season.

Thanks guys!

I went ahead and made bookings for Wengen and Lucerne, will block Zermatt today.

For the Italian leg, I am reading a lot about Ortisei instead of Cortina - any opinions on that? And would my travel from Zermatt change if make the switch?

I was going to suggest you consider Ortisei instead of Cortina. To get there from Zermatt, you would follow the same train path but only as far a Verona. Change there to a train going to Bolzano, where you can ride a nice coach (bus) right to Ortisei.

What would the transport to Cortina look like? I cannot compare the two as we have not been there. But we have been to Ortisei, and it is very easy to get into the high mountains there, with lifts running right from town up to both sides of the valley. You could go each way on different days. They are both wonderfully scenic.

I believe Ortisei has a good range of holiday apartments available, but most hotels and restaurants will have vegetarian-friendly menus available as well. Vegan not so much,but as long as you are OK with cheese and other dainty products, and eggs, you will have lots of good options.

Thank you so much @Lola. Where should i get the car rental from for Ortisie stay? I will have to drop that in Venice. Are they available at train stations? Would you recommend that I pick up the car earlier, say at Verona?

Bolzano station has 3 smaller companies, but Verona has several of the big ones, Sixt, Enterprise, National, Hertz. Even if you have to return the car to Verona, there are very frequent trains to Venice, not just high speed ones from Trenitalia and Italotreno, but also Regionale Veloci. They are just as fast as the high speed trains but make a few more stops. They will be cheaper for buying tickets on the spot.

Hey guys,

I am getting close to my travel dates now and was looking at travel options within Switzerland. I have made one change in the itinerary - on July 14th, I will be directly going to Ortisei, Italy instead of to Cortina d'Aprezzo.

Given our family of 2 adults, 2 kids (12yr, 9yr), which one would you recommend I purchase and for what dates given the itinerary above?
1) Swiss travel pass
2) Berner Oberland Pass
3) Half-fare card

Would you recommend car rental for any of my travel portion with Switzerland?

Also, I am planning to rent a car in Italy for the Ortisei leg. I am thinking of going from Zermatt to Ortisei by train - should I get off at Milan to rent the car or would you recommend I go all the way to Ortisei by train and rent car from there?

Thanks like always in advance!

Deepak

On the few occasions when we have felt we needed a car in the Dolomites, we have rented in Bolzano (at the airport). There may not be rental offices in Ortesei.