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Switzerland-Rome-Salzburg itinerary and train queries

Below is our 2 week itinerary of visiting Switzerland, Rome and Salzburg, based on input from several in this great forum.
Need help planning what to do when in Wengen vs. Interlaken?

For train journeys, confirming below and have some queries. We are family of 4 with each carrying a suitcase. Hoping this is all doable? This is our first time and never travelled via trains in Europe.
1. Luzern to Wengen
will need to take 3 trains; take Luzern to Interlaken; Interlaken to Lauterbrunenn; Lauterbrunenn to Wengen

  1. Interlaken to Florence
    we will book 2 sets of separate tickets - Interlaken to Spiez and Speiz to Florence. Here are the train timings we got -
    Interlaken Ost to Speiz - IC 61, 7:00 am-7:21 am, arriving in Spitz ;
    Speiz to Florence - EC 51, 8:05 am-10:37 am, arriving in Milano; Frecciarossa 9525, 11:20-12:59, arriving in Florence
    For Interlaken to Speiz, we will use the Swiss Travel Pass.
    For Speiz to Florence, which website do we use to book? sbh nor trenitalia show it. We though see above trains through trainline.eu. Is this website good? And how do we use Swiss travel pass from Speiz to Florence until the Swiss border?

  2. Rome to Salzburg
    We have the overnight train which we will book via nighjet.
    6:58pm-6:15 at https://www.nightjet.com/en/

  3. Salzburg to Zurich
    We have direct train which we will book through OEBB.
    3:56-9:20 pm at https://tickets.oebb.at/en/ticket/offer


Day 1
Travel US to Zurich

Day 2
Reach Zurich in morning
Zurich airport Flughafen station to Lucerne -70 mins, by train
Lucerne, stay overnight

Day 3
Lucerne, ship ride to check fjords, Mt Pilatus, Mt Rigi
Leave for Wengen in evening
Stay overnight in Wengen

Day 4
Wengen

Day 5
Wengen

Day 6
Travel to Interlaken
Interlaken-Jungfrau, 2 hrs; lauterbrunnen-Staubbach falls, on way to Jungfrau
Stay overnight in Interlaken

Day 7
Travel to Florence
Stay overnight in Florence

Day 8
Pisa
Leave for Rome
Stay overnight in Rome

Day 9
Rome

Day 10
Rome

Day 11
Leave for Salzburg
Stay overnight in Salzburg

Day 12
Salzburg

Day 13
Salzburg-Zurich, via train
Stay overnight in Zurich

Day 14
Travel back to US

Posted by
20081 posts

For Speiz to Florence, which website do we use to book? sbh nor trenitalia show it. We though see above trains through trainline.eu. Is this website good? And how do we use Swiss travel pass from Speiz to Florence until the Swiss border?

It is up on Trenitalia, just make sure you use the proper spelling. Its Spiez and Firenze S. M. Novella.
However, if you have a valid Swiss Travel Pass, you can save by booking the same EC 51 train from Domodossola to Florence. You do not need to book tickets for Switzerland, just get on the trains. You will have seat reservations for the Domodossola to Milan section, so you might as well sit in them when you board in Spiez.

Posted by
451 posts

You have Day 6 and some locations out of order.

Day 6
Travel to Interlaken
Interlaken-Jungfrau, 2 hrs; lauterbrunnen-Staubbach falls, on way to Jungfrau
Stay overnight in Interlaken.

Day 4 and 5 you are in Wengen which is on the mountain rail road up to Jungfrau. Spend day 6 in Wengen and take an early train up to the Jungfrau from there.

You have some long train rides Rome - Salzburg and then Salzburg Lucern.

At the end most people on here would spend the last night in Lucern and take the train roughly an hour ride to the airport.

Posted by
7 posts

Thanks Sam. I see now on trenitalia and will go ahead and book the Domodossola to Florence + will reserve the seats.
Now how do I reserve seats until Domodossola with swiss travel pass? Is there a way? To make sure nobody has reserved the seats for that section of the journey? And we can sit in those seats from Spiez to Florence?

Thanks csu15269. Is it even worth staying in Interlaken? We are staying there to see things around it. If all is in the mountain then we can as well continue to stay in Wengen.

Thanks.

Posted by
20081 posts

When you purchase tickets for Italian mainline trains, Freccia, EC and IC trains, the seat reservation is automatically included in the price. So you don't buy separate reservations.
The connecting Frecciarosso from Milan to Florence is a separate train and will include separate seat reservations.

Swiss trains only sell seat reservations at your option for 5 CHF. Usually, Swiss don't get seat reservations. Probably the only people who will have seat reservations are those continuing on to Italy and also have included seat reservations. So there may be people who jumped on the train and getting off in Switzerland. If they are sitting in your seats, you could ask them politely to move, or just sit nearby and take those seats when they get off.

Posted by
7 posts

Thanks, got it.

I am trying to buy swiss travel pass from sbb.ch. For some reason, it does not accept any of my credit cards. All come back as payment failed? Has anybody else faced this problem?

Posted by
8889 posts

Buying Swiss Pass from SBB website: Have you told your bank that you will be making foreign transactions? Anything bought on the SBB (or any other Swiss website) is booked in Switzerland, which may trigger your banks fraud alert.
If not, you can buy your passes at Zürich airport station when you arrive for exactly the same price. but if your bank is still blocking foreign transactions you will again have a problem.

And to reiterate what the others say: no reservations needed (or usually possible) on Swiss trains. Once you have your pass, just get on, find a free seat and sit down.

Posted by
20081 posts

SBB uses 3-D security. That means the card has to be registered with a PIN at something like Visa Checkout. When prompted during the transaction, you enter the PIN. Otherwise, American Express Card usually works.

Easiest, of course, is as Chris suggests and buy it at the airport train station when you arrive.