My sis and I, 56 & 64y, are heading to Florence for a wedding 9/9-9/11, and then plan to spend the next 8 days, 9/12-19, seeing some sites in northern Italy and Switzerland. We are flying into Florence and home from Zurich, flights are already booked so that is not changing :)
We want to do some smaller hikes, definitely see the Alps, see some old churches, museums and would like to include Venice, Grindelwald, Jungfrau, Interlaken & Lucerne and then Zurich. Would like suggestions on what to see & do, places to stay, things not to miss in these areas. Appreciate the assistance. Cheers
Posted by
4956 posts
1) What time do you depart from Zurich? If it is noon or later, spend at least the last night in Lucerne, an easy train ride to Zurich airport.
2) How many days do you wish to spend in Venice? I would think at least three nights, giving you five for Switzerland. It's gonna be tight!
3) Pick no more than two bases for your Swiss portion. Some of the places on your list would just be a base, not a special reason to include them, so I would read further to see what works for you. Maybe stay in Grindelwald (or a nearby village) and Lucerne only?
Posted by
OP
3 posts
thanks so much. We are leaving Zurich @ 9:30 a.m. on 9/19 so will most likely need to head from Lucerne to Zurich on 18th. Those 2 bases sound good - Grindelwald & Lucerne and was kind of what I was thinking. I was in Switzeland as an exchange student in 1978 and have not been back since. The places I listed are ones my exchange family took me to see. As far as Venice goes I think we may stay there 2 nights and after 2nd night head to Switzerland. I know that that isn't even enough time to see Venice but at this time we are on a tighter schedule, and hope to make it back again.
What is the best way to go Venice to Grindelwald? We were thinking trains, takes longer we know, to more of the countryside as we travel.
Posted by
4956 posts
I think you will change in Milan, but I'll leave that to others more familiar with that route. you might want to check out the Swiss train website SBB to begin getting a sense of routes, fare discounts, etc.
Trenitalia and Italotren for Italy travel.
good luck!
Posted by
Michigan
85 posts
definitely go by train. We did the RS Best of Switzerland last year but first flew to Venice. We took the scenic train via Milan/Chiasso to Luzern where are tour started. After the tour ended in Bern we returned to Murren via train which was less crowded than Grindelwald. We got lucky and on a sunny Sunday splurged and went all the way to the top of the Jungfrau - which was very crowded.
Start checking out Swiss train passes. We purchased the 1/2 fare card and the Berner Oberland pass. The SBB app works really well on an iPhone and you can load a credit card and purchase tickets on the go.
PS we did also spend the last night at the Zurich airport and were glad we had a chance to look around and find the check in desks.
Posted by
OP
3 posts
Thank you both so much. This is such great info. I didn't think of Murren but that is a great idea. I would suspect Grindelwald is very busy, it is so beautiful. May I ask what sites did you see in Venice and what would you recommend for a short, 2 day, stay in Venice?
Cheers jules