Travel from Wengen to Cortina Italy

Have you driven a rental car in Italy before? If not, you should read up on the insurance requirements and ZTL issues in the towns and cities. We rented our car for the Dolomites in Bolzano to minimize the driving through Italy and that went well.

There are two main train routes to the Dolomites from Wengen: through Austria via Innsbruck, or through Italy via Milan. Either way you aim for Bolzano (or possibly Bressanone).

The Austria route goes Interlaken Öst—-Bern—Zurich—-Innsbruck—-Bolzano, taking 8.5 hours total for the shortest trip. Actually longer, as you need to add the time from Wengen to Interlaken.

The Italy route goes Interlaken Öst—-Spiez—-Milano Centrale—-Verona—-Bolzano, with the shortest total journey time being 8 hours ( plus the time from Wengen to Interlaken). That one Involves two long tunnels and a one-hour transfer time at Milano Centrale, both of which I personally like to avoid (but that’s just me).

If you decide to pick up the car at Bolzano, you may want to break up the long journey with an overnight somewhere along the way. I am planning a trip for next summer involving Mürren and Alpe di Siusi in the Dolomites, so I have been thinking about this. I have two choices under consideration: the Austria route with an overnight near Innsbruck, or going via Luzern and the Gotthard Pass ( avoiding a long deep tunnel) with overnights at Lugano and Verona.

We will be traveling with our son’s family (twin boys age 10) so that is driving some of our choices—-trying to make it fun and interesting for the kids. We will not be renting a car at all.

This is a long transfer and a bit complicated. We regularly transfer between Lauterbrunnen and Ortisei in the Val Gardena which is not terribly far from Cortina d’Ampezzo. It can be done in a day but is ill-advised and tiring. We stop in Milan for a night no matter which direction we are traveling. That is an option for you: take the train to Milan, spend the night, then rent your car (still a five-ish hour drive from here) or take the train to Bolzano where you can rent a car or take a bus to Cortina.

Another option might be to go via Innsbruck. I have not looked at this but you can play around with routes at www.SBB.ch/en.

Note that the trip planner on www.sbb.ch allows you to plan (and book) directly from Wengen to Bolzano (or any other place in Italy). No need to plan from Interlaken Ost and then add the segment from Wengen to it.

But yes, travelling the length of the Alps is never going to be fast. I would lean towards going via Austria if you plan on doing it in one day, as the Austrian railways are at the same level of the Swiss where it comes to comfort and reliability.

I have driven in Italy before so I will check out all of these possible routes. Thank you all for the information.

If we decide to go with the train to Milan and pick up a car there what is the easiest location to pick up the car ? They give several location options on europcar ?
I looked into taking the train to Bolzano/ Bozen but looks like you can only pick up a car at the airport which is not near the train station.
Thanks