Traveling by car from Venice into Switzerland. Where to?

When?

They said arriving June 15.

rk,

If you're renting the car in Italy, be sure to obtain the Highway Tax Vignette when you enter Switzerland or your holiday won't be "budget friendly"! Also note that each driver listed on the rental form will require the compulsory International Drivers Permit for driving in Italy. Also be careful to avoid ZTL (limited traffic) zones in Italian towns, as each pass through one will result in hefty fines!

I don't know of any cabins where you'd have to supply your own linens, but you could consider staying in Hostels either in Lauterbrunnen or Gimmelwald. Those are about the lowest cost accommodations you'll find. Pre-booking the Hostels is highly recommended! Lauterbrunnen would be a better choice for cost, as you can park nearby. Staying in Gimmelwald means you'd have to pay fares on the Schilthornbahn, and pay for parking in Stechelberg.

Where to go: Lauterbrunnen or Grindelwald in the Jungfrau region. The other two names in that area (Mürren and Wengen) cannot be reached by car, the road ends at Lauterbrunnen. From Lauterbrunnen or Grindelwald you can get cable cars or trains up the mountains to do your hiking. Cabins would be further up the mountains and not reachable by car.

Example of a valley hike starting from Grindelwald (lots more info on this website): https://jungfrauregion.swiss/en/summer/product/track/55-zweiluetschinen-burglauenen-grindelwald/

The other "standard" suggestion for a Swiss short stay is Luzern. Good for old town, lake boats and also trips up mountains. But the old town (like all town centres in Switzerland) is pedestrians only, so not good if you have a car.

I know I am not allowed to mention the long drive, but have you checked out the surcharge for a one-way international car hire?

How old are the boys?

If you find the drop fee for taking the car from Italy to Paris too daunting, consider that kids under 16 ride trains and mountain lifts in Switzerland for free if one of the parents has a Swiss aaPass or Half Fare Card.

I just checked Hertz and the drop fee for a car from Venice to Paris is €600.

You can do this trip without a car. Venice->Milan->Interlaken Ost->Lauterbrunnen Yes, this is a doable train trek because I do it every year with about 15 high schoolers 6hr38min. The journey to Paris involves Lauterbrunnen->Interlaken->Basel->Paris on the high speed TGV at 5h38min.

Your kids (<16 years) will travel free with you all over Switzerland on public transport which is definitely budget friendly. The valley hostel will be your most economical place to stay. Also check airbnb for accomodations. Just because you visit the Swiss Alps doesn't mean you'll be scaling a mountain. There's much more to do/see than that. Also you don't rent "cabins" in the alps. You can rent chalets or hike to mountain huts, but people don't refer to them as cabins.

A long train ride is much more enjoyable than a long car ride.

@ Ken: Thanks for the reminder. The Vignette is on my to-do list, and the permit applications have been printed and filled out!

@ Sasha: Our kids are 12, 16, & 19. The Swiss Pass would cost us $1058 for 4 days, if that would even cover the full amount of time to travel from boarder to boarder.

@ Tim: Since I am not well acquainted with traveling through Europe, this being our first time, could you tell me approximately how much it would cost for the itinerary you quoted me? Because the Swiss Pass that Sasha mentioned alone for our family would run me over 1k.

Love the comments and recommendations! Keep them coming!

If you'd prefer to stay in Grindelwald (as mentioned in a previous reply), as I recall there's also a H.I. Hostel there. Having a HI Hostels membership may be required, but those are relatively inexpensive. The Hostel is up the side of a mountain above the town, so not as convenient for walking down to town (at least at my age), but it's a fairly large building with lots of facilities. I'd still recommend Lauterbrunnen as the most central location.

A few additional comments.....

As this is your first trip to Europe, I'd highly recommend reading Europe Through The Back Door prior to the trip, as that provides a lot of good information on how to travel in Europe. The country-specific RS guidebooks are also a good idea for planning touring (ie: some sights are closed one day per week), city transportation, etc.

In your last reply, you asked about the cost of doing the trip by train. Did you consider the exorbitant drop charge for renting a car in Venice and dropping in Paris? I didn't comment on the point of using trains earlier as you had stated "don't tell me about the long drive". Especially for shorter duration trips, travel by train is by far a more efficient use of limited holiday time. The high speed trains travel at up to 300 km/h which is much faster than any car, and you'd be able to relax and enjoy the scenery, wander about to stretch your legs or have a nap.

The cost for trains will vary. Especially in Italy if you pre-purchase tickets on the high speed trains well in advance, it's possible to get some great discounts. However, the cheapest tickets are non-refundable and non-changeable once purchased, and are specific to train, date and departure time so you'd have to be willing to commit to a specific train. Tickets for the slower Regionale trains have no discounts, so you can either buy those in advance or just buy on-the-spot.

There are some "caveats" to be aware of when using trains, buses and other public transit in Italy. For example, when using Regionale trains or Vaporettos (Venice), tickets must be validated prior to boarding or you'll risk hefty fines, which will be collected on the spot!

In order to provide more info on trains, it would help to have a more detailed idea of your Itinerary. To provide an example based on what you've posted so far, there's a train departing Venezia Santa Lucia at 08:20, arriving Lauterbrunnen at 14:55 (time 6H:35M, 3 changes at Milano Centrale, Spiez and Interlaken Ost, first segment via high speed FrecciaRossa). While that might sound daunting, it's actually very easy. I couldn't check schedules for the time you'll be travelling as schedules for the latter part of June haven't been posted yet. There are numerous other trains on that route, but the one I mentioned above is one of the shortest and easiest.

For the trip from Switzerland to Paris, the usual method is a regional train to Basel SBB, and then high speed TGV from there. There are numerous direct (no changes) trains each day, with a travel time of 3H:03M. The trains often arrive at Paris Gare de Lyon, so you'd have to take a Taxi or whatever from there to your hotel (a good idea as I wouldn't recommend driving in Paris). Paris has about six large rail stations.

I checked the schedules using the Bahn.de website, which covers trains all over Europe. If you wish to pre-purchase tickets, I normally use the www.trainline.eu website.

Hope this helps.

RK, check the route and fees on ViaMichelin.com. A very useful mapping tool for driving in Europe. As others have stated, check the drop fee for France. When renting in Italy, check to see that you have full coverage insurance with your rental. ZTL's are marked and easy to avoid if you pay attention. You can Google" ZTL's in Italy" and you may find maps showing which cities they are in and where specifically they are at. Definitely look into staying at hostel's. Some have private rooms. No recommendations on places to see since it has been a few years since we were there and we travel freestyle. That is, we drive and stop at places that may interest us.
Good luck

What is the quote for the rental car, including the drop fees? And the estimate for gas, vignette, toll roads, etc?

You can get very inexpensive train tickets for the international (cross-border) routes by booking 3-4 months in advance. Also from Venice to Milan. so this would cover Venice to Milan (around 19 euro for Super Economy tis on Trenitalia), Milan to Spiez, and Interlaken to Paris. So you would just be paying for the travel within Switzerland, from Spiez to Muerren or Lauterbrunnen, and from there to Interlaken Ost. I will have a quick look at representative prices for those journeys on SBB.

Another lodging option in Muerren would be the apartment at Chalet Fontana. It does sleep 5 people in two bedrooms, and is 245 CHF a night, including breakfast upstairs in the B and B. The kitchen is large and well-equipped for cooking. The grocery store is across the street. Dining out is very expensive in Switzerland.

Actually pretty much everything is expensive in Switzerland.

OK, here are the discount fares for tickets booked 3 months in advance.

Milano Centrale to Spiez on the direct train (11:23 departure from Milan), 29 euros Mini fare or 39 euros Smart fare. (Trenitalia)

Interlaken Ost to Paris on SBB.ch, Sparangebot (special offer) of 76 CHF for a non-exchangeable ticket or 83 CHF for one that can be exchanged.

There are probably discounts for families as well, but in my experience these discount fares beat the family discounts by quite a bit.

The Swiss Passes for your family will cost $1098 for 4 days. But then you won't have a car to pay for, petrol, vignette to drive in Switzerland, CDW Insurance, Theft Insurance (with deductibles), and tolls all through Italy and France....not to mention 1 way rental fees. Italy train tix are dirt cheap.

But they can get the international long-distance tickets I mentioned for €145 plus 380 CHF, covering Milan to Switzerland ( Spiez) to Paris ( from Interlaken), all but the short hops from Spiez to Lauterbrunnen or Mürren, and then back to Interlaken Öst. Assuming they do not yearn to do expensive mountain trips like the Jungfrau or Schilthorn and are happy to walk and ride bikes, I do not think they need expensive Swiss passes for their short stay.

I have the feeling they are committed to the car idea, but need to consider the actual cost carefully.

Swiss Passes are definitely the premier pass and lets you travel all over Switzerland as much as you want. You're right - sometimes it can be overkill and point to point is the best. Personally there's no way I would drive from Venice to Paris with a car full of kids. Unfortunately I've driven to Venice a couple of times as well as Paris - I won't ever make that mistake again!