Week In Switzerland

this is all very vague, the only clear parts are La Spezia and Munich.

a) probably, depends on friend and how much catching up there is.

b) when/why did Geneva enter the equation? and Como/Lugano just make things harder

c) yes there is a better order, if friend fits it.

La Spezia is almost exactly located to make this difficult. It's quite a long journey (time more than distance, due to Alps) by land but the airports that might be useful are in the opposite direction, so by the time you've gone there and hung around for checkin and boarding you don't save much time.

Lausanne is the logical first stop assuming the date fits with friend. By car you could take a short cut and do this in 6-7 hours. But leaving an italian rental in switzerland will add a relocation charge, they cannot be re-rented there. Other posts say these charges are exhorbitant but you try getting a shipper to move a car across borders and see how much they want for it - and then add on the lost revenue from days when it wasn't back at the office. They are just a lot of money, and before you ask, taking it Munich makes it so much worse!

There doesn't seem to be an easy bus option using the short route (and there's no point with a complex bus option).

Which leaves the train. Technically quite straightforward but goes a little out of the way via Milan. Would take nearly 8 hours to Lausanne and you'd need to leave at 7:30 AM, after that options are slower and messier.

After Lausanne it's much simpler. Except for the mention of Bern. Was thinking of leaving from Bern to Munich so could also spend a night here. Pardon? do you mean you have seen the very early flight from Bern on a very small Dornier plane and thought that would be cool? There is no other reason why someone not already in Bern would consider that flight! The late afternoon flight makes a little more sense - if you skip Luzern, otherwise forget Bern flights.

Lausanne-Berner Oberland is simple by train (and bus depending on where you stay) and a reasonable next step.

Berner Oberland - Luzern is very simple by train. One or two nights depending on how early you set off and how much you want to see.

Luzern - Munich is simple by train, around 5 hours with a good connection. By comparison, Luzern - Zurich airport is 1 hour, Munich airport to city is 45 minutes, checkin over an hour, wait for bag say 30 minutes - add it all up and then add 1 hour for the actual flight assuming no delay.

Thanks for the reply Steve, sorry if it sounded vague (reading back it does but in my head it's a bit clearer)

So my friend in Lausanne id just stay with him for an arvo/night/and until arvo the next day with him showing me around etc..

When I wrote Geneva that in my head was the logical train/coach from la spezia to Geneva and I could check that out for a morning (if there is night transport from la special/genoa area) before going to lausanne, and a similar thing for Como if I were to go lucerne from la spezia, probably not worth it but in my head I'm trying to work out which of those routes would be the most ideal to get to from Italy, and from there is it easier to say start from Lausanne in Switzerland and go to Berber oberland region, lucerne and bern before going to Munich or whether it's easier to do it starting in lucerne.. would it make more sense to do it from either place (is it better to travel in a particular direction)

None of the travel would be done through rental car (only bla bla car) or by flying. Purely trains/coaches by looking on the goeuro app.

And I thought it would be easiest to get to Munich from bern.

Rather than goeuro, get train information directly from the source - Swiss Rail: https://www.sbb.ch/en/home.html. Be aware that the first price shown is WITH a Half Fare Card; you need to click through and select "No Reduction" to see the full fare.

It sounds like a rail map would help you figure out the best routes through Switzerland. Here's one as a PDF; scroll down to the second page, and zoom in to see the part you need: https://www.swissrailways.com/sites/default/files/upload/documents/uebersichtskarte_2017_en.pdf

Looking at that map, for instance, you'll see that going from Italy to Lausanne, Geneva is actually a detour, rather than being on the way.

forget goeuro, they aren't reliable.

only use real rail companies (or bus companies but long distance bus travel isn't that big in most of europe).

for and FROM Italy use http://www.trenitalia.com/tcom-en although La Spezia- Lausanne will need a change of trains at Milan they will sell you a through ticket (which gives you all sorts of rights compared to individual tickets). The train from Milan will be Swiss but don't worry about that. You can get good prices by booking in advance and sticking to the itinery. And trenitalia have various ticket supply options to avoid the mail services. You'll probably need the 07:38 from La Spezia Centrale

for and From Switzerland use the SBB site. You won't do enough travel in Switzerland to justify most of the passes, you'll just have to be efficient in planning to avoid excess mileage at their excessive prices. The Luzern-Munich trip should be booked in advance as one ticket to get a better price (actually it should have been booked weeks ago!). the best option is the 08:10 from Luzern, change at Zurich Hauptbahnhof and direct train to Munich Hauptbahnhof from there. Beware connections from Zurich Sihlquai to Munich ZOB - these are buses and whilst they are a few minutes faster it seems like a lot longer!!!

thanks for the advice on using the train system.. i will just do a cross check of what is going to be cheaper for me in terms of getting a pass vs not getting a pass.
the town my friend is at is closer to montreux than lausanne..

so instead of doubling back i think this would make the most sense.

Genoa to montreux. Montreux to berner oberland area. Berner Oberland to lucerne. Lucerne to munich.
This would minimize the amount of public transport i would need to catch, and maximise time being able to spend in places. I think i can skip out on going to bern.

Thoughts?

chris,

A few thoughts to add to the others....

• My first question is why you're staying in La Spezia? Could you elaborate?
• You don't have time for Bern. I'd suggest limiting the trip to Berner Oberland, Lausanne, Lucerne, Munich.
• Where are you planning on staying in the Berner Oberland?
• You don't have time for Lake Como / Lugano, unless it's at the expense of another location. Keep in mind that each change of location will generally require at least half a day when all is considered, and some routes will take longer than that.
• As the others have mentioned, use the rail network websites for information rather than other sites. However, one exception to that is the Bahn.de (German rail website) is reliable for schedules all over Europe).
• Buying a Railpass for Italy is rarely cost effective, and especially not for the few trips you'll be making. However, depending on much you'll be using the trains and mountain lifts in Swtizerland, one of the Swiss Passes may save you some money. Unfortunately there are a lot of passes and determining the best one for your circumstances requires a lot of number crunching. A good overall pass is the Half Fare Card.

One route you could follow is La Spezia > Berner Oberland > Lausanne > Lucerne > Munich. It's late so I haven't looked at all the possibilities, but here's a sample of the travel on each route....

• La Spezia to Interlaken Ost - easiest departure at 07:38, arriving 14:28 (2 changes)
• Interlaken Ost to Lausanne - numerous departures, 2H:10M with 1 change
• Lausanne to Lucerne - numerous departures. I'd use departure at 09:50, arriving 12:00 (time 2H:10M, direct)
• Lucerne to Munich - numerous departures. I'd probably use train / bus departure at 10:10, arriving 14:59 (time 4H:49M, one change in Zürich and bus for last segment).

Your itinerary should be reasonably easy, but of course good planning will help the trip to go well.

One final point to mention. If you haven't travelled by train in Italy before, there are some potentially expensive caveats you should be aware of. If you need further information, post another note here.