Help! Not a traveler - Going from Haldenwang, Germany to Milan, Italy

There is of course no nonstop train between your two places not even direct train. There are many train options. The fastest is 8 h 19 min. The least amount of changes is 2. Check Deutsche Bahn website and choose the connection which suits you best.

Oh just fly.. I don't bother with train trips of more then 5-6 hours. Flight from Munich to Milan in Feb. is pricing out about 150 dollars and will take 3.5 hours. I saw some flights on Tuifly.. but you should check several airlines.. I hope this trip is a few months in future as cheap flights for the discount airlines go up in price not down as date approaches.

Nine hour train trips are not as much fun as one might think.. at least not to me.. as I said, ,after 5 -6 hours I am ready to get off train.

Here's an idea, if your trip is only 10 days and you don't want to lose a whole day in transit. Unless you have some reason why you need to be there, drop Milan. As the others mentioned, you won't find anything like a non-stop train from a peripheral location like Haldenwang to Milan. Your only option that won't take all day is air, but even with this, you would still need to reach the Munich or Stuttgart airports, each of which is probably an hour or more transit from your location. Add the check-in time, flight time, arrival, navigation and transport to your lodgings in Milan, checking in and unpacking, and the majority of your travel day is gone. Memmlingen airport is much closer, but I doubt you'll find anything more direct from this minor airport.

I don't personally know Haldenwang (it looks like a tiny village that doesn't even have a rail station), but I know the region, the Allgäu. Absolutely stunning. Weather permitting, you'll enjoy amazing views of the Bavarian Alps. I think within a 2-3 hour radius of Haldenwang, you'll find more than enough to keep you busy within 10 days, including the spectacular Bodensee, the famous castles at Schwangau, Munich, etc. Haldenwang looks to be pretty close to one of my preferred Alpine resorts, Oberstdorf. Save Italy for the next trip. If you want to add more countries under your travel belt, you're also pretty close to Austria, Switzerland and Lichtenstein.

jeanninebode,

As this is your first trip to Europe, I'd recommend reading Europe Through The Back Door prior to your trip as that provides a lot of good information on "how" to travel in Europe. Good information will help your trip to go smoothly.

It would help to know where you're flying from and which airport you'll be arriving at? Unless your son's friends will be picking you up at the airport, your trip to Haldenwang will probably involve both a train and a bus ride. You'll be jet lagged for the first few days, so may not get as much touring done as planned.

Is there a particular reason you're planning to visit Milan? Unless you're planning to use open jaw flights and return home from Milan, you'll have to spend two of your very short ten days travelling back and forth which is not the most efficient use of your time.

It would help to have a bit of further information in your trip plans.

Good luck with your planning!

Since this is your first trip, and you seem a little nervous about it, I strongly suggest skipping the train and flying instead. Long rides with multiple transfers are not easy, even if you're familiar with the rail system. Skyscanner is a good website for the budget European airlines, and that would be a good place to start looking for flights. Just be aware that some of the airports may be a distance from the city. For example, Ryan air flights into Milan land at an airport that's about a 45 minute bus ride outside of the city.

In case you don't have it, here's the DB Bahn link: http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en. You can put in your dates and thoroughly explore your options. Be sure to click on all the parts of the results to see stops and train changes and on the map for the route. You didn't say when you are going, but if it is in winter or early spring, it could be dark when you arrive in Milan.

I did an experiment on DB Bahn and as others have said, a bus is involved. You have to go from Haldenwang to Kempten to catch the train, however maybe your son's friends could drive you to the Kempten Hbf. The shortest route I saw was via Zurich and Bern (big mountains in the way right?), takes 8 hours 39 minutes, requires 3 changes (bus, train, train, train) and the last train requires a reservation. If you start at Kempten, you only have 2 changes (train, train, train) and it takes about 7 hours and 54 minutes.

On the positive side, you could get your tickets through the DB Bahn website and the scenery will be fantastic! As best I could tell, the cost could be about 150 euro one way.

Just for fun, I checked going from Milan to Munich. It takes about 7 hours and 15 minutes and goes an entirely different route with only 1 train change in Verona. You might get lucky and have a special fare on that route. I did see that you can go Kempten -- Munich -- Milan for a much cheaper fare, but it takes longer: 9.5-10 hours with 2-3 train changes depending on when you leave Kempten.

And if you take the advice of others, the DB Bahn website can help you with identifying any shorter excursions you might like to make.

I haven't yet read all of the responses to your post, so some of this might already been covered.

1. Trains usually have both 1st and 2nd class coaches, so your class of travel won't affect the schedule.

2. There are few non-stop trains in Europe. There are direct trains, ie, where you don't have to change trains but they stop enroute.

3. Railroads use the same hub and spoke system as do the airlines, but because they make more stops, the spokes are shorter.

4. Your intended route goes through multiple countries. Trains usually don't run across more than one national border, so you are going to have multiple trains.

Haldenwang seems to be a small town without a rail station. There is a major station in Kempten and a 20 min bus from Haldenwang to Kempten. The fastest route to Milan looks like it has two changes in Zürich and Bern. Kempten to Milan is about 8 hours.

Ryanair's flights from Memmingenberg, which is the nearest Ryan airport to Haldenwang don't go to Milan. Ryan flights to Bergamo (somewhat near Milan) don't originate anywhere near Haldenwang. Taking a connecting flight on RyanAir is asking for trouble.

Pat says, "Flight from Munich to Milan in Feb. ... will take 3.5 hours.". Yes, but. It doesn't take 3½ hours in the air. That probably has a connection somewhere (hassle). It will take you 3 hours from Haldenwang to MUC, and you need to get there at least an hour ahead of flight time. When you get to Malpensa, you still have 1/2 -1 hour to Milan - at least 8 hours.