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Night Trains between(Italy,Switzerland,France)

Hi, I am thinking of getting railpass to travel to the three countries. Is there night trains available that I can sleep in to travel between Italy to switzerland. Switzerland to France so I can save precious time and money?

Posted by
17 posts

I know there's an overnight between Paris & Milan, but I don't think Paris to Switzerland is more than 3-4 hours away.

Posted by
4535 posts

Yes there are night trains. As the previous poster notes, it depends on your departure/destination. Typically, any daytime trip that is 6 hours or more between major cities will have an overnight train too (which goes slower and takes 8 hours or more). Check the deutschebahn site for actuall schedules.

Posted by
17440 posts

Maybe someone has better information, but I do not know of any "true" night trains from Italy into Switzerland. The distance is too short, and Switzerland has very few true night trains that start or end there. If you start in Florence and head to Zürich, for example, you will board a night train in Florence that will take you to Innsbruck. You change there in the wee hours of the morning (around 4 am) for a train headed to Zürich. If you start in Florence and head to Geneva, you will be routed through Milan, where you board a night train to Dijon in France, and you change there for a train into Switzerland. In other words, the night train option routes you the long way rather than the shorter and direct routes into Switzerland. The longer train tride costs more, so you likely will not save any money. You would be better off to head straight into Switzerland and look for inexpensive sleeping accomodations such as Matratzenlager (dorm rooms) or hostels.

Posted by
10 posts

Dear all, thanks for the input. If I am planning to take night train, likely my itinerary is going to be: 1. Venice to Rome 2. Rome to Zurich,
3. Interlaken to Paris. Should I just take the flight or should I be using the train by using a railpass. I understand railpass required to pay 10 Euro per reservation. So not sure if I should just get a point to point instead. If night train for a 2 bed unit, how much it cost on top of the railpass? I cant tell using the trenitalia.com? Thanks again for all the inputs.