Switzerland/Italy Help

Rick Steves himself does not frequent this forum. We are all just "members of the traveling public," just like yourself. If you want vacation planning, and need more help than you can get by asking questions here for free, you can get a consultation with a member of Rick's staff. Here's information about this: http://www.ricksteves.com/about/consulting.htm Since this service is charged by time, I'd recommend you start by getting Rick Steves Italy and Rick Steves Switzerland, read them, figure out what some of your interests might be, and formulate a rough wish list. Then, if you still need help, you can ask here, or you can use a paid consultant. If this is more work than you want to do (and I do understand that), look into an escorted tour, either a Rick Steves one, or with another company such as Trafalgar or Tauck.

Gautami, no Rick Steves here. It is his website but the posters are just travelers who like to assist. Just give us some places you might like to see or cities you wish to visit. It's all free on this website. We can provide you with ideas on places to stay, estimated prices, estimated train fares and travel times. My first suggestion is that you need to determine which airport you will be flying into and which airport you will be flying out of. If you would like the Golden Pass train, I would suggest flying into Zurich and making your way to Lucerne where you can board the Golden Pass train. You could stay in Lucerne first or you could take the train to Interlaken Ost and then spend a couple of days in Muerren in the Swiss Alps. Depending on how much of Italy you wish to see, your exit airport could be Milan or Rome. Once you decide on the airports, we can begin nailing down where you will be spending your nights.

gautami, As the others have mentioned, it would help if you could provide some details on places you might like to visit in both countries, sights you're interested in, etc. There are numerous possibilities, so without more information, it's very difficult to make suggestions. It appears that you're working with a two week time frame. Keep in mind that you'll lose the first and last days of your trip in flight times, so you'll only have 12 days for touring. As this trip is taking place very soon, I'd highly recommend getting some plans and hotel reservations in place SOON, as that's peak travel season in Europe. Happy travels!