train: cinque terre to murren, switzerland

You can be expected to change about 5 times. First, you need to go north from CT to Genova to get a train to Milano. At Milano, get a high-speed Cisalpino or EuroCity train to Spiez. At Spiez, you will pick up a train to Interlaken Ost (avoid the regional (R) train if you can. At Interlaken Ost, you change trains to get you to Lauterbrunnen. At Lauterbrunnen, you transfer to the Murren BLM train. Next problem is that you probably cannot purchase the tickets from Interlaken Ost to Murren. You may have to purchase these in Intelaken as they require payment in Swiss Francs. It's not as difficult as it sounds. The biggest problem may be finding a live ticket office in CT. More questions? I have more answers.

The Interlaken and Lauterbrunnen transfers are quite easy because the stations are tiny. At Interlaken, I think it's the same track and at Lauterbrunnen, there are signs to the Murren cable car (when I was there it was a still a funicular, but I assume it's in the same place)

In fact, when you switch from the cable car to the train in the little station beyond Lauterbrunnen, all your large luggage will be in the luggage bin which automatically switches from cable car to train.

I think you should be able to buy the Murren tickets from anywhere in the world via the Swiss Trains website. In this day and age of credit cards, currency is not much of an issue.

Kate

Rent a car!

Murren does not permit cars although you probably can park at the Lauterbrunnen train station. Plus, at this time of year, car parking lots in the CT are full and they close access to them. You probably have to take the train north to find a car rental place. Besides, the train journey is not near as difficult as it appears. In fact, if you have teens traveling with you, they can figure it out in a snap.

Greetings

You don't want to rent a car - the Swiss train system is superb, and there is no car access to Murren anyway. And by the time you factor in high rental & gas costs and the cost of parking in Lauterbrunnen (if there's a spot), the train is cheaper anyway.

The train connections seem a bit complicated, but it's very easy to get to Murren. Swiss trains run like clockwork, so you will most likely switch from train to train without more than a few minutes wait. The stations in Interlaken and Lauterbrunnen are quite small, so it's a short walk or no walk at all. And the last transfer to Murren is basically 'built in', so you just walk across the itty-bitty platform from cable car into small (2 to 3 car?) train which is waiting for you.

Kate

We had to buy complicated train tickets in the CT, could not do it in Vernazza where they sell only local tickets. In Monterosso there is a manned ticket booth. I had researched the route in advance and had it all written out for the agent so the transaction didnt take too long (there was a long line of impatient short-haul travelers behind me in line!)

It would probably be posssible for you to purchase the tickets at a large station elsewhere before you arrive in the CT.

Thank you all for this invaluable, and comforting advice!