train from interlaken to monterosso

Use SBB to buy a ticket. 117 CHF full fare or 68 CHF non refundable non changeable.
http://www.sbb.ch/en/home.html

Melissa, You can check departure times and other details using the bahn.de or sbb.ch websites. I did that trip in the reverse direction a few months ago, and it's going to take the better part of a full travel day. The easiest trip is a departure from Interlaken Ost at 07:29, arriving Monterosso at 15:02 (time 7H:33M, 2 changes at Spiez and Milano Centrale, reservations compulsory on last two legs). Some of the other trains are about half an hour shorter but have 3 or 4 changes, so you'll need to consider that. Happy travels!

Melissa, To answer your questsion, YES, there are early train departures from Lauterbrunnen. There's a departure at 06:33 and 07:03, arriving 06:54 and 07:24 (it's only a 21 minute trip). Either will get you to Interlaken Ost to connect with the 07:29 train. Where are you staying in Lauterbrunnen? Most hotels are easily accessible to the small (but efficient) station. You can also buy tickets at the station in Lauterbrunnen. Rail offices in Switzerland may only be able to sell tickets to your first stop in Italy (ie: Milano Centrale), and you'd have to buy tickets there for the final part of the journey. That was the case when I travelled in the other direction. The ticket office in Monterosso was only able to sell tickets as far as Spiez, and I had to go inside the station and buy a ticket from there to Lauterbrunnen. Although the summer schedules may not be published yet, there likely won't be much difference from current schedules. When travelling by rail in Switzerland, be VERY careful to ensure that there are no "irregularities" with your tickets. You may find it helpful to read THIS BBC article on the subject. Cheers!

Thank you both for your reply. I am having some difficulty with these websites. When I search the online timetables from Interlaken Ost to Monterosso, I receive a message that no connections respond to my request. Do I need to buy each leg separately? We are within three months of our departure date.
Also, we will be staying in Lauterbrunnen, so will need to train down to Interlaken before our trip. I like the timetable you suggested Ken, as to get us in to Cinque Terre earlier in the day. Do you know if trains begin leaving Lauterbrunnen early enough for us to make a 0729 train in Interlaken? Thanks again.

Melissa, did you use the Swiss website? Sam gave you the link. SBB.ch or rail.ch for English. It will give you the timetable from Lauterbrunnen to Interlaken Ost, and from there to Monterosso ( Trains start running very early). And you can buy the ticket from Interlaken Ost to Monterosso, although if you are buying a full price ticket you can wait and just buy it in Switzerland. You could also look on Trenitalia for a ticket from Milano Centrale to Monterosso, on the same trains you found on SBB. You might find a Super Economy fare as low as 9 or 19 euro.

There is a train from Lauterbrunnen at 7:03 that connects to the 7:29 at IO. Unfortunately, your travel dates put you in the summer schedule, which has not been published yet, so they don't show up. ie, put in June 8 as your travel date and you see all the trains, put in June 10, and you get an error message.

Thank you Sam, the error message is a date issue then. I will look again in the next week. Thanks so much.

Actually, SBB will show schedules past June 8. I checked for Interlaken Ost to Monterosso on June 20, and it showed the whole route, and offered to sell a ticket. Trenitalia, on the other hand, is very liberal with the error messages. In addition to the date issue, you have to enter a time or it will default to local ( Italy) time, which may be in the middle of the night. Min that case, it will show no trains available--- it doesn't advance to the early am trains like SBB would. Edit: I saw those June 20 schedules and prices on SBB using my ipad. Now when I check on a PC, for 20 June I get the error message. I am sure of the dates I checked before as I did it several times on the ipad, both last night and this morning. Very strange.

Lola, Well I don't know what I am doing wrong. I am still getting an error message when I search interlaken ost to monterosso. The furthest I could search the trip without an error message was lauterbrunnen to milano centrale. That gave me the timetable and ability to purchase. Any suggestions on why I get an error when tyring to see the whole trip??

trenitalia won't show you Regionale trains more than a week out. It should show Intercity trains but there are gaps.

Melissa, which website are you using? Trenitalia or SBB? Trenitalia will not show trains entirely within Switzerland (like Interlaken to Spiez). SBB will show the whole route, including trains entirely within Italy (like Milan to Monterosso). Both websites have a drop-down menu for the stations that should appear when you start typing the city (Trenitalia) or when you have finished (SBB). You need to choose from these or the website may not recognize your cities. And here's something interesting: I just checked again on SBB and I do get an error message for Interlaken Ost to Monterosso for 20 June, but not for 8 June. I am on a PC now, and I see the error message you are talking about. Last night and earlier this morning, I was using my ipad and both times I connected to SBB it WOULD show Interlaken Ost to Monterosso for 20 June, and offered to sell me a ticket. That is how I confirmed Sam's price of 117 CHF. I checked June 20 in hopes they would be offering the Special Offer tickets of 68 CHF (they did not). So maybe it depends on the computer one is using? Curiouser and curiouser. But don't worry about it. The schedule will change little, if at all. If you want to try for the discounted tickets, just keep checking back. They will put in th eschedules and tickets for dates after June 8 pretty soon. Or find an ipad and give it a try. On mine, I got as far as the page for entering my credit card, which of course I couldn't do as I didn't want to buy a ticket!

Lola, Glad to hear I wasn't going completely crazy :) I was using SBB when I was getting the error message. I will try on our Ipad, had not checked that way. I would prefer the discounted tickets, so I will just keep trying.
Thanks!

Trouble with the ipad is you can't print your tickets from it. I would just wait and keep checkin gback, expecially since I didn't see any discount on the fare from Interlaken to Monterosso offered. What is your actual date of travel?

Good point! Travel date is June 19th.

That's an interesting article, Ken! We generally travel on passes in Switzerland, but I'll be extra careful next time we go. I guess this is just an extra argument for buying tickets in advance online. That one about "the credit card payment did not arrive until 4 minutes later and you were already on the train" seems really lame.

@Lola, The "four minute credit card" example was also the one that stood out most for me. I suppose that one could be at least partially attributed to the precise way that the Swiss do things. When I was there last September, I was using P-P tickets (always paid cash) and a Jungfrau Centenary Pass, and I had no problems. I'll be extremely careful on my next visit! It's possible the situation may change if some of the lawsuits are successful. Cheers!