Hi,
My wife and I are planning to travel by train from Lucerne to Cinque Terra in November 2014 and I was after any advice on how to do this in the the most easiest and stress free method available. Do we need to pre book our tickets? If so, on what website would I do this?
Would also appreciate approx costs by train as well.
Thanks for your advice in advance.
Russell.
Russell, you can easily take the train from Lucerne to Milano Centrale. The 7:47am run has no train changes. Most other runs do. At Milano Centrale, you will change trains to get to Monterosso. Hopefully, this is an Trenitalia Intercity train that also has no train changes. You can buy this ticket online at www.sbb.ch for 115CHF regular fare. I do see a special non-refundable fare of 60CHF. www.sbb.ch is the Swiss train website. I've provided a link to a picture of what I see on the Swiss website. I've opened up the 7:47 run so you can see more detail. You won't be able to see or buy tickets for next November for quite awhile.
Russell,
As Larry mentioned, that's a very easy trip. The first leg from Lucerne to Milan will take about four hours, depending on which departure you choose. The next leg from Milan to the Cinque Terre will depend to some extent on which of the five Cinque Terre towns you'll be travelling to. Which of the five towns are you planning to stay in?
You can research the rail trips using either the Bahn.de (German Rail) or the SBB.ch (Swiss Rail) websites. You can also research trips within Italy using the Trenitalia (Italian Rail) website.
As mentioned previously, it's far too early to be researching trips for November 2014. As I recall, the schedules for the latter part of the year will be updated on the website in June. However, you can get a good idea by checking the same time and day of the week that you'll be travelling, as it's not likely the schedules will change much. I'd suggest looking about three months from your travel date.
You may be able to purchase tickets for the entire journey on the Swiss Rail website. If not you can purchase tickets for the Lucerne-Milan segment on the Swiss rail site and the tickets for the Milan-Cinque Terre segment on the Italian rail site. One point to mention is that if the Italian segment involves Regionale trains, it's best to just purchase those tickets when in Italy. There are a few potentially expensive "caveats" regarding rail travel in Italy. If you need further information on that, post another note.
Happy travels!
Larry and Ken,
Thanks so much for the replies. That information is excellent. We are staying in Manarola.
I think I will book the Lucerne - Milan segmant on the Swiss website and the Milan to Manarola on the Italian website. But thanks again for your time and advice.
Russell.
