train travel from venice to adelboden and then on to paris

I'll give more information when I am at my home computer with all my helpful aids. In the meantime, just a word to say that finding a European car to fit six people and the luggage for 6 people will be difficult. Can we assume that all 6 will have only one backpack each and no wheeled luggage?

yes we will be doing our best to travel as light as possible---but with 6 females, we are sure to have at least one bag each. thanks for helping me to compare the price / benefits of driving w/train travel.

You can fin prices and buy tickets on Trenitalia and the Swiss rail site, rail.ch. Representative prices and discount fares right now are: Venice to Milan, 32,50 euro regular fare and 26 euro mini fare. Milan to Brig, 34,40 euro regular fare Luzern to Paris, special far of 110 CHF for advance purchase. Youth fare is the same. They won't change much for July. Now about that car: I checked AutoEurope for a one-week oneway rental from Venice to Paris. For a 7-passenger van (Ford Galaxy with MANUAL transmission) they want $2400, but that does not include the drop fee which you can't find out until you actually book. Then you have an opportunity to cancel. I suspect it is in the range of $500. To that, you must add tolls, gas, and the vignette for Switzerland. So youbare probably looking at well over $3000, more if it is longer than a week. Also, do you or the other adult really want to be responsible for driving other people's children in a large unfamiliar vehicle in a foreign country? We don,t even like driving our own selves in Italy; it is very stressful especially on the autostrada. The train option is easy, pleasant and efficient. The only issue is you cannot book more than 5 tickets online on Trenitalia or SBB, so you will have to book 3+3 or 4+2.

ouch! that's a lot of cookies to sell to pay for that!
i guess we will be like the von trapp family taking train and doing lots of walking during our stay in switzerland!

If you book well in advance (up to 90 days allowed) on the Trenitalia site, you can get a Smart fare of €19.00 for Milan-Brig. For Luzern-Paris I found a discount fare on the Swiss Rail site as low as 80 CHF for adults and 47.50 CHF for children 10-16.

My goodness you have really good answers already. Just wondering if, when you say Adelboden you are actually thinking of the Girl Scout Chalet? If so, there is another person who is planning a trip with several girls. If we put you together maybe you could share ideas and knowledge.

Good sleuthing, Tim. I couldn't find those fares but maybe wasn't looking far enough out (only one month, should I have looked two months out?) Anyway, that's good news for Chris. It looks like the international journeys (Venice to Brig and Luzern to Paris) add up to less than 600 euros for th e6 of them. The Swiss portion (Brig to Adelboden, 19 CHF, and Adelboden to Luzern, 33 CHF) isn't much. Still a lot of cookies to sell!

Yes, Lola. To find the cheapest fares look as far in advance as possible (up to 90 days out).

thanks so much for all of this info so far. in response, yes, we are going to "our chalet" and spending 4 nights then we plan to spend one night in lucerne to visit mt. pilatus before continuing on to paris for the final leg of our trip. so, yes again, i would love to get connected with the other troop planning a visit to switzerland and our chalet.
in response to the train route of venice to brig---i thought i would travel to frutigen and then continue via bus to adelboden. is brig better?

the route from Venice to Adelboden goes Venice---Mlan---Brig---Frutigen (all by train, with changes in each city listed) and then bus to Adelboden.

thanks for laying the route out so clearly for me. i will put a reminder on my calendar for 90 days out so that i can get the best possible fares for our july trip. would you suggest trentitalia or the swiss train company?

For Venice to Milan and Milan to Brig, you will have to book on Trenitalia to get the discounts Tim mentioned. Make sure you allow enough time to change trains in Milan30 minutes or so, assuming you have tickets in hand. From Brig to Frutigen and the bus to Adelboden, you could just buy tickets when you get to Brig. I've not seen much of a line for tickets there. Or you could buy them on SBB but to be honest, as much as we have traveled in Switzerland, I've never bought tickets for travel within the county on the SBB website, so I'm not sure how it works. that train won't have reserved seats, so you don't need to worry about that-just get on the train and find seats. We've traveled there with as many as 9 people and never had a problem once we were away from the big cities (Zurich and Geneva).

very helpful! i have set my calendar! i think the train will be easiest and most enjoyable for all. and please, you swiss in the know travelers, i am open to hearing your tips and hidden gems not to miss while we are in the adelboden-lucerne area.

Book Luzern-Paris on the Swiss Rail site.

Ditto what Tim said. I forgot that part. The SBB website is easy to use for trips that cross the border. Generally you get a confirmation code which you use to pick up your actual ticket in Switzerland. If you have free time at Adelboden, you could travel the short distance to Kandersteg (one train stop south from Frutigen). Walk through town to the gondola station and ride up to Oeschinensee, a beautiful lake surrounded by cliffs and peaks. There is a great hike up to a hut (Fruendenhütte) but it involves some narrow ledges (secured with cable). Or you could take the path along the lake past some wood carvings, to the waterfall. Or rent a boat and go for a row on the lake. Then have ice cream treats at the Hotel Oeschinensee on the patio. www.oeschinensee.ch for photos There is a Scouting International camp at Kandersteg so you should see lots of teenage kids around.

a bit less than 90 days out and the cookies are crumbling. we really want to travel during daylight hours to enjoy the scenery. looking at venice to milan @ 7:50 departure. milan to brig/spiez/frutigen @ 11:25 am departure. I can not find tickets for the milan - frutigen part - only have been able to see the time schedule on google maps - so not sure if it is real. thanks again for everyones help - and welcoming any additional advice.

Trenitalai is only going to have tickets from Milan to Brig or to Spiez if the train goes that far. These trains do not go through Frutigen. To get to Frutigen you have to pick up a Swiss train at Brig or Spiez and you can buy that in Switzerland. Just worry about the Milan to Brig or Milan to Spiez part.

I used the SBB website mentioned above and got th following which confirms your Google (sorry for the cut and paste but have to get ready for work): Station/Stop Date Time Duration Chg. Travel with Occupancy Fare Text view Read out 1 Station/Stop Date Time Platform Travel with Occupancy Comments Hide details for connection 1 Local area map: Milano Centrale Milano Centrale Th, 17.05.12 dep 11:25 EC 52 EuroCity TT GP VT Local area map: Stresa Stresa dep 12:21 Local area map: Domodossola Domodossola dep 12:48 1. 2. Local area map: Simplon Simplon Local area map: Brig Brig dep 13:20 1. 2. Local area map: Visp Visp dep 13:28 1. 2. Local area map: Lötschberg-Basistunnel Lötschberg-Basistunnel Local area map: Spiez Spiez arr 13:53 4 Local area map: Spiez Spiez dep 14:12 3 RE 3279 RegioExpress LÖTSCHBERGER Local area map: Mülenen Mülenen dep 14:17 Local area map: Reichenbach im Kandertal Reichenbach im Kandertal dep 14:19 Local area map: Frutigen Frutigen arr 14:24 3
Duration: 2:59; runs daily

I took my group to Our Chalet a few years ago.. We actually found it cheapest to fly back to Paris so look into that option also. It might be better to fly from Italy. Then you could train to Paris for the "experience". I would not rent a car. Drop charge will be steep and renting a car that holds 6 with luggage is going to be hard.

Chris, you can buy the tickets from Milan to Spiez on Trenitalia. You cannot buy the Swiss portion from Spiez to Frutigen yet, the Swiss site only sells tickets for the coming month on the website. And youndo not actually need to buy those in advance;it is a twelve-minute tripnand the train won't sell out. I checked a random date in July and found a Smart fare of 19 euros, a very good price. To see this on Trenitalia, enter your date and put in fromMilano Centrale" to Spiez and the time( 10 or 11 will bring up that train. The next screen will show regular fares. Don't worry. that 11:25 train and hit "continue". The next screen will have a small drop-down menu to a fare. Press that and choose SMART from the menu. It should bring up a new screen with the 19 euro price. You will also have to enter the number of people, and I believe the maximum for one ticket is five people, so you will have to do two transactions, maybe 4+ 2 so the seats will be together.

Ta-Da! And I am so jealous you get to go during Redentore. That should be really fun.

thanks so much for this info! i see this affordable rail fare from milano to spietz too. however, i CANNOT find a trip out of venice to milano that would enable us to make this earlier connection. i have put in departure time of 6am out of venice but the earliest departure i find is 1150am. i also tried sbb but that is even later. if anyone knows of an early train out of venice to milano, please share.
thanks in advance!

I can't tell what you might be doing wrong. I tried Trenitalia just now and found trains departing Venezia SL for Milano at 6:20, 6:58, and 7:50, any of which would get you to Milanninntime. That was on a weekday. If you are traveling on a Sunday the 7:50 is not running but the other two are.

i see the difference! you suggest leaving from venezia sl. i have been looking at venezia st. lucia! i will review again and see which train station is closest to pensione guerrato---we were lucky enough to get a reservation during rendetore festival! thanks rick stoves!!--- and which has earliest departure out of venezia on tuesday 7/17/12! grazie!

doh! sl equals santa lucia! and "more solutions" equals more times. i think i am figuring this out. grazie!

If you use the Trenitalia website you can find the itineraries from Venice SL to Frutigen. It shows the final destination as Spiez but if you look at the Details you will see the stop in Frutigen. It does not show the fares, though. You should be able to book the whole trip at a Trenitalia office or at a travel agent in Venice.