sph

I am sorry if I wasted anyone's time as I have posted two recent trip questions. I keep going back and forth about where to spend my 50th birthday and the choices are wide open so I had a hard time deciding. Anyway, I have finally made a decision and am getting ready to start booking.

Late August. Here is where I need help:

Want to spend the majority of the time on the Italy side. Fly to Zurich, train to Zermatt, train to Bellagio drive to Venice, drive to Milan and fly out of Milan. Is this a good route? We have two weeks.

I am trying to put Milan on the last leg due to using hotel points and availability but it is not critical. Any feedback is appreciated and I promise I am sticking with this!

Michael

I do not see why you want to drive to Venice. You are renting a car for two days of driving and how many days parked in a garage?
I would bite the bullet and take public transportation from Bellagio to Milan and the train from Milan to Venice.

Dukey1

I would take the ferry from Bellagio over to Varenna and take the 1.5 hour train trip to Milan and change there for the train trip to Venice. Having a car IN Venice is WORTHLESS and a waste of money.

If you cannot fly out of Venice, take the train back to Milan and fly from there.

yestravel

I agree about the car. And if you do plan on having a car, there are also many very nice smaller towns you could visit such as Verona, Vicenza & Padua to name a few. U can also visit them by train. How much time do you have?

sph

Ahhh this is what I need. We have two weeks - 11 nights in Italy. We have driven through Italy - Milan to Tuscany and have also taken the train from Naples to Rome. Agree that the train system is great so good advice. I am now checking into flying out of Venice which should not be a problem but the hotel is the issue.

We are thinking of flying into Zurich first and renting a car there to be able to see as much as possible on the way down close to Bellagio. I am checking but assume that dropping a car country to country will be too expensive so I am wondering if we rent a car that will take us to the closest train station to get us to Bellagio and dropping the car there and taking the train for the rest of the trip. Not sure where that is yet.

Thank you!

Michael

See if you can drip the car off in Lugano and get a bus service to the western edge of Lake Como.

Rastaguytoday

Dukey1 has it spot on.

You do not need / want to drive a car, when the publice transportation, both in Italy and Switzerland is so good and extensive. I've taken the Varenna train. It's largely a commuter train for people that work in Milan.

It's been 7-8 years since I did this, but you might want to fly from Zurich to Venice. It keeps you from zig zagging about. It's also a pretty flight over the Alps.

Michael

I took the train from Milan to Zurich last year, and did not find the scenery that interesting--lots of tunnels. Unless one takes local trains to smaller towns or the train that goes up the Rhone and down the Rhine valley, a car does offer a greater opportunity to see the mountains, especially if one chooses to take detours over some of the central passes. For the OP, if renting a car, I strongly urge going to Andermatt to then go over the St. Gotthard pass rather than using the tunnel.

sph

Thanks again.
Checking on your suggestions for rental car and train.

We should be able to do Zurich, Bellagio, Milan, Venice as I changed dates by a few days and got the hotel.

My husband has been to Switzerland and wants to rent a car there so will look into dropping in Lugano (saw that on the map and will be close). Train the remainder of the trip sounds good.

We are thinking 4 nights Switzerland driving down - my husband wants to go to Grindewald and I see the reference to Andermatt on the map so will look into that (to Lugano if car drop works out), 4 nights Bellagio area, 3 nights Milan and 3 nights Venice - fly out of Venice.

What do you think of the itinerary above?

THANKS

Jean

Three nights Milan? I like Milan more than most, but unless you have a long list of things you want to do/see there, two nights would probably be enough.

Three nights Venice? Unless you've been to Venice before, I think four nights would be better. And I'm not even a big fan of Venice!

But I realize using hotel points doesn't always mean you get what you want.

Do you have your Bellagio reservations yet? FYI, summer weekends are particularly crowded.