Pamela

I am planning a trip this October starting in Rome and ending in Lucerne, Switz. I have 10 days and need to know if anyone has any input on traveling by train and what hotels would be recommended along the way. From the looks of the schedule I should be able to go from Rome to Milan, to Vience, to Lugano, into Zermatt, and then into Lucerne, and depart back to the US from Zurich.

I have traveled Europe many times especially Italy and Switzerland, but always on a planned tour. So I am comfortable with countries and my knowledge of where things are, but I have never put a trip together like this, any info is appreciated.

Donna

Have you visited the AOL travel boards? There's a wealth of information there and lots of helpful folks with valuable advice.

Nicole

I have a hotel recommendation for Zermatt -- Hotel Alpenblick. I've stayed there twice and enjoyed it very much. The rooms are large, clean, comfortable, and most important, they have incredible views of the Matterhorn -- the Alpenblick is one of the closest hotels to the Matterhorn, in fact. The hotel is a 3-star and ran about $125/night for a double last September. Also, eat at Cafe Dupont...it is the oldest restaurant in Zermatt and serves the greatest cheese fondue. If I remember correctly, it is right near the big church, going away from the train station towards the Matterhorn. If you'd like to see our travelogue and photos of our trip to Zermatt, and other towns, go to www.lunadesigns.com/travels/. There will be a link to Hotel Alpenblick's website. Have fun!

Richard J. Vicek

Good evening, Pam It is difficult to recommend hotels because of the great variance in price per nite, and what would be your range.. Would suggest the following sites to surf and get good hotel information.
www.hotelstravel.com/
www.romantikhotels.com/
www.all-hotels.com/
www.slh.com/alh/
www.world-travel-net.co.uk/
www.traveleurope.net/cuorviet.htm
www.eurohotoels.com/ (w/resvn IT-DE-CH)
www.swisshotels.ch/
www.italy-hotel.com/
www.venere.it/home/italy.html.
Any questions or additional recommendations, please
e-mail. Richard of Hickory Hills

Pamela

Richard,

Thank You for the wealth of information on various web sites for hotel accomodations throughout. I have looked up several hotels and think I might have this figured out. Again Thank you.

Also the hotel reccommended in Zermatt by another responce has been highly reccommended by othesr so I think we'll be staying there as well. Any train info is still appreciated.

fiona

The German rail site at www.bahn.de gives accurate train timetable information in English and German for a large part of Europe including the area you want.

Kay

We used the trains last year, Zurich-Lugano-Cinque Terre-Florence-Interlaken-Geneva with great success. We bought passes so we could just jump on as we pleased. We had first class and would often have an air-conditioned compartment to ourselves when we were tired, but also met lots of nice locals in both first and second class cars. We did buy the supplement a day ahead to ride Pendolino from Florence to Milan just to check it out. We checked frequency and travel times on the Italian rail web site before leaving and found them accurate. Only one train was late and we didn't experience any strikes. The station personnel were very helpful to polite questions. We didn't ride any sleepers. We each had one rollerbag and a daypack so we could easily run when connections were close (several times). The trains were crowded at peak commuting times, but other times we didn't need a reservation.

We were a little disappointed in Lugano. The lake is nice, but not as scenic as Lake Maggiore looked from the train. The old town is nice, but not outstanding. I wish I could remember the name of the hotel we stayed in in Lugano. It was on a pedestrian shopping street in the old town west from the funicular train from the train station and about 2-3 blocks up from the lake. I found it listed in the free Swiss hotel guide. The people who ran the place were simply wonderful.