Switzerland/Italy in November
 

I am currently the proud owner of tickets to Switzerland this November. To be specific flying into Zurich on Nov. 1st and leaving from Florence on November 17th....that was the easy part. Now I need to fill in the blanks....I learned from reading these boards that Wengen was a MUST SEE area of Switzerland so I thought we would stay a day

......sorry...still getting used to this new keyboard....any way I thought we would stay a day or two in Zurich and travel by train to Wengen....from there??? We know we would like to spend a couple of days in Venice and 5 or 6 days in Florence in order to take in Tuscany......Having just been to Italy last year, I would love to check out some of the smaller less travelled areas as well as the bigger cities....any and all recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

I would do 5 destinations in that time in this order:
Luzern--3
Lugano--2
Verona--2
Venice--4
Florence-5[with day trips to Siena and Lucca by train]
Good luck !

Thanks for the recommendation....we had planned on travelling by train until we reached Florence, then rent a car. Do you think that would be a good idea?

I like the destinations suggested by bob the navigator, but I don't like your idea of renting a car when you arrive in Florence.

I would rent a car on arrival, see Luzern, Lugano, and Verona and surrounding areas, then drive to Venice and turn in the car. When leaving Venice, I would go by train to Florence and also use train travel to visit Siena and Lucca if you wish. Good luck.

If you are staying in Florence, I would suggest not renting a car, as there is a lot of traffic and little parking. Take advantage of the excellent public transportation. On the other hand, if you are staying in a small town in Tuscany, a car would be convenient.

I would not use a car to go from Switzerland to Venice; take a train and enjoy the scenery, and avoid the common high charge for dropping off a car in another country from where you rented it.

Oops. Hit enter too soon.

Check carefully as to the availability of lodging, particularly in the mountain towns. I think a lot of places close for vacation sometime around November.

Yes, that is even better. You will need a car to see Tuscany well---I assumed that you did not want to drive.

Clevelandbrown is right - accommodation is hard to come by in November in Switzerland in mountain towns - I know this first hand, as I've visited twice in November.

Most hotels in mountain towns close sometime in October and don't re-open until right before Christmas for the ski season.

We were in Wengen last November and stayed in an apartment, because we couldn't find an open hotel. You might have trouble finding an apartment owner willing to let you stay for only a day though.

Wengen and the Berner Oberland is worth far more than one day anyway - if you can spare the time, you'd do well to spend more time there. Many mountain excursions will be closed for maintenance, but some are open all year.

You might consider staying in Grindelwald instead - we found more lodging options there during November, although we had to search pretty hard.

The major resort towns in Switzerland are open year round - Zermatt and Gstaad have room available year round, as do St. Moritz and possibly even Saas Fe. You could also take day trips to these areas if you stay in cities in the valley (for example stay in Sion and then take a day trip to Zermatt/Saas Fe or stay in Montreux for a day trip up to Les Roches or Gstaad or even the awesome little mountain town of Leysin).

I would not want to drive from Switzerland to Italy, as you cannot really relax and enjoy the view. The train routes are spectacular. I would suggest a night or two in St Moritz or Pontresina, and then catch the Bernina Express to Italy. A truly memorable train journey over the Bernina pass. There are some great threads here on that trip if you do a search.

Thank you all so much for the ideas!! I will check out the availablity of hotels in Switzerland immediately. The advice on the train versus car is excellent. We will definitely stick with the train and only rent a car for the Tuscany portion. I am getting very excited and promise to file a trip report when we return. Any MUST SEE spots in Tuscany??

KB - Must see spots in Tuscany? It's a long list :)

Have a look at Dean's Toscana suggestions for a start:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...mp;tid=1325569

Hope this helps ...

Steve