Baubo69

I will be going from Gravedona on Lake Como to the Principality of Liechtenstein in early October and wonder if anyone knows how I would do this by train. I can rent a car but would rather use the trains.

Any suggestions?

rkkwan

You can search for schedule on www.bahn.de from Como S. Giovanni to Schaan-Vaduz (if you're going to the capital).

About 5-6 hours, depending on connection. About 3 hours by the fast Cisaplino train to Zurich; then one or two connections, taking about 2.5 hours to Liechtenstein.

Baubo69

Thanks! Goggle maps says it's about a 3 1/2 hour drive from Gravedona. Does that sound right to you? I'd like to make it a day trip.

rkkwan

Viamichelin says 160km and 2.5 hours. With about 65km of it on freeway, that sounds plausible.

Baubo69

If 65km of it is freeway, what is the rest of it like? I'm a Northern Californian and am used to driving the windy roads of Hwy 1, would it be like that?

Thanks again for your reply!

rkkwan

Well, I haven't gone through that part of Switzerland. I'm just good at checking timetables and maps.

Hope you get someone who've driven that route to help.

altamiro

I am not sure what is your primary motivation to visit Liechtenstein (it hardly differs from the nearby areas of Austria and Switzerland in any respect, except on the Liechtenstein national holiday in late August - worth going to, I just don't remember the date).
In any case the San Bernardino freeway you would take from Bellinzona to Chur offers spectcular views at the beginning and then hardly any - the route is almost completely inside the mountain all the way to Chur. You can follow the old road therough the valleys and over the pass - it is nice but windy and therefore far slower than the tunnels. Don't forget to stop at Via Mala, where the Rhine has dug a very deep (>200 m), very narrow (in some places a few meters) gorge through the mountains. You can go inside the gorge through (what a surprise) a series of pedestrian tunnels.

Baubo69

My primary motivation to visit Liechtenstein is to visit Liechtenstein!! I have been all over the world, as have my friends, but I don't know ANYONE who has been to Liechtenstein!! So why am I going??? Because it's there!!!

altamiro

>I have been all over the world, as have my friends, but I don't know ANYONE who has been to Liechtenstein!!

I have been.
Believe me, it is (except on the Princeīs Day) rather unspectacular compared with the places around it. Living (and especially having a job) there would be another matter.
OTOH - it is a countrylet with a highly curious political system (semi-absolute monarchy with regular popular referendums, and with a crown prince who is also pursuing an academic career outside the country) so maybe itīs worth visiting...

Dukey

Actually, many people have actually been to it and never known since it is on a main rail line between Switzerland and Austria..people pass through it all the time and don't even know.

rkkwan

I don't think any main rail line crossees Liechtenstein. There's only one small line that cuts through it between Buchs in Switzerland and Feldkirch in Austria.

altamiro

>I don't think any main rail line crossees Liechtenstein. There's only one small line that cuts through it between Buchs in Switzerland and Feldkirch in Austria.

Itīs not a "small" line, there are quite frequent long distance trains and a lot of reight traffic there. It is the connection from Zürich to Innsbruck and on to Vienna.

rkkwan

altamiro and Dukey - Thanks for the clarification. You guys are correct. Sorry for the confusion.