Trans. Florence to Interlaken and back
 

Hi,

My nieces are going from Florence to Interlaken. They are looking to leave Florence after 10pm on a Wed. in March and come back that Sat. morning. Any help with train schedules, routes, length of trip and rough cost would be appreciated.

Paul

Paul,

We took the train from Milano Centrale to Interlaken. My advice would be to check on trenitalia.it the price for the tickets and the schedule as you will have to do a transfer in Milano as the Swiss trains departure from there, I don't think they go straight from Florence to Switzerland.

Late night trains from Florence to Interlaken take about 12 hours with multiple changes and seem like a really bad idea - when there are trains that will do it in 6 hours earlier in the day.

Go to bahn.de and you can see all of the options.

there are no longer direct overnight trains between any Italian place and any Swiss place to my knowledge - them being scrubbed a few years back (to Geneva or Basel they were and Venice to Zurich) - poor idea not to wait till morning as they will get there the same time - probably be stuck in some dark dank train station for several hours.

There are some direct Milan to Spiez trains but more and more you have to change at Brig as Italian Railways for some reason is cutting back on international trains (Cisalpino trains used to roll about hourly from Italy to points in Italy but were scrubbed!)

so on www.trenitalia.com try to book a ticket, hopefully at a discount rate Florence to Interlaken but if not possible Florence to Brig (via Milan) and then once in Brig buy a ticket return to Interlaken - also try to book the direct Milan to Spiez trains on www.trenitalia.com - that would be my first try - You must change at Spiez coming from the south to get to Interlaken - about 20 minutes or so from Spiez - just buy that ticket at Spiez (or www.sbb.ch - Swiss federal railways site though discounts routinely offered by Trenitalia.com are not generally offered IME on www.sbb.ch.

For lots of great info on trains in those countries check out these fantastic sources IMO - www.ricksteves.com; www.seat61.com (good info on discounted online tickets which do sell out and have to be booked far in advance to guarantee and then hard to change or refund) and www.budgeteuropetravel.com.

Looks like trenitalia.com even from Milan will only sell tickets to Brig, the border point - cost seems to be each way about52 euros in 1st class and 35 euros in 2nd class - but this was a quick look - perhaps I did not look at direct trains that one would think have to have a thru price to Spiez at least (where you get off the mainline train for the local train to Interlaken.

Thanks for all the info. We've been doing some checking on the train websites listed. Looks like a pretty long trip. Personally, I think the idea they have is crazy, for lack of a better word. Long story short:
I have 3 neices. 1 of the girls went to Interlaken last year to go "canyoning" during her college semester in Florence. Another is in Florence for a semester now. The other 2 are visiting her for 9 nights in March and want to go to Interlaken for 2 days to go "canyoning." My suggestion was find something similar closer to Florence, like in the Dolomites or Innsbruck.

the Dolomites and Innsbruck may take as long or even longer to reach and then Canyoning like Interlaken is famous for may not even be offered. And a few-night stay at Balmer's Auberge for folks that age could be superb!

http://www.balmers.com/

Check out Balmer's Auberge web site for info on Canyoning - and yes for that age group this is a legendary place to stay and cheap for Switzerland to boot - young folk from all over the world gather here.

But do not think much about the disaster a Canyoning adventure experienced a few years back when a sudden storm swamped the boats and many died - so pay attention to the weather though I suspect things have been tightened up safety wise by now.

Thanks for all the helpful suggestions and links.