zurich to venice?
 

1st time to europe . . . arriving in zurich departing from Rome 15 days later with stops in Venice and Florence . . . <BR>Qs 1. planning on taking 4 or 5 day to get to venice, should we drive or take a train from zurich to venice? <BR>Qs. 2 what are the "must see" places to stay on the way on the way? <BR> <BR>Q. 3 to what extent is driving in switzerland like driving u.s 1 from santa barbara to san franciso?

Switzerland has no Pacific coastline. <BR>

In terms of describing the driving conditions in Switzerland, it depends on where you plan to go. If you are going to drive all the way to Venice, then at some point you must either go over the Alps or under them. <BR>Which way had you planned on going? <BR>Have you looked at the charge for renting a car in one country and dropping it in another? <BR>I would say there is no comparison between driving in Switzerland and the US route that you name. <BR>Should you drive or take the train? <BR>I think that depends entirely on what you want to see in Switzerland. Perhaps some of both. <BR> <BR> <BR>Must see places on the way? <BR>I will answer a question with a question: What do you want see in Switzerland? Surely you have a reason for going there. Without knowing you or what you like, I would be only guessing if I started making suggestions. <BR> <BR>I will, however, make one suggestion. <BR>Get your car at the airport in Zurich. <BR>Make a reservation somewhere in the Grindelwald area. Take a look at the Berner Oberland for two days. <BR>Drive over the Grimsel Pass to Brig and <BR>on to Zermatt. Drop the car at Täsch, which is the parking area for Zermatt. <BR>Look around Zermatt for two days. <BR>Take the train to Venice. <BR>(Because of the cost of dropping the car in Venice, which is a factor I do not know. I have an Avis car this summer and the charge to pick up in Munich and drop in Salzburg was something like $180. So I am picking it up in Innsbruck to avoid the international drop charge. Cross a national boundry; pay a fee to drop.) <BR>

If you can drive Route 1 in CA, you can drive in Switzerland, no problemo.

2. It's only 550 km and maybe 6 hours (solid) of driving ... a one day trip. Without knowing the time of year you're traveling and what your interests may be, there are approximately 245,985 different ways you could spend your time in 4-5 days between Zürich and Venice. <BR> <BR>1. How you travel is a function of where you go, and how many are in your group. <BR> <BR>3. US 1 runs from Maine to Florida the last I knew. In any event there's not much comparison between driving in California and driving in Switzerland. <BR> <BR>And what driving is like in Switzerland is a function of where you drive. The few Motorways have speed limits of 120 km/hr and the Swiss drive pretty sensibly. Most of the rest of the roads are two lane and speeds (90 km/hr general max I think) are more governed by traffic than the speed limit. Some roads are over passes and truck traffic can really slow things down, as well as timid drivers, not to mention hairpins. <BR> <BR>twenj

Good morning, Jeremy <BR>Am making an assumption that you depart <BR>from Zurich, your port of arrival. If <BR>so consider taking a connecting flight <BR>to Rome, your most southernly destination and they when leaving the <BR>city take you car and drive north to <BR>Florence and Venice, after basically <BR>as Bob suggests, try Zermatt and Grindelwald , the Berneroberland possibly a night or two in Luzern before <BR>returning to go home out of Zurich.. <BR>Richard of LaGrange Park, Il..

I think Jeremy must mean California state route 1, or possibly US 101. Both routes connect San Francisco with Santa Barbara. <BR>I agree, there is a slight difference between US 1 and California 1. <BR> <BR>