Planning a 3-week Italy trip (second time for us, first for our daughter). For the first week, we're considering flying into Munich, Zurich, or Geneva before taking trains to Italy to pick up a rental car and drive to either Varenna (Lake Como) or Lake Maggiore.

Which of these starting cities (Munich, Zurich, or Geneva) offers the EASIEST train travel itinerary to reach an Italian city for rental car pickup, considering these potential routes?

• Munich -> Bolzano -> Lake Como
• Zurich -> Lucerne -> Lugano -> Lake Como
• Geneva -> Chamonix (by bus) -> Domodossola -> Lake Como

play with rome2rio

Have you considered flying into Milan? Then you could take the train to Como to pick up your rental car and then drive to Varenna.

Which of these starting cities (Munich, Zurich, or Geneva) offers the EASIEST train travel itinerary to reach an Italian city for rental car pickup, considering these potential routes?

• Munich -> Bolzano -> Lake Como
• Zurich -> Lucerne -> Lugano -> Lake Como
• Geneva -> Chamonix (by bus) -> Domodossola -> Lake Como

Munich to Bolzano takes about four hours by train. Bolzano to Como will take 3-5 hours, depending on which town you choose.

Train schedules here:

https://int.bahn.de/en

And here for Italy:

https://www.trenord.it/en/routes-and...mo-lake-milan/

Zurich to Domodossola takes about 3.5 hours via train. Domodossola to Milan (to pick up car?) takes about 1:40 via train.

Zurich to Lucerne takes under an hour, Lucerne to Lugano takes just over two hours, Lugano to Milan takes 1:20.

Train/bus schedules here:

https://www.sbb.ch/en

We've never flown into Milan as the airport there gets horrendous reviews, and we find transport in Italy frustrating, but yes, if your destination is Lake Como, by all means fly into Milan.

FWIW, when we visit Sud Tirol we fly into Munich. When we visit Switzerland and Northern Italy we fly into Zurich.

Personally, any route involving Swiss Rail is the easiest, as Italian trains are routinely late and can be frustrating. So for me, the easiest (although not the shortest, and often the most expensive) will always be Swiss Rail

Flying directly to Milan and then renting a car for Lake Como is definitely the most sensible choice from a logistics standpoint, assuming your final destination is Lake Como and you don't plan to stay in Germany or Switzerland en route.

I'm a bit confused about what your plans and priorities are...

Is this a 3-week trip to Italy or were you planning to spend the first week making your way to Italy? If the latter, these are 3 very different train routes, and to me the choice is not about what is the "easiest" route but which stops along the way appeal to you most.

FYI, Bolzano to Stresa by train would 5+ hours, and Bolzano to Como by train is 4.5 hours plus a 1+ hour drive to Varenna.

Where will you go after Lake Como (or Lake Maggiore)? Where will you fly home from?

Why fly into Germany ?

Even Rome is closer to Milan or lake Como.

Milan has three airports . You could fly into Venice. Or Bologna. You could fly into Rome. If you're connecting from outside of Europe you could look at Florence.

If OTOH the point is you want to visit Munich or Geneva the answer is to fly into the city you want to visit.

Direct trains Zurich main staion - Como run every hr from 6.33 until 13.33, then every 2 hrs until 19.33. 2 1/2 hrs journey
Connecting trains from Zurich airport dp 6.04 and then every hr.
Connections Zurich main station - Como with 1 train change at Lugano: every 30 min. 2 1/2 hrs journey.
Connecting trains from Zurich airport dp 6.04 and 6.39 and then every hr

Connections from Milan Malpensa airport to Como every 30 min. Change at Saronno. 1 1/2 hrs journey.

The itinerary Geneva - Chamonix - Domodossola doesn't make any ssense.

Melnq8, why does Milan Malpensa get horrendous reviews? We are flying in and out of Milan for our May/June trip to Italy.

I have had no trouble flying in and out of Milan. The only problem we ran Into was lots of traffic driving to the airport.

IMO nobody has problems with MXP.

While recently looking into flights to Zurich and out of Milan Malpensa, I did a bit of research on the airport and read a lot of awful reviews about issue after issue. It was enough to make us reconsider our plans. I have no first hand experience with the airport.

I've had no trouble with Malpensa, but I think it can be more often impacted by winter weather than the other major Italian airports.

But we don't know when the OP is going, and we don't know the reasons for considering the other airports. Actually, we don't know much that went into developing these three choices. Unless the OP comes back with more background info, I don't know how helpful our comments are.

So, Ihope2travel, please help us understand your trip.

This past January and again in February, I flew from Vienna to Malpensa. Then took the Malpensa Express
into Milan. Everything went smooth.
From Milan traveled by train to Verona, Venice, Vienna. Again a good train travel experience.

I'm still not sure which Milan airport the OP would need. Depending on the starting point it could be MXP, Linate or Bergamo.

IMHO without seeing the "horrendous" reviews I'm willing to bet like most bad travel reviews the problem is the traveler and not the airport.

What exactly can the airport mess up? If there is a problem it'll be weather, the airline or?

Milan Malpensa Airport Customer Reviews - SKYTRAX

Airport reviews and ratings | Milan Malpensa Airport (MXP)

As always, your milage may vary.

Thank you, everyone, for your comments about Milan Malpensa.

I glanced at some of the reviews.

One person the airline lost their baggage so the airport gets one star. Not even the departure airport.

One person complaining security was too long after they spent time at duty free. Not even sure how you get to duty free before security.

A bunch of UK flyers complaining about too few seats. I'm guessing they mean in the non Schengen zone.

I'll just add that I had no trouble flying into Milan. It was very easy to take the train into the city.
Also have to say that I have never had an Italian train leave late. 😀

You're very lucky SusanP - just about every train we took on our last trip to Italy was late, once by 30 minutes.