Luggage transfer using Swiss rail
DanJ is planning a hike on the Via Francigena from Lausanne to Rome and needs advice on moving their luggage between hotels. They want to know if they can use the Swiss rail system for this purpose and whether they can travel all the way to Ivrea, Italy, without issues.
- You can use a same-day door-to-door luggage transfer service, but it needs to be booked at least 2 days in advance.
- For traveling to Ivrea from Switzerland, take a train to Milan and then use local trains to continue your journey.
- Consider hiring a private shuttle for daily luggage transport between hotels on the Via Francigena.
- Check with regional tourism offices and hotels for local transport options to assist with your itinerary.
AI-generated summary-
We are hiking the Via Francigena from Lausanne to Rome. Can we use the Swiss rail system to move our luggage between hotels while hiking the trail? I saw a thread where it was indicated that you could pay to have your luggage moved by rail but it took two days to deliver, which would not work for us (or maybe we are misreading what we read).
In addition, how far can we use the Swiss Rail system. In other words can we use the system all the way to Ivrea, Italy?
Thank you for any help!
DanJ
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Hi DanJ,
Welcome to MySwissAlps.
There is a door-to-door express service which delivers your luggage the same day. But this needs to be booked at least 2 days in advance. For more information please check out this link: http://www.myswissalps.com/train/practical/luggage
If you wish to travel to Ivrea by train from Switzerland, the most straightforward option is to travel to Milan and continue your journey on local trains. The Swiss rail operates regular services to Milan Central station daily. Please use the timetable to plan your trip: http://www.myswissalps.com/timetable
For tickets to Italy: http://www.myswissalps.com/traintickets/italy
Hope this helps.
Regards,
Anna
A number of times on our trip last summer we sent our luggage ahead (within Switzerland) but yes we couldn’t get it for 2 days. For example we sent our luggage from Lausanne to Wengen and stayed a night in between at Lavaux and just brought a small bag with items for the time in between.
Thank you both for your replies! Very helpful!
I think I should have described what we need as Hotel to Hotel service, like what we received on the Camino using Correos. Anna, I think the link you provided would do Hotel to Hotel, but only if the Hotel just happened to be near a train station. To help explain what we need, please see the following list, which shows how the first 9 days of our hike will go (all of the days are consecutive):
DAY STAGE
Day 1 Stage Lausanne-Vevey
Day 2 Stage Vevey-Aigle
Day 3 Stage Aigle-St-Maurice
Day 4 Stage St-Maurice–Martigny
Day 5 Stage Martigny–Orsières
Day 6 Stage Orsières–Bourg-St-Pierre
Day 7 Stage Bourg-St-Pierre–Col du Gd St-Bernard
Day 8 From Gran San Bernardo to Echevennoz
Day 9 From Echevennoz to Aosta
I will be contacting SBB, but I think they will tell me they can’t help either because (1) they are not along a train route, or (2) we need the luggage delivered between hotels daily, rather than every two days.
Please let me know if I am not making sense, and my apologies if I am doing just that. 🙂
Thank you again for your assistance!
Hi DanJ,
Free luggage transfers is usually included if you book through a travel agent or tour operator. But if you are making your own travel arrangement, you could probably hire a private shuttle to transport your luggage stage by stage on the Via Francigena from Lausanne to Aosta. It’s best to contact the regional tourism offices in Vaud and Valais to get more information. You could also find out from your hotels about local transporters.
Valais Tourism
(click on the links and scroll down for contact details)Regards,
Anna
The problem with your itinerary is that the sections are so short. I suspect any luggage transport service would find it odd that you only wanted to have luggage moved a short distance each day. I know this will sound odd, but on some sections you could walk the trail, then take a train back to the starting point to collect you luggage and bring it back to your next stopping point! For example, if you arrived at St Maurice , it would only take 10 minutes on the train back to Aigle, so you could potentially get your luggage yourself in little over half an hour.
Are you really sure you can’t walk with your luggage? Some of the days are very short, Aigle – St Maurice is only around 4 hours walking as is St Maurice – Martigny
Thank you for the idea Xpresso!
Anna, I used one of your links to find EuroTrek AG, who sound like they will be able to accommodate us while doing the Switzerland/Northern Italy part of our trip. Thank you!
1960Man, thank you for your thoughts! FYI, my better half told me, after doing the full French Camino in 2019, and averaging a little over 18 miles a day, that she would not do THAT many miles again. I showed her your note as a way of convincing her I am not going overboard with the miles this time around, so thank you! 🙂 You, and Xpress, both got me also thinking that we do not need to have access to our suitcases every day, and should be able to set it up that we only need transport help every 2 or 3 hotels along the way.
Good luck on your trip anyway
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