Please suggest itinerary for Paris – Switzerland – Milan trip in March
Bee is planning a birthday trip with her husband to Paris, Switzerland, and Milan in early March, and seeks guidance for a relaxing itinerary. They have 8 days, want to visit Interlaken, Grindelwald, Zermatt, and St. Moritz, and would like advice on transportation, scenic experiences, and accommodations with mountain views, while minimizing stress from traveling with luggage.
- Book your train from Paris to Switzerland in advance for a smooth journey.
- Consider staying mainly in Interlaken and St. Moritz to reduce movement with luggage.
- Use the Swiss Travel Pass for convenient travel on trains and scenic routes during your trip.
- Check for accommodation in nearby villages if hotels in St. Moritz are fully booked.
- Plan for good weather days to visit Zermatt for the best views of the Matterhorn.
AI-generated summary-
Hi friends, I will be having a Paris/Switzerland/Milan holiday in March with my hubster to celebrate my bday. I have already booked my flights Sin – Paris/ Milan – Sin. I need advise on how to plan a relaxing, no stress itinerary pls and how to plan my transportation. Can some angels help me with planning please. Thank you in advance.
We have 8 days:
27 Feb – Fly into Paris
**1 Mar – 8 Mar – Switzerland Itinerary (Need advice on how to plan pls)
1 Mar – Direct train – Paris – Switzerland (need advice pls on how to book the train)
using the days i have in Switzerland, please advise best route to go:
We want to visit: Interlaken, Grindelward, Zermatt, St Moritz
We want to take: scenic boat ride, scenic trains, paragliding (hubster), strolling on wintery grounds
We want to stay in accommodation with mountain view (moderate class, most importantly must be clean)
8 or 9 Mar – train to Milan.
I am getting cold sweating just thinking of how to cope with moving around by myself as my hubster doesn’t know a lot of English.
Very much appreciate if someone can help me plan an itinerary. I would prefer to move less from town to town, best station in just a couple towns to cut the pain of lugging luggages.
Thank you, Thank you very much:)
Bee
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Hello Bee
Welcome to MySwissAlps.
I can only help you on some of your questions. I will assume that by ‘a couple towns’ you mean that you want to stay in just two towns in Switzerland, so as to minimize the amount of travelling WITH LUGGAGE.
Of the four places you list, I think you must pick Interlaken (https://www.myswissalps.com/town/interlaken/) and St Moritz (https://www.myswissalps.com/town/st-moritz/). Interlaken can be easily reached from Paris with just one change of train, at Basel.
At Interlaken it is only a 35 minute train ride to Grindelwald, from where you can go up to FIRST (https://www.myswissalps.com/activity/grindelwald-first/) by cable car. Or you can take the train up to Jungfraujoch but – be warned -that trip is very expensive. A boat on the Thunersee (https://www.myswissalps.com/activity/boat-lake-thun/) leaves Interlaken West every day at 14:10 (2.10pm). It is a two hour cruise to Thun city. Return to Interlaken can be done by train along the south shore, or by bus along the north shore.
For Zermatt (https://www.myswissalps.com/town/zermatt/), it will be a two hour twenty minute train ride from Interlaken. Pick a day when the weather forecast for Zermatt is good. You have to change trains at Spiez and Visp. But remember that you will have no luggage as you are not stopping overnight. Both changes will involve a SHORT walk. On arriving at Zermatt walk across the street to the station for the mountain railway to GORNERGRAT. This line gives you fantastic views of the Matterhorn. This line is, in my view, the most spectacular mountain line in the Alps. It is also great value for money.
St Moritz is in the middle of a very scenic but rather roundabout journey from Interlaken to Milan. So it is an excellent place to stop for one to three nights. You go from Interlaken to St Moritz changing trains at Zurich and Chur. The 75 minute ride from Zurich to Chur on the IC3 train leaving Zurich at 38 minutes past each hour is very scenic. Sit on the LEFT. At Chur, you get off one train and go straight across the platform on to the train for St Moritz. Sit on the RIGHT for the best views of a line which is so spectacular it has been given the status of a UNESCO world heritage site.
St Moritz to Milan involves just one change of train, at TIRANO. Tirano is a small Italian town just across the border from Switzerland. Swiss tickets such as the Swiss Travel Pass (https://www.myswissalps.com/travel-ticket/swiss-travel-pass/) are valid as far as Tirano.
The ride from St Moritz to Tirano can take up to two hours and 35 minutes. For example if you left St Moritz at 09:48 you get to Tirano at 12:23. But you get lots of time to enjoy this fantastic BERNINA line. So spectacular that this line has also been given the status of a UNESCO world heritage site.
And the scenery does not stop at Tirano. The Swiss and Italian trains have separate stations, but the two stations are right next door to each other. Trains from Tirano to Milan are hourly and take about two-and-a-half hours. Sit on the right for magnificent views over beautiful Lake Como!
Best wishes
Roger
Omg, ur a Star, Roger! Thank u so much for taking time to write down yr suggestions. I can’t thank u enough. I m already feeling less stress having yr tips. Btw, is there any gd hotels with great alps view i can consider pls. Thank u n I will start using yr tips to plan. I hope I can still ask u questions along the way.
Thank u once again.
Hello Again Bee.
Many thanks for your compliments!
I should however stress that while I can claim to have some expertise with public transport timetables and as to which routes are (very) scenic, I am not qualified to advise about in which hotel to stay. I am hoping that other members of this forum will be able to help on hotels. However, please also note that the first week in March is towards the end of the skiing and winter sports season. In particular, I suspect that in St Moritz hotel accommodation may be in short supply. If you find that is the case, try the nearby villages of Celerina, Samedan or Pontresina. If that is not possible try the city of CHUR which I mentioned in my previous reply.
There is a train, the Bernina Express (https://www.myswissalps.com/activity/bernina-express/), which (in 2025) leaves Chur every day at 08:17 and gets to Tirano at 12:49. This train takes the Unesco World Heritage scenic lines I mentioned in my previous reply, but does not actually serve St Moritz. (Look at a map.) This train normally has about eight or nine carriages. The five or six carriages in the middle and the back are panoramic carriages with big windows. For these carriages you have to pay a (small) supplement fare and have a seat reservation. However the three carriages at the front are ‘ordinary’, and require neither supplement nor reservation.
Best wishes
Roger
Hi Bee,
From Paris, there are direct trains to Basel and Geneva. You can find information about travel options from France to Switzerland here: https://www.myswissalps.com/travel-guide/france-switzerland/
Below is a possible itinerary via Geneva and Lucerne as an alternative to Roger’s suggestion.
Day 1 – Arrival in Geneva from Paris (3-4 h by direct train). Travel directly to Montreux (https://www.myswissalps.com/town/montreux/) (1 h from Geneva). Stay for 2 nights.
Day 3 – Travel on the GoldenPass Express (https://www.myswissalps.com/activity/goldenpass/) to Interlaken. Stay for 3 nights. Explore the Jungfrau region and the Bernese Oberland.
Day 6 – Rail transfer to Lucerne (https://www.myswissalps.com/town/lucerne/) on the Lucerne-Interlaken Express (1.5 h train journey). Stay for 2- 3 nights. Explore Lake Lucerne area. Excursion to Mt Rigi and Mt Titlis.
Day 8 – Rail transfer to Milan via Lugano (3 hours).
I hope this gives additional options and ideas for your trip.
Best regards,
Anna
It sounds like you got a lot of great suggestions already, but I thought I would throw in a summary of the trip my family did last summer from Paris to Milan via Switzerland. We only had 5 nights, but saw a lot in that time.
Day 1: We took the high speed train from Paris (Lyon station) to Geneva which I remember being around 3 hours. We did book seats in advance which I remember being required with our Eurail Pass (https://www.myswissalps.com/travel-ticket/eurail-global-pass/). We had lunch in Geneva near the station and then took a direct train along Lake Geneva to Montreux. We toured Chillon Castle (https://www.myswissalps.com/activity/chillon-castle/) on the outskirts of town which was interesting. Our hotel gave us a discount card that included riding the local buses. If we had more time we would have gone down to Zermatt from there for a day, but we had to keep moving.
Day 2: We took the Golden Pass train (https://www.myswissalps.com/activity/goldenpass/) to Interlaken changing there to Grindelwald. At Grindelwald we took the Gondola up to First and stayed at the Lodge at the top of First for a night. It was quite interesting with the lodge being a tourist destination by day, but then empties out at night once the Gondola closes.
Day 3: We came back down to Grindelwald and took the train over to Lauterbrunnen. We checked into our hotel there with a great view of the waterfall. We took the cable car and train to Murren and took a funicular up to another peak and hiked back down to Murren.
Day 4: We took the train to Interlaken, then a short ride to Spiez and then to Brig. These were all short trips and changing trains was very easy at each stop as they were all smaller stations. We stopped for lunch in Brig and then got on the afternoon Glacier Express train (https://www.myswissalps.com/activity/glacier-express/) to Chur where we stayed the night. Chur was a really neat old town to stop in for the night and walk around the old cobblestone streets. The Glacier Express does go all the way to St. Moritz if you don’t want to stop at Chur. You can also take regular trains on the same route. I don’t think this we took the fastest way to St. Moritz but it was very scenic.
Day 5: We took the Bernina Express train (https://www.myswissalps.com/activity/bernina-express/) to Tirano (Italy). From Tirano there is typically a train that goes all the way to Milan, but there was construction going on and there was a replacement bus on the first section of the line as far as Colico. The replacement busses were totally full and a bit of a zoo to get on, but I think this is just bad timing on our part. Once we got to the train in Colico it was an easy stress free train ride. We went as far as Varenna which is a beautiful town on the shores of Lake Como. We really enjoyed our night there and would definitely recommend it as an overnight stop. From Varenna it is a quick train ride (maybe an hour as I recall) the rest of the way to Milan.
As you can see we fit in a lot in our short time, but did move hotels every night. We were traveling light and didn’t mind doing that. With extra days I would have added a night in Montreux to allow a trip down to Zermatt. We also could have stayed in one hotel for our two nights in the Berner Oberland vs. staying at both Grindelwald and Lauterbrunnen. Adding in a couple nights in the St. Moritz area was also something I would have liked to have done.
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