One day trip to Milan from Zurich

Hi. My girlfriend and I will be in Zurich from Sept 16-23/15. We were hoping to go on a one day trip to Milan. Any suggestions on travel options on Friday or Saturday sept 18/19. Is eurorail the best and most economical means of travel??

Don't know what "eurorail" is.

Check the timetable.. it is a long trip.

www.myswissalps.com/ti metable

Trips are 4 hours plus. Some trains at xx32 have no change of train.

Trains on those lines tend to be late.

Slowpoke

Hi Billie and Slowpoke,

Eurorail is a common misspelling of Eurail, a set of rail passes covering one or more European countries. There is no such pass combining just Switzerland and Italy, but just one return trip is not enough anyway to justify buying a pass. It would be too expensive.

As you will be in Switzerland for 8 days, you can best start by making a list of all trips you intend to take, including the one to Milan, and compare your options as explained here. A rail pass may fit your plans, and in that case you only need a ticket from the border to Milan. Let us know if you have further questions about this.

By the way, are you in Zurich just for holidays, or for business?

we are there on holidays, so would we take a train to the border of Switzerland and another to Milan? is this possible or should we look at another country ? We are only there for 6 days, but would like experience another country.

<<"we are there on holidays, so would we take a train to the border of Switzerland and another to Milan? is this possible or should we look at another country ? We are only there for 6 days, but would like experience another country.">>

One train will take you all the way. You can buy the tickets - for one example - in any of the SBB Travel Offices associated with the SBB rail at the major stations, and, for a simple trip like Milano- proabably at any station.

From Zürich you can reach Germany in 36 minutes (on the S5 to Huntwagen-Wil) , France in one hour 12 minutes near Basel, Austria(Bregenz) in 2 hours, Liechtenstein in 1 hour 20 minutes to Schaan, near Buchs (Switzerland.)

Not that there is ant thing special about those locations demanding a visit, but they illustrate how close the borders are. You don't have to go to 4 + hours to Milano to experience a different country.

You might consider that the French-speaking regions of Switzerland are different from the German speaking regions. I like smaller towns right on the French-German language border - Murten/Morat, Ligerz/Gleresse and Sugiez. (Only Murten is a well known tourist destination; the others have some nice restauarnts and scenery. Some say that Geneva is more French than Swiss....not that I agree, but it has a strong aspect of French culture. 2 hrs 39 minutes from Zürich.

Locarno, Lugano, Ascona are distinctl Italian in feel, and are closer than Milano.

One thing to be said for Milano, Locarno, Lugano, etc., is the wonderful train ride through the Gotthard Pass.

Slowpoke