Zurich to Bellagio in 8-9 days, late June

  • Gita
    Participant
    2 posts
    27 May 2022 at 13:31:06 #827321

    Hi, I have to be in Bellagio, Italy for the 25th June and have an opportunity to tour Switzerland for 8-9 days before or after that date. This is the tentative itinerary I am looking at:

    Day 1: Zurich – city tour and boat tour. Train to Interlaken.

    Day 2: Interlaken – city tour and rest.

    Day 3: day trip to mount titlis or mount pilatus

    Day 4: day trip to Jungfrau-joch

    Day 5: day trip Grindelwald or Murren

    Day 6: travel from lauterbrunnen to Zermatt via Visp

    Day 7: spend day in Zermatt

    Day 8: Glacier Express from Zermatt to St Moritz

    Day 9: Bernina Express to Tirano and then train to Bellagio.

    I am travelling with a relatively fit 79 year old. Is this a sensible itinerary? I have the option to fly to any city in Switzerland as a starting point, it doesn’t have to be Zurich. Is it better to base ourselves in Lucerne for these day trips or would Interlaken be better, esp as I would like to fit in the Golden Tour somehow. (And if we can somehow fit in the Rhinefalls, I’d be delighted). We are more interested in scenic trips and less so in visiting chocolate and cheese makers.

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    Anna
    Moderator
    6274 posts
    27 May 2022 at 14:12:15 #942418

    Hi Gita,

    Welcome to MySwissAlps.

    This itinerary is fairly doable. I would stick with Interlaken instead of Lucerne as your base. Although Lucerne might be a good base for day trips to Pilatus and Titlis, Interlaken is better located for various excursions in the Jungfrau region. A day trip to Pilatus from Interlaken is still doable too if you take the early morning train out. Not sure what you mean by the Golden Tour though. Are you referring to the Golden Pass train?

    Also you might be able to do a trip to the Rhinefalls on the first day if you skip the city and boat tour.

    For tickets to Italy, you can find information here: http://www.myswissalps.com/traintickets/italy

    Let us know if you need more information.

    Regards,

    Anna

    Gita
    Participant
    2 posts
    27 May 2022 at 14:30:59 #942419

    Many thanks Anna, that’s really helpful

    Makes sense to be based in interlaken in that case.

    My apologies, I meant the Golden Pass train. Is there a way I can fit that in?

    Annika
    Moderator
    7104 posts
    27 May 2022 at 15:55:47 #942420

    Hi Gita!

    I agree with Anna that there’s so much to do in the Jungfrau region that you’d better pick something close to Interlaken, instead of going to Titlis and Pilatus. You’ll find many ideas listed here: https://www.myswissalps.com/jungfrauregion/activities.

    If you travel from Zurich to Interlaken via Lucerne, you’ll ride the Luzern-Interlaken Express. This is considered to be the northern part of the GoldenPass line: https://www.myswissalps.com/goldenpass/gettingthere. You could travel toward Zweisimmen/Montreux on the south-western legs as a day trip from Interlaken. But as mentioned, the Interlaken region is packed with scenic trips, so you certainly won’t miss out on nice scenery if you skip these legs.

    For your itinerary I advise you to look into an 8-day Swiss Travel Pass for day 1-8 (https://www.myswissalps.com/swisstravelpass). You can cover day 9 with normal tickets St. Moritz-Tirano-Bellagio: see https://www.myswissalps.com/traintickets/switzerland and the page for Italy tickets mentioned by Anna. Of course there are more railpass options, and if you want to make sure which is most economical you’d have to calculate: https://www.myswissalps.com/train/ticketspasses/practical/chooserailpass.

    If you want to ride the Glacier Express and Bernina Express trains, don’t forget you’ll need seat reservations on top of any ticket or pass you’ll be using: see https://www.myswissalps.com/glacierexpress/tickets and https://www.myswissalps.com/berninaexpress/tickets. You could use normal trains without reservations too, but I’d personally opt for panoramic trains (please see the differences described at https://www.myswissalps.com/glacierexpress and https://www.myswissalps.com/berninaexpress). I especially recommend this in case of the Glacier Express. Traveling Zermatt-St. Moritz in one day with normal trains on this route would mean an 8h23 journey with about 4 changes of trains along the way, which to me would be pretty tiring. The Bernina Express ride is shorter, so that allows more freedom to pick any connection that fits well with your journey to Bellagio, whether it’s by panoramic or normal train.

    You can plan all of your trips with the timetable. Here’s how it works: https://www.myswissalps.com/timetable.

    Hope this helps!

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