Venice Travel Forum

I'll be staying 3 nights in venice & will travel to Como & stay there for 2 nights in como with paying a day trip to Lugano in Switzerland.

1/
Shall I be renting a car in the day I'm leaving Venice to drive to Como ? \or shall I be going there by train ??
How can I arrive there by a train?

2/
When wanting to enter a Swiss city like Lugano, Is there any stop to registar with the Swiss Migration or it is not required as long as I'm holding a Shengen Visa ??

thanks for effort in making my honeymoon planging

check the trenitalia site

personally i would never travel by car `in italy bif here is a tran station there

but myabe Como doesn't have a train station - I don't know - i have never been there

1. You can get there by train from Venezia Santa Lucia, in 3 1/2 to 4 hours (curiously the longer times are the more direct trains: otherwise you change in Milan). You can take the Eurocity train that goes to Lugano and Zurich (final destination Schaffhausen), but note that these require reservations so you will have to go to the station at least the day before to buy the ticket. It has a vaporetto stop so not difficult to get to.
2. Passport controls are done on the train and Switzerland is not in Schengen (yet) so you need a separate visa, if of course your nationality requires one. Contact the nearest Swiss Embassy or see http://www.eda.admin.ch/eda/en/home/reps/eur/vbel/ref_visinf/visbel.html

I don't think you need to hire a car (I thought you were going Verona-Vienna?).

It's much more romantic to be on a train together than getting stressed driving in an unfamiliar country (and quite possbly hvaing a row about map-reading!).

The Trenitalia site I posted before will give you details of trains/fares. Journey takes around 4 hours.

It's not entering the city where you will need papers, it's crossing the border. I think you will need a visa (Switzerland is not a Schengen country). Check with the Swiss Embassy in Saudi Arabia (assuming that is your nationality as well as where you live). Details here:

http://www.eda.admin.ch/eda/en/home/reps/asia/vsau/afosau.html

PS For train timetable put date and rough time you want to travel into http://bahn.hafas.de/bin/query.exe/en. If the date is too far in advance to show up in the timetable, just choose one that corresponds to the same day of the week as the one you would be travelling on.

a vote for the car - driving up to Lugano from Como is easy. If you are to take the autostrada, make sure you don't need a Swiss expressway pass. If you do and don't wish to pay for it, follow the blue direction signs for the local road which gets extremely scenic as you near Lugano. From Lugano, rather than returning directly south to Como, go east along the north shore of the lake over to Menaggio and enjoy the spectacular ride on a good highway south along the west coast of Lake Como, perhaps stopping in Cernobbio or Comaceni for dinner. And of course the roads from Venice to Como are all expressway driving. Gas - much cheaper in Switzerland.

I am strictly in line with those posters who suggest the train, having done both I have to say (and it's only my opinion) that the italian train system is the best and cheapest way to travel round Italy.

Regarding going to Como, I have to say that it definately not the most romantic place you could choose on Lake Como. May I suggest that you have look at the Albergo Milano in Varenna as an alternative. As the travel writer Rick Steves says in his book "This place whispers luna di miele — honeymoon" and if interested, specificly ask for room 1 or 2 (my Varenna pages explain why).
It can also reached by train fron Venice and being in the centre of the lake makes every other little town that much more accessable by ferrry. The town directly accross the lake, and only a 15 min ferry ride, from Varenna is Menaggio from where you can get a bus directly to Lugano, and yes take your passport with you as the border guards will come on the bus and will occasionally ask to see someones passport.

The hotel website is

http://www.varenna.net/

The Menaggio to Lugano bus timetable can be found at

http://www.sptlinea.it/pdf/invernale_0708/C12.pdf

Regards,

Billy

hello

here's some info for your day trip to Lugano...

2- I would forget about driving - I'm not even sure if it's possible to rent a car and drive to Switzerland without some special insurance - and anyway there's always awful traffic in entering lugano.

I would definitely use public transportation. There are plenty of trains from Como San Giovanni station to Lugano, either straight trains or local trains (with a change). At least two every hour.

Trains are never crowded on this route, so you can buy your ticket on the same day. On straight trains, your passport will be checked on the train. There are several more options if you take a local train to chiasso, walk through the station border, and then take another train (local or direct) to Lugano. You could even take a bus from Como to Chiasso, by the way. I don't think that your passport will be stamped, just occasionally checked when entering Switzerland. When leaving Switzerland by train it will most definitely get checked. So make sure you don't need a visa.

I know someone suggested a longer route on the way back, but public transportation is very limited - so I would not recommend it.

I hope this can help. Drop me a line if you need any other information about Lugano. I know it very well since I work there and live 5 minutes away. I hope you'll have a wonderful honeymoon

Rhia