This route is over 7 hours on the fastest trains and the only overnight options involve 2 connections in the middle of the night. My first choice would be to fly. Use www.whichbudget.com to see which low fare airlines fly which routes and check our “cheap flights” forum for more links, tips and help.

Second choice would be a day train. I would pick a routing that only has one connection. The one that leaves at 15:15 and arrives at 22:51 has the advantage of not screwing up too much day time sightseeing time. Options at 7:33, 9:30 and 11:15 would allow day time viewing of at least some scenery from the train.

Why did you pick Zurich?

The route from Rome to Milan to Tirano to Chur to Zurich is, at least from Tirano to Chur, one of the most scenic train rides in the world, so I would rank it best. But it is a very long route for one day, and you can’t see the scenery at night, So it would almost have to be split into two days to make it worth it. Flying would, of course, be much quicker and probably less costly.

Thanks for the help. The only reason we are going to Zurich is because we have family there, so we are stopping by for 2 days before seeing more family in Munich.

We are looking around for flights, but they seem to be around $100 per person, which is a lot more than any other flight we have booked.

Unfortunately Zurich isn’t one of those cities that’s dirt cheap to get to/from. It looks like the cheapest train fare for Rome-Zurich around your dates is the advance-purchase Smart Fare at 108 euros, but with it being nearly impossible to book online from the States with Trenitalia it’s a pain in the a** to take advantage of that fare. I bought our tickets from Milan to Zurich on the French rail service website and will pick up the tickets in Paris a week and a half before we’re in Italy. That $100 flight may be your best option.

Cheapest flights I see are Niki via Vienna (with a loooong layover—maybe good it you want to get into the city for a quick peek, then back out to the airport that evening), or via Berlin with Air Berlin—4hr, 15mins. These around $140-$170 USD. Nonstops are steep on this route.

You could take Easyjet to Basel, but of course you’d still have 1.5 hrs. train to get to Zurich from there. http://www.skyscanne…

Thank you for the advice!

Well, we were thinking about visiting another city on the way to Zurich…maybe taking a train from Rome to there, and then from there to Zurich? Any recommendations?? If it helps with price it would be even better!

From a transportation standpoint, Milan is probably best because it’s a huge transportation hub and it’s a scenic 4 hours from there to Zurich by train with 1/2 dozen direct trains a day to choose from. Air Berlin flies to Zurich from Milan (MXP — I don’t know anything about the airport) and shows fares as low as 65 euros. Milan isn’t a great tourist visit, but it’s a decent place to stay (hotel in the train station and a number of good hotels within easy walking distance from the station) and there’s probably a day’s worth of reasonably interesting stuff to see and do.

Florence is, IMO, a more interesting option, so would probably be my choice. It’s around 6 hours to Zurich by train with a connection in Milan.

here’s the idea from travel to zurich from rome http://www.nytimes.c…

That article is over 25 years old. I would think the fares have gone up quite a bit since then, and the franc/dollar exchange rate is also substantially changed.