Before Wendelse: Switzerland and northern Italy without a car

Our trip began with a practical question: how could we keep taking the European breaks we loved when driving was becoming difficult?

We had often built holidays around a car. We’d flown to Málaga and driven on to Seville and Granada, or taken our own car on the ferry to France to explore the Loire Valley or Champagne. Having a car gave us freedom to move between places and make more of the time away.

Motorway journeys had become increasingly stressful for us, so we started looking for a way to travel without relying on a car.

We started with flights from Birmingham, our local airport. Looking only at the places we could fly to gave us a fairly limited choice. Looking at where we could go after landing opened up a much more interesting map.

What if we combined the flight with a train?

Finding the flights was the hard part

We decided to fly into Zürich and home from Geneva. Using different arrival and departure airports meant we could keep moving without spending part of the holiday retracing our steps. We also chose different airlines so the flight times would make better use of the days we had.

Finding that combination was laborious. I went backwards and forwards between airline websites, checking which days they flew, what time we would arrive and whether the return flight would give us a useful last day.

There must be a better way of doing this, I thought.

At that point, though, we had a holiday to organise.

Zürich, chocolate and an unexpected bike race

We spent our first two nights in Zürich, strolling through the old cobbled streets and squares and enjoying being somewhere we could explore on foot.

We took a boat across Lake Zürich to visit Lindt and happened across the Tour de Suisse. It was a good reminder of how much of a trip comes from the things you didn’t put in the plan.

Then we caught the train to Chur for the Bernina Express.

Even the journey from Zürich to Chur was wonderfully picturesque. The Bernina journey onwards to Tirano took that to another level: mountains, valleys and views that made it difficult to put the camera away.

The Landwasser Viaduct was spectacular, although my photographs caught rather more of the train-window reflections than I’d have liked. Lago Bianco was another standout. Even with a camera to hand, there were moments when it was better simply to look.

We continued to Sondrio for the night and stayed at Hotel Black and White, a wonderfully strange little place with just three rooms above a pizzeria. It was within walking distance of the station, with lovely views along the valley.

It was an unusual stop, and one I remember very fondly.

Lake Como, an uphill walk and the wrong drink

The following day we travelled by train to Varenna. After working out which ferry queue to join and which ticket we needed, we made the short crossing to Bellagio.

Our base for the next two nights was Agriturismo Il Colle Bellagio, a farm B&B on the hillside above Villa Melzi.

Bellagio was busy and pretty. Staying outside the centre suited us: we could enjoy the town and then walk back to somewhere quieter. The climb took about 15–20 minutes, so it was worth remembering that the way home was uphill.

The terrace made up for the effort. Sitting there at sunset with local wine and the lake below us is one of the clearest memories of the whole holiday.

We took a ferry to Menaggio for lunch, crossed back to explore Bellagio, and spent time at Lido di Bellagio. That was where I discovered I didn’t like Aperol Spritz. Fortunately, the atmosphere and the view were good enough that choosing the wrong drink hardly mattered.

A detour with dinner at the end

Our next move was Bellagio to Zermatt, via Varenna, Milan and Visp. Engineering works on the Italian side meant a detour to avoid a rail-replacement bus. The journey ended up taking longer than expected, leaving our dinner reservation at Brasserie Uno in jeopardy.

The ferry was late. When a boat did arrive, there was some confusion about whether it was going to Varenna. Luckily it was, and we caught our train to Milan.

That train was a little delayed too. We had hoped to venture into Milan, but the busy station and a tighter connection put paid to that. Milan would have to be another trip.

The detour had already made it a long day. The ferry and train delays made it tighter than it should have been.

We continued to Visp, then changed for Zermatt. The final train journey was spectacular, with views across the valleys as we climbed towards the mountains. By then, the Swiss connections were doing exactly what we needed them to do.

There was a difference between the two rail experiences. The Italian trains offered excellent value; the Swiss trains stood out for their efficiency and reliability. On a day with several connections, that mattered.

We arrived with just enough time to check into the hotel and get to dinner. Brasserie Uno was worth the rush: a small, atmospheric restaurant and an amazing meal. The goat taco still comes to mind.

The Matterhorn, then strudel

We stayed two nights at Hotel Walliserhof in Zermatt.

The Gornergrat railway took us up into the snow for extraordinary views of the Matterhorn. We came part of the way back by train, got off at Riffelberg and walked down to Zermatt, where strudel felt like a very reasonable next stop.

Even our hotel bathroom had a view of the Matterhorn.

After the long journey getting there, it was lovely to have time to stay put and enjoy it.

A useful last day in Geneva

From Zermatt we travelled by train to Geneva, giving ourselves a day and a half in the city before flying home.

We visited the Jardin Anglais and joined a guided city tour that took us through Parc Mon Repos. There was even a distant view of Mont Blanc, if you looked closely enough.

Our late-afternoon flight back to Birmingham gave us time to enjoy the final day. That had been one of the reasons for spending so long comparing flights at the start, and it paid off.

The thought we brought home

Looking back, this was probably the first trip we planned in what I now think of as a Wendelse way.

It was a longer and more complicated holiday than the short breaks Wendelse now focuses on. It showed us how much becomes possible when you look beyond the place printed on the flight booking.

The airport could be the beginning of the journey. A train could take us somewhere we hadn’t initially considered, and choosing the flights carefully could give us more time to enjoy being there.

We also came home with a few practical lessons. Italian rail travel offered excellent value, and the Swiss trains really did run like clockwork for us. Lake Como ferry timetables felt rather more like a suggestion. We’d leave a generous margin before relying on a boat to connect with a train again.

The planning took far too much searching, comparing and checking. But the experience made us want to do it again.

If you know when you can travel and how long you’ve got, you can explore where those few days could take you with Wendelse.