vienna-salzburg-=Interlaken-venice

A little advice please. My wife and I will be traveling to these areas in October. We usually rent a car for our trips but are looking at trains for our primary transport. Two of these connections are approx eight hours--Salzburg-Interlaken and Interlaken-Venice. Would TA members suggest sleeper trains and overnight travel or would we be missing interesting sights by traveling at night. Thanks

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Salzburg / Interlaken via Innsbruck and Arlberg is a very nice trip...I%26#39;d highly recommend a daytime train for this journey which is thru the Alps for much of the route. The online timetable I used defaulted to less interesting routes - via Munich. Mannheim and Ulm but you can specify the scenic route thru Austria if necessary by selecting the %26#39;via%26#39; option and entering %26#39;Sargans%26#39;.

The more scenic route is also quicker, around 7-1/2 to 8hrs vs 9 hrs via southern Germany.

I%26#39;m not up to speed on the onward route to Venice but other members here will help out.

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If you have time, take the daytime trains! Really scenic! Also Interlaken to Venice will be a scenic journey (and travel time is only a bit more than 6 hours).

Your station in Venice is Venezia Santa Lucia, not Mestre (which is outside of the real Venice, but there are many trains per hour between Mestre and Venice).

For timetables, have a look at:

http://fahrplan.oebb.at/bin/query.exe/en

or

www.sbb.ch

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Just for information: you will save money if you buy one ticket Vienna-Interlaken. You are also allowed to stop in Salzburg. International tickets are usually valid for one month. No discounts on booking in advance, so just buy at the station. Also all tickets are full flexible.

Could be different for train travel from Switzerland to Italy, as italian railways want their passengers to book a specific train (Switzerland and Austria are totally different, all tickets are fully flexible).

International tickets can only be bought at manned ticket windows, not from ticket machines. You can also buy them in advance, but as said above, it does not save you any money. Seat reservations (could be a good idea on long distances) are usually € 3

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