Active Family Vacation in the Alps: Italy & Switzerland

This was my first time working with Zicasso’s travel company, which I found through Zicasso for a two-week trip to Switzerland. I spent time upfront with the travel specialist designing a custom itinerary focused on hiking the Alps. We stayed in four authentic mountain villages and alpine towns: St. Moritz, Zermatt, the Lake Interlaken area (with day trips to Lauterbrunnen, Mürren, and Wengen), and Lake Lucerne.

Our trip featured some truly unforgettable, world-class hikes and excursions, including Lake Oeschinensee, the Stoos Ridge trail, the Zermatt 5 Lakes walk, Mount Pilatus, and the Gornergrat Railway, with its breathtaking views overlooking the Matterhorn.

Navigating these high-elevation destinations required complex daily logistics, seamlessly combining trains, buses, funiculars, cogwheels, and chairlifts all in a single day. The travel company’s travel app made it all effortless, outlining every day in meticulous detail and storing all transportation documents in one place (it even works offline without Wi-Fi or 5G).

Furthermore, the travel company was available 24/7 via WhatsApp. I needed their assistance three times during the trip and their follow-up was prompt, usually within minutes. I wholeheartedly recommend the travel company for your European vacation; we had a fantastic experience and I truly could not have managed the trip without their expert knowledge and guidance.

This travel company was incredibly difficult to work with, and I would not recommend them. The travel agent seemed very annoyed when we asked basic questions about our itinerary. For example, the itinerary he sent us did not have the correct number of rooms booked for our party. When I asked him about it, he rudely told me, "Of course I have booked the right rooms". Later, we found out he was working off the wrong itinerary - our final invoice was based on this wrong itinerary and had a much higher amount than we actually owed. When we pointed that out, he went from being annoyed to flat out rude.

We also identified many gaps in transportation and logistics, with the travel agent continuing to be rude when we asked for clarification or support in fixing the gaps. For example, he had us driving a rental car to the Bologna airport at around 3 AM from rural Italy to make an 8 AM flight. We would be driving right through Florence on the way to Bologna. When I asked why we didn't simply take a later flight out of Florence, I was told there were no options to do this. A simple Google search identified several flights out of Florence at a more reasonable time.

We finally had Zicasso step in, and they were incredibly helpful in cleaning up our itinerary. Unfortunately, we still experienced several logistical issues during our trip despite Zicasso's support. For example, we were dropped off by drivers at train stations and were then on our own to figure out how to get to our hotels - all required lengthy walks up hills to access, and my 81-year old father was not able to do that. So we had to find our own transportation or have my dad attempt to walk (not good at all). As another example, my father really wanted to see the Matterhorn. The travel agent said it was an easy "day trip" from our hotel to the Matterhorn. It turned out to be a 3.5 hour drive each way. The driver left us at a train station below Zermatt (town below the mountain) to figure out on our own how to navigate the city of Zermatt. We had no guidance from the travel agency on how to best see the Matterhorn, and Zermatt was another town with steep hills that my dad had to walk through (with a cane) as we tried to figure out how to best see the mountain. Due to the length of the drive to Zermatt from our hotel, we had less than two hours in Zermatt because the travel company had booked us on a 6:15 AM train the next morning to leave Switzerland. It was a wasted day instead of being the wonderful experience my father had hoped for.

The best part of the trip was the hotels, and the travel company gets credit for selecting hotels with wonderful views and great breakfast options. They were not easily accessible from the local towns, so we had to figure out taxis and shuttles to get to nearby sites.

Most of the time, we were left on our own to find our way around. But we did have a guided tour in Florence and a knowledgeable driver that took us to a winery in Tuscany. Both of these guides were amazing, and it would have been nice to have more guided support throughout this trip (especially in Zermatt).

We are a family of seven, ages 17-63, and Zicasso’s travel company created an incredible 12-day trip for us all to Switzerland and Austria. There were a lot of transportation logistics, tickets, hotel and dining reservations, and intricate details that they seamlessly pulled together for us. Having our own (and the same) driver for the duration of the trip was an incredible perk.

We traveled to Zurich, Grindelwald, Zermatt, Lucerne, Salzburg, and Hallstatt. We had a wonderful time, thanks to their detailed planning, itinerary, and attention to important details, including one traveler with celiac disease/special dietary needs.

Don't miss paragliding and the Via Ferrata in Murren, Switzerland, and the Fräulein Maria bike tour in Salzburg!

The trip was great and we will definitely bring wonderful memories from the experience we had exploring the Italian lakes.

The itinerary was very well planned; it was impossible to get bored! We had activities planned for every day, which allowed us to visit many beautiful places throughout the 10 days. We enjoyed great food, discovered the unique beauty of each lake, visited Verona to watch the opera at the Arena, and even took the Bernina Express to St. Moritz in Switzerland.

We would also like to highlight how kind and welcoming the people we met throughout the trip were. The drivers, in particular, were always very friendly, helpful, and professional, which made getting around and enjoying the different destinations even more pleasant.

The only area where we feel there was room for improvement was the choice of hotels in Lake Garda and Lake Como, especially the hotel in Como. Unfortunately, neither was quite at the standard we expected for a trip like this. The hotel in Lake Maggiore, on the other hand, was much more aligned with what we were looking for.

The property in Lake Como, in particular, did not really feel like a hotel. It felt more like an Airbnb, with no breakfast available and very limited facilities. In addition, the bathroom flooded every time we took a shower, which was particularly inconvenient. Overall, it was definitely not what we were expecting and, unfortunately, it had a slight impact on our overall impression of an otherwise wonderful trip.

We were so pleased with the travel company. The hotel they suggested was nicely located in Como, with our rooms having a view of the lake and a small balcony. We were also provided a lovely breakfast in the morning.

They suggested a nice, four-day itinerary: a food tour, with the extra bonus of an orientation to the city the evening of our arrival; a wonderful boat ride for four hours on the next day; a trip to Lugano, Switzerland; and then a private transfer, stopping in Bellagio and Varenna on our way back to Milan.

All of the drivers and guides were excellent, although the driver for Lugano thought he was taking us to Bellagio. This may have been due to a switch of drivers due to a schedule change, as the boat ride and Lugano days were switched to make sure we had a beautiful day on the water, as some rain was threatened on the original day.

The travel company also made a lunch reservation in Bellagio for us based on a recommendation we had gotten from our son. The driver for that long day was great about arranging the travel so we could be on time at the restaurant and was there promptly to pick us up when we were done.

We will definitely utilize Zicasso again and would reach out to the travel company if we travel again to Italy.

Unbelievable country and fantastic planning by Zicasso’s travel company and our travel specialist.

When our family decided to take this first-time trip to Switzerland (Zermatt, Montreux, Grindelwald, Spiez, Brunnen), I really knew how I wanted our trip to feel. After speaking with the travel specialist and talking through my expectations, he developed an experience that was once-in-a-lifetime for our family, combining hiking and lake adventures, wine tasting, culture, and food over 12 days. His solutions and attention to detail when weather canceled excursions that were important to us and the immediate response by him and his team were very impressive. I could not be more thankful for their help and would use them again tomorrow. Absolutely recommend! Thanks to our travel specialist and his team!