Thinking of Car Hire - Milan/Livigno

djb85

Any past experiences of driving from Milan to Livigno? Group of us going and we are thinking of renting a couple of cars rather than the private taxi transfer.. 2 reasons really:

1.It's such a long commute would be nice to be able to stop + relax for a while
2.The car hire option is much cheaper.

However has anyone had any problems doing this and would we be better to just stick to the safety of the taxi?

k123456

If conditions are good, car hire best option. With the car you can drive to St Moritz for a days skiing, which is covered on Liv lift pass

However to drive to Livingo, you pass over a approx 2000m pass approx 5/10km before Livingo, it's dry no prob, if it's snowing the police wont let you over this pass without snowchains. Chains are hireable from the car hire co. think about eur50.

Havent done it myself, apparently they are tricky to put on in the dark, extreme cold etc

skibum

Hired a car last december, did the drive from Bergamo to Livigno. It is a long drive, when we left the airport it was rush hour, dark and raining. Most of the journey, at least 80% is single lane going through countless towns.

When you get your car make sure that the chains fit the car, try them out in the car park before you leave. I took the reps word that they would fit despite not mentioning the wheel size of our rental on the box. When we had to put them on at 10pm at the side of the road there was no way in hell that they would fit.

Livigno is very high and cold :rolleyes:, diesel freezes very quickly up there, we were told to empty the contents of a bottle that they gave us and fill the tank with the local diesel when we arrived, did all that but it still froze twice. Second time was the morning we left for the airport, ended up getting a taxi with minutes to spare! Cost us €270 one way, which seemed to be the going rate.

Apart from that we found having the car was very handy, didn't have to use the skibus to get around.

I hope to return again some time, will still hire a car despite what happened last year.


Just saw this on tripadvisor: http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g194799-i8056-k3178141-Are_the_roads_dangerous_on_the_way_to_livigno_from_milan-Livigno_Valtellina_Lombardy.html

Enjoy your trip and have a steak at the Bellavista.

djb85

Thanks for the advice! I think i'll stick to the comfort of a taxi from door to door, especially as we have a big group which would mean we'd have to get a few cars... Cuts out a lot of potential problems!