ZJI is the code sometimes associated with Locarno, but it is important to be direct about what is actually there: Locarno's transportation hub is a railway station, not an airport, sitting at the northern tip of Lake Maggiore in the Italian-speaking Swiss canton of Ticino. Travelers looking to rent a car for this corner of Switzerland pick up near the railway station itself, where local and international rental offices operate within easy walking distance of the platforms, rather than at any airfield, since Locarno has no commercial air service of its own; the nearest international airports sit across the border in Milan, a longer drive than most visitors plan for a lakeside trip.
From the station area, the lakeside road hugs the shore of Lake Maggiore, with Ascona's old town and marina only about ten to fifteen minutes away, and the Swiss side of the lake continuing south toward the Italian border, which sits remarkably close given how compact this region is. Heading north and east, mountain valleys like the Valle Verzasca and Valle Maggia climb quickly into alpine terrain, roughly twenty to thirty minutes from Locarno depending on how far up the valley you go, offering a completely different landscape from the palm-lined lakefront just below.
Driving is on the right throughout Switzerland, and nearly every Swiss motorway requires a vignette, an annual toll sticker purchased once and displayed for the whole road-tax year rather than paid per trip; rental cars usually already carry one, but it is worth confirming with the rental office near the station before setting off. Roads around Locarno are excellently maintained, though valley routes narrow and wind considerably as elevation increases, rewarding a smaller car over anything oversized. Fuel stations are frequent in and around Locarno and Ascona but sparser deep into the mountain valleys, so filling up before a longer valley drive from this lakeside Ticino base is a sensible habit.