allisonpc

My husband and I, our two children (ages 4 & 6), and my mother are planning a trip to Europe this August and would love to get some feedback on our itinerary and hotel/home rental suggestions. We fly in and out of Munich August 9-22.

We have friends staying in Munich/Tegernsee and so are hoping to see them in the first few days. My mother wants to stay near water or walking distance to villages and wants to see Lake Como and my husband would like easy access to water sports (kite boarding, paddle boarding, etc.) and possibly biking. I personally would love to return to Mt. Rigi in Switzerland, where I was 20 years ago! We also thought the kids would enjoy seeing Neuschwanstein Castle.

Here's our proposed itinerary-- although we can't figure out how to squeeze Neuschwanstein Castle in without adding too much driving to our trip:

3 nights in Tegernsee
1 night in either Innsbruck or near Neuschanstein Castle (the castle making the drive longer)
3 nights in Lake Garda (Limone)
3 nights in Lake Como (have NO idea what area -Bellagio? Rent a house?)
2 nights near Lucerne (Hotel Seebodenalp on Mt. Rigi)
1 night in Munich

THANK YOU for any advice you can offer!!

Allison

BigRuss

Here's the advice I can offer: do NOT do this.

Your touring pace and sightseeing speed MUST be slower. You have two dependents who cannot do SIX different settings over the course of two weeks. That's just a bad idea.

Pick no more than two hubs, do daytrips. You cannot see everything.

bvlenci

It doesn't see all that awful to me. The total driving time, split over five trips, is about 15 hours, and none of the places are really too far one from another for a comfortable day's drive. Driving every third day is a bit intense; have you done that before on a two-week trip? If not, you might want to trim the itinerary a bit.

Limone sul Garda is a good distance from Tegernsee, about a five-hour drive, so to make the drive less arduous, a stop along the way isn't a bad idea. You could stop in Innsbruck, and make a detour that day to see the Neuschwanstein Castle. Of, if you skip the castle, Bolzano is about midway on the trip from Tegernsee to Limone. Your kids might enjoy seeing Ötzi the Iceman at the museum there.

Driving from Limone to Lucerne would take you very close to Lake Lugano, which is almost entirely in Switzerland (the Italian speaking part). If you don't have a burning desire to see Lake Como, you might enjoy staying on Lake Lugano, which has many fewer tourists and would cut your driving time a bit.

Finally, spending two nights in Lucerne just to see Mt. Rigi is a bit optimistic. It's often completely socked in with clouds (as it was when I was in Lucerne).

With that in mind, if you decide to cut your destinations, you could spend more time on Lake Garda, and skip both Lake Como (or Lugano) and Lucerne. That would allow you to spend more time in each of the remaining places.

sandralist

I'm less pessimistic than Big Russ about the hardiness of children, but have you checked to see if your husband can do watersports on Lago di Como?

bvlenci

My father used to take us on that kind of trip all the time, and much more rushed. He thought two nights in one place was one night too many. He also didn't believe in planning. He would get up in the morning and say, "Let's go to Niagara Falls", by which he meant, "today".

PalenQ

Schwangau - where Neuschwanstein Castle (or palace?) is is a nice resort town on the lake lying far below th4 castle - when I stayed there it seemed a nice family-oriented place.

Watzmann

Lake Garda and Lake Como are pretty similar, I'd skip one of them, if not for some watersports reasons you might have.
Driving up the Inn valley from Innsbruck via St. Moritz/Engadine and straight down to Lake Como is a very scenic alpine route.