Karina38

Hello, our family of 4 will travel in July in Europe for 17 days. This is an itinerary I came up with and will be really grateful for any comments and suggestions. We will have a car for the length of our trip, starting the day we leave Berlin.
Berlin - 3 days
Rothenburg - 1 day
Tubingen, Hohentubingen Castle - 1 day
Strasbourg - 1 day
small villages between Strasbourg and Colmar - 1 day
Geneva Lake (Montreux, Geneva) - 1.5 days
Lake Como (Bellagio, Varrena) - 1.5 days
Salzburg - 1.5 days
Vienna - 3.5 days
Thank you!

janisj

Packing and moving almost every single day - that would be difficult for a solo backpacker, but for a family w/ kids -- REALLY difficult.

Plus are you planning on collecting a car in Germany and dropping it in Austria? That will be expensive.

Edward2005

One-day stops are very hectic and there are several on your first draft. You'll be very exhausted from the constant packing, driving, and unpacking. How old are the other family members and what are their interests (and yours)? Perhaps a region on this itinerary can be scrapped and saved for another time.

nytraveler

It's really better if you count by nights than by days.

For instance your "3 days" in Berlin is really 2.5 days but the first half day is jet lagged - so really 2 days.

And you are giving places short shrift - 1.5 days, which will be more like one day really, makes little sense for Geneva AND Montreux.

And it looks like you are counting some days multiple times.

For instance you have

Salzburg 1.5 days and Vienna 3.5 days but I don't see where you have allowed time to get from one place to another. Even if you are on the road only 2 hours it will take 4 hours at least to get from leaving hotel a to checking into hotel b.


If you lay this out day by day (including where you start, your travel and where you will sleep) you will see where you are ignoring travel time and multi-counting some days.

Really, you need to simplify or this trip could just be an exhausting blur.

Kathie

A few things to think about:

Begin by counting nights in a place rather than days. People can deceive themselves when they count days, but counting nights, it should be clear where you are spending each night. It takes two nights in a place to get one full day. You have much more time in transit than you are counting. You have to figure transit time from the time you get checked out of lodgings in one place until you are fully checked in at the next.

Also, renting a car in much of Europe is not a winning proposition: cars are not allowed in the city centers of many towns, so you have to park (and pay for parking) on the outskirts and get public transport into town. Also, picking up a car in one country and dropping it in another usually incurs large drop-off charges - often more than the rental itself.

Lay out your itinerary on a calendar noting where you will sleep each night and see just how much time you have seeing/doing/experiencing what you came for vs. getting from place to place. I think you will need to cut destinations, especially from the early pert of your trip where you are traveling every day.

StCirq

Frankly, I would start over.

The car is going to be a big liability.

Packing up and moving every day is going to be exhausting.

Picking up a car in Germany and dropping it in Austria is going to cost you a whopping lot of money.

1 day for the villages between Strasbourg and Colmar is insufficient.

5 countries in 17 days is simply unrealistic.

neckervd

Fine trip for people who like to spend as much time as possible on boring motorways.
Impossible to give any advice as we don't know why you chosed just the places you mention (bypassing tons of real gems) and what you plan to do there.

isabel

Have you looked at google maps to see how long the trips between towns are? If you just look at a overview map of Europe you route looks pretty sensible but many of the distances are about 5 hours - and actually I find google maps underestimates by quite a bit - so from one hotel to the next might be more like 6 hours (or worse). When I'm doing driving trips (as opposed to train trips) I often do one or two nights but I make sure the distances are more like 2-4 hours for most of them and you have quite a few longer ones.

Karina38

First, thank you for all the replies. We are family with 2 teenagers : 14 and 17 years old and experienced travelers. We travel every year and like the fast paced trips. We will pick up the car in Berlin and will return in Berlin as well, later...I know about the drop up fees. I checked and mapped all the travel times between the cities and calculated how many hours will take to get to each place, therefore I say 1.5 or 3.5 days - taking in consideration the travel time.
In nights the trip looks like that:
Berlin (we fly in at 10 am) - spend 3 days and 3 nights.
Pick up the car.
Rothenburg (5 hours drive) - spend 1/2 day and 1 night
Tubingen and surroundings (2 hours drive)-1 day and 1 night
Strasbourg (2 hours drive) - spend the day and 1 night
Alsace, Colmar (2 hours drive) - 1 night
Geneva, Montreux (3 hours drive) - 2 nights
Lake Como: Bellagio, Varrenna ( 4.5 hours drive) - 2 nights
Salzburg (6.5 hours drive)- 2 nights
Vienna (2.5 hours drive)- 4 nights
Leave Vienna late in the evening, drive at night to Berlin, the flight at 11 am the next day. Return the car.

We are pretty energetic travelers and usually start the day early, around 9 am and not back to our hotel before the late evening. In Paris, Barcelona, Rome, London, and Prague, for example, we were out every day until at least midnight. The exception is only the first day, when we are back the hotel by 8 or 9 pm.
I figured we have enough time for big cities like Berlin and Vienna (3 and 4 days) and 1-2 days in small towns and villages, where we want just to wonder around and take hikes.
Thank you!

Sassafrass

OP, "This is an itinerary I came up with and will be really greatful for any comments and suggestions."

Your response indicates that your itinerary is quite set. Are you looking for suggestions about other places to stop, food, hotels, tours, getting tickets, etc., etc? What kinds of suggestions would be helpful?

Sassafrass

The night before flying out, you are going to drive over 7 hours plus rest times, from Vienna to Berlin? Once in Berlin, will you be catching a bit of sleep someplace before dropping the car and heading to the airport?

Seems a bit tough to me, but I am old. You and your teens are young, so have lots more energy and stamina. You will probably have a great time.

Seems you have traveled at a fast pace before, so assume in figuring drive times, you are also allowing time for checking into and out of hotels and parking, getting from airport into city and to hotel.

janisj

I sure hope you haven't used Google maps to figure your drive times. It will give you the basic - no traffic - no weather - optimum times. It is almost ALWAYS wildly optimistic. Plus just getting into the town centers and finding parking will add significant time.

But it sounds like you know what you want to do so good luck