8 days vacation to Switzerland & Austria

Old May 22nd, 2017, 04:49 AM
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8 days vacation to Switzerland & Austria

Hi I have planned 8 days vacation flying to Zurich in July returning from Munich..
can I have some suggestions so Me n my hubby can enjoy switzerland and Austria by spending one day in Munich..
I'm thinking of :
Interlaken -2 days
Bern -1 day
Zell Aam see -2 days
Salzburg -1 day
Munich -1 day
And should we rent a car or trains are better to travel..
Tia
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Old May 22nd, 2017, 05:41 AM
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Tia - not sure how or why you would want to cover 3 countries in 8 days. Assuming you have full 8 days on the ground not including the day you land and take off. If not you really would have only 6 or so full days.
Personally my view is to really enjoy the Bernese Oberland area you need 5 days (this could include Bern). Salzburg is doable in one day but it would be a bit rushed. We prefer Wolfgangsee/St Gilden over Zell Am which I thought was super touristy. I believe there are buses that run between Salzburg and St Gilden. Also there is a ferry that connects St Gilden to Wolfgansee. Its a beautiful boat ride. From Wolfgansee you can take the cog train - Schafberg scenic rail for stunning views up the mountain. I have not been to Munich and not sure how long you should allocate.
As mentioned I think overall you may be trying to do too much in limited time. Zurich is well connected to Interlaken. You can also connect by train to Munich and Salzburg. Remember you will be losing 1/2 day or so traveling between cities, checking in/out of hotels.
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Old May 22nd, 2017, 05:55 AM
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Hi Mnag,
Well we arrive zurich at 7am returning on day 8 at 10pm.. the return flight is booked from Munich , this is why we added one day for Munich..
But I got ur point..
The idea is to cover switzerland and Austria as this is a kids free trip for us, and don't know when we will get the chance to do that again..
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Old May 22nd, 2017, 06:43 AM
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Do not hold to the idea that you are covering Switzerland and Austria in eight days. The official Austrian tourism site suggests an itinerary for an alpine "Grand Tour" through Austria, Switzerland and Germany that may be of use in your planning. http://www.austria.info/us/home/explore-the-alps

And whatever the reason for your itinerary, you are spending a fair amount of time moving about. Depending on how you define, "enjoy Austria," perhaps combine the days in Austria with a fixed location to afford you opportunity for a "kids free" holiday, and taking day trips from there? Personally I would skip Zell am See and enjoy the Salzkammergut instead, but you may have reasons for choosing the former.

With all due respect, please return to the drawing board for this itinerary, and bring travel guides with you.
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Old May 22nd, 2017, 08:38 AM
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The two commonest mistakes that tourists make are packing too much and trying to cover too much in too little time.

Every time you move, you use time that is not going to be spent IN a place seeing and doing things. So in that respect, it is LOST time. When you write 2 days here and 1 day there, in fact you will NOT be spending 2 days IN a place or 1 day IN a place. You will be spending the time left after you deduct the travel time between those places. So 2 days turns into 1 to 1.5 days and 1 day turns into a few hours actually spent IN the place.

In my opinion, your plan sucks to put it bluntly. You are going to spend a lot of your time simply moving and very little actual time IN places seeing and doing things. Think of it in terms of percentages. Do you really want to spend 50% of your time on the ground moving from A to B to C and only 50% of your time actually seeing/doing things? Does that sound like good use of time to you?

With 8 days including your arrival and departure day, I would not attempt to STAY in more than 2 places. I would probably opt for only 1 place actually and relax and enjoy as much of my time as possible seeing/doing things.
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Old May 22nd, 2017, 09:22 AM
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Bern and Interlaken are close and I would recommend spending 4 days in Interlocken and doing a day trip to Bern on a day that might not be mountain worthy. Thus you wouldn't have to spend time and schlepping while changing hotels.
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Old May 22nd, 2017, 10:30 AM
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Trains or car? Trains for the places you want to go are fabulous and renting car in one country and dropping off in another can result in predatorily steep drop-off fees. For lots of info on trains check www.seat61.com; www.budgeteuropetravel.com; www.ricksteves.com.
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Old May 22nd, 2017, 11:53 AM
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Most folks love staying in mountain villages above Interlaken - like Wengen and Grindelwald - make one of those your base and you will be eyeball to eyeball with glacier-girdled soaring Alps - from Interlaken the Alps are a distant visage. Take trains from Interlaken to either one or others like Lauterbrunnen.
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Old May 23rd, 2017, 02:59 AM
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As an altgernative, you could travel through the Alps:
Zurich - Lugano - Bernina-Express - Diavolezza Glacier - Pontresina - Scuol-Tarasp - Landeck - Innsbruck - Zell am See - Salzburg - Munich.
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Old May 23rd, 2017, 09:21 AM
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Ok how about 4 days Interlaken with a day trip to Bern. As mentioned by PalenQ above I too would recommend you stay at one of the mountain villages (Grindelwald or Wengen) instead of Interlaken. You won't regret it. Interlaken for me is simply a train hub.
From there move to Salzburg (it will take you almost 8 hours to get there). And spend 3 nights in Salzburg. You will have one full day to cover the city of Salzburg and use the other day to explore Wolfgangsee/St Gilden or Hallstatt. Last day travel to Munich (2 hour train ride) and fly out.
Alternatively - 4 days Interlaken and then move to Munich (5 hours) for your remaining time. Do day trips from Munich to Salzburg or elsewhere. See link below for some ideas. I think logistically this option would work out better.

https://www.viator.com/Munich-tours/...rsions/d487-g5
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Old May 23rd, 2017, 11:22 AM
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You have but a half-day in Munich it seems - I'd add a day at least - very pleasant town lots to see and do.
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Old May 24th, 2017, 06:41 AM
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Palenq I liked the idea of staying 3 nights in wengen, as a base and will explore the other areas like interlaken Lucerne grindelwald and bern if time permits..
Then what I'm thinking is:
Taking a night train to Austria from lauterbrunnen or any other station.. still working out on this as we will check out from our hotel and either explore until night train or take an earlier train to reach Austria , is there any direct train like non- stop--- any suggestions on this plan pls..
Austria - either reaching in the evening or checkecking in the hotel next day..
Munich should be one full day..
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Old May 24th, 2017, 12:59 PM
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No direct train to anywhere but Interlaken-Oast from Lauterbrunnen I think. And none probably Interlaken to Austria but there is a night train from Zurich to Vienna I think - spend the day in Lucerne or Zurich and hop the night train at night but if going to Salzburg you may arrive very very early in the morning.
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Old May 24th, 2017, 01:29 PM
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We were in Austria and Switzerland last Christmas...I would do Zurich, Lucern, Salzburg, Vienna and Munich...trains are great and the landscape is beautiful either by train or car. Enjoy!!
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Old May 24th, 2017, 09:10 PM
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Thank you everyone this really is very helpful..
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Old May 25th, 2017, 11:24 AM
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Zurich - Salzburg by overnight train (sleeping car up to Linz, normal day train Linz - Salzburg):
Zurich dp 21.40 - Linz ar 6.01, dp 6.32 - Salzburg ar 7.48
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Old May 25th, 2017, 01:27 PM
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wonder why they do not just run the sleeping cars all the way - a hassle to get up at 6and change trains.
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Old May 25th, 2017, 09:08 PM
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Hi all, now need ur suggestions for 3 days in Austria excluding Vienna - 0planning for to Salzburg ,zell aam see, Innsbruck , which area should be the base here??
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Old May 25th, 2017, 10:15 PM
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I'm still exploring options .. Has any tried booking with Airbnb for stay in Europe..
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Old May 26th, 2017, 07:14 AM
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Before using Airbnb, you might want to decide if you wish to support a business that KNOWINGLY lists illegal rentals.

http://insideairbnb.com/
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