It is a lot to see in a short time. In fact, you will not see much of anything except airports and train stations. An itinerary of this sort doesn't allow you to appreciate the places you are visiting. I think I would eliminate either London and Paris or Venice and Rome. At the time of year you are traveling, it will get dark very early so part of a day in Venice won't really be worth it.

I would choose no more than 4 destinations in two weeks. And I would use a car, if at all, only for the Munich/Switzerland section and train to and in Italy. You can't use a car in Venice and don't want or need one in Rome. Since the countryside will be a bit dry and brown, driving won't have much to see.

I don't mean to discourage you as I know so many people underestimate the time it takes to travel between destinations but in this case, less is more.

Gday Mamcalice,

Thank you for your opinion

We totally agree, it as a hell of a lot to see in a short time. We were hoping to take advantage of things like overnight trains to enable us to see more and spend less time 'on the road'.

How can you decide between not visiting london and paris or not visiting venice and rome

I have done my research though, and it looks like most of our travel times are only in the region of ~4 hours on a travel day, to me this isn't really a lot?

Maybe I am underestimating it all.

hmmmmmmmmmmm

Dan

Danielc118,

You are underestimating your travel time. The packing, driving to the airport, waiting to travel before and after, then unpacking does take up quite a bit of added time to the actual journey. On the safe side add 2 hours before and after each desitination change.
As Mamcalice stated, you've picked too many places to see in such a short time. Immagine if someone from New York was traveling all the way to Australia and spent 1 day in Sydney, 1 in Melbourne, 1 in Cairnes, then jumped to Auckland, New Zeland for 2 days then Queenstown for a day followed by 2 days in the Tahiti. Would they really be experiencing these wonderful places or just driving through?
Since you won't be back for a while, choose what you really want to see right now and stick to that area. Planning is half the fun.

Just to put your mind at ease Trains are perfect for what you are doing, clean, fast, on time and they land in city centres. Aircraft at cheepo airlines might help for the longer jumps. (read up on the companies before you book and check where they think the airports are, some would put Sydney in Auckland for example)

Of your cities
Venice, you really should add another night, your GF is correct.
Munich, why do you want to go there in early January, I'd consider dropping it?

The 4 hours a day is only important since the day light will be so short and, given the time of year, you might lose the odd half day for bad weather (lets say 20% likelyhood). Overnight trains, good idea.

Thanks for the responses guys,

You all raise good points, especially ChallengerGrey with the timings. Thanks for putting it into perspective

We chose munich as we both want to see a little bit of germany, the overnight train from paris was convenient and it flows with the rest of the trip. Initially we had innsbruck in there also on the drive down, but without a car it's not going to happen.

Maybe I can take advantage of the overnight from paris to venice and drop Munich off the trip...

Actually,

There is a 3hr high speed train to switzerland from Paris, but unfortunately no overnight. Do you guys think that would be a good idea? I get the feeling that it would take most of a day to get over to the interlaken area though..

The days will be VERY short, the weather will likely be crap - at least some of your days, Many things are closed on New Years, you will lose 1/2 to 1 full day every time you move, your first day or two may be a jet lagged fog -- so you'll really only have about 10-ish days free for seeing doing..

London for example - two days? Not really - you arrive and spend much of the day w/ formalities, logistics, checking in, dragging w/ jetlag. Leaving ONE day for London. If you actually want to see/do anything in London - stay at least 5 nights. But if London doesn't interest -- then skip it altogether and head straight to Paris.

W/ such a short time and in winter - I'd cut back to maybe London, Paris and Venice. Or London, Venice, Rome.

Do NOT rent a car - it doesn't work for your itinerary. (And this is from someone who has done at least 25 road trips in Europe.) Esp having to drive through the Alps in winter - when (I assume) you haven;t had a lot of experience in driving in snow/ice.

Once you land - just travel on by train. That time of year it's most reliable and least likely to be delayed by bad weather (fog, etc - even if not ice or snow).

I won;t tell you you're going to too many places (you already know that) and it will probably all be a blur by the time you get home.

But I do encourage you to do a lot of reading to 1)understand what you really do want to see/do (I don;t get the just wander thing) and 2) figure out what days and times things will be open.

If you go with more info and something of a plan I guarantee you will find the trip less frustrating.

And do not even consider a tour. But you're going to have to do a lot of work up front to make this work. If you give us a budget (specific amount in euros - not "reasonable" or whatever) people can reco places to stay - with so little time it's really vital that you stay right in the center of each city - you don;t want to spend 1.5 to 2 hours a day getting to what you want to see/do. You want to walk out the door and have it in front of you.

(It's hard for me to relate to - since I could give you at least 10 days or Must Sees for London alone. But my degree was european history - and even after more than 35 years of travel there I still get the WOW factor when I see the spot where certain things happened.)

Gday NYtraveler,

I agree about the driving through the alps, but what about driving through italy? I'm a photographer so really wanting to be able to stop wherever I want to take photo's.

When I said wander around the cities I meant with something like this tool
http://plnnr.com/trip/rome/3-days/best-of/moderate/3-stars/

I'm not too concerned about accom, I'll just go with one of the top 10 hotels on tripadvisor in the centre of each location. Hasn't failed me yet in my travels

I know what you are saying about travel, but unfortunately our dates are what they are and we have made the choice to see a lot rather than focus on a small area. (it was a hard choice though)

Janisj, I know what you are saying, but I guess we would prefer to see london in a day or two blur rather than not see it at all but be so close to it. (and the GF wants to see the Lion King in the west end )

Thank you all again for the advice,

If anyone has advice on specific trains to take to get around, it would be appreciated. The train websites are all pretty confusing.

Cheers,
Dan

Covering too much ground for me, but it's your trip.

Just a couple of comments:

You won't get a full night's sleep on the overnight train from Paris to Munich. You'll have at least one train change, probably near midnight, and then you'd need to be ready to get off the train on arrival in Munich at about 7:00 a.m.

In any event, I'm not sure Munich fits well in this itinerary. It's too far east, or maybe Grindelwald doesn't make sense because it's too far west. I would either skip Munich and go Paris to Grindelwald (7.5-8.5 hours, 3-5 train changes) -or- switch Grindelwald for Garmisch-Partenkirchen or Innsbruck. Munich to Garmisch is 90 minutes, onward to Venice is 8 hours with one change. Munich to Innsbruck is 2 hours, onward to Venice is 5.5 hours with one change.

Anyway, I suggest you peruse the train schedules and figure out a way to stay in Venice more than one night. Otherwise, you'll spend almost as much time getting there as you will seeing it.

German, Swiss and Italian railway websites:

http://www.bahn.de/i/view/DEU/en/index.shtml

http://www.sbb.ch/en/home.html

http://www.fsitaliane.com/homepage_en.html

As you continue your planning, keep in mind that sunrise will be at about 8:30/8:45 a.m. and sunset at about 4:30/4:45 p.m.

Gday Jean,

Thanks for the comments.

Cheers for that, I figured the overnight train would be like that.

I think we have made the decision to drop Munich from this trip. We are looking now at
London --> Paris --> Grindelwald --> Venice --> Florence/Rome.

It's just deciding how much time in each location and how to get in-between. I think trains are a definite, just a matter of finding cheap tickets and convenient trains.

Cheers,

Dan