DejaDeb

Hello! We will be visiting friends near Garmisch-Partenkirchen (Germany) next summer and want to do some traveling afterward. We are planning approximately 15 days of travel. This is VERY preliminary, just want to get some ideas of which locations to begin scouting out. We are planning to drive, and this is what we have so far on our radar:

- Innsbruck, Austria (definitely)
- Milan, Italy (??)
- Nice and/or Monoco and/or Cannes (??)
- Bern, Switzerland (definitely)

We plan to spend 2-3 days in each location and want to see as much as we can without constantly being on the road. Our particular interests are (1) great scenery (lakes, mountains), and (2) historic buildings (castles, etc.) Don't really care about "nightlife" etc..

I absolutely plan to do some extensive research before finalizing any sort of itinerary, but just wanted to get some idea of where to get started, what "must" be seen, etc.

Thanks in advance to all my fellow Fodorites!

Jean

Even with 15 days, I'd pick destinations that are in closer proximity to each other. In particular, Nice/Monaco/Cannes seems to be an outlier. And such a big circle just to hit Milan?

What's your mode of transportation? If train, I'd search timetables to see what's involved. If car, see if the driving times are what you had in mind. Summer traffic along the Med coast will be especially time-wasting.

pja1

Hi,

While these aren't on your list, they seem to fit your interests and aren't too far from Innsbruck.

For spectacular mountain scenery, the Dolomites (in Italy) are amazing. They start about 2 hours from Innsbruck.

www.val-gardena.com

www.altabadia.it

For great scenery and a bunch of castles, drive the Jaufen Pass (40 min. south of Innsbruck) to Meran/Merano, and just west of Meran/Merano lies the Val Venosta/Vinschgau.
In the Vinschgau/Val Venosta you'll find:

Castle Tirolo
www.schlosstirol.it
Castle Juval
http://www.kastelbell-tschars.com/en...oldmessner.php
www.messner-mountain-museum.it
Kastelbell Castle
http://www.kastelbell-tschars.com/en...kastelbell.php
Churburg Castle
www.churburg.com/index_en.htm
Kloster Marienberg
www.marienberg.it
Plus the small, medieval walled town of Glurns/Glorenza.
http://en.glorenza.net/holidays/welcome.aspx

Paul

bobthenavigator

I am not sure how you selected your destinations---they would not be in top 5 from that location. I would try hard to include:
1. The Salzburg area and Salzkammergut
2. The Dolomites
3. Lake Garda or Lake Como[ or both]
4. Venice
5. Luzern[ for a CH destination]

DejaDeb

Thanks everyone!

Jean, we are planning to rent a car so we won’t be tied to a schedule per se. We’ve done “circle” tours before, and I thought Nice/Monaco/Cannes (and maybe Milan?) might be doable … but from all the feedback, sounds like those can wait for another time.

Paul, the Dolomites and castles “trail” are exactly the type of thing we would enjoy – thank you for the links!

Bob, thank you for your suggestions as well. Those scenic sites didn’t pop up immediately on my radar, but they are definitely areas that we’d really love to visit!

Thanks again! Now off to plan! (It's never too early!) ;-)

sarahmarie

DejaDeb, bobthenavigator, pja1 and everyyone else: These are great ideas!! We're also hoping to do a similar itinerary next summer only we'll be visiting friends in Milan after spending a week in London (Wimbledon).
We'll have 10 full days for Italy/Germany, etc. and are interested in seeing:
Lake Como area, Dolomites, Bavaria, Munich and perhaps a day in Switzerland and/or Salzburg. We like both cities and beautiful countryside, architecture, a few castles and museums and are also NOT into nightlife. We've been to Milan, Venice and Rome.
We'd like to spend 3-4 nights with our friends doing daytrips by car and then head north by train ending up in Munich for a flight to London where we'll depart for the US at 2PM.
What do you think is possible with only 10 days?

DalaiLlama

First of all - make it a multi-city ticket (not two one-ways, not roundtrip), into Zürich and home from Milan. Saves you costly backtracking just to go catch a plane.

Here's an itinerary that takes into account much of what you've already said you are looking for:

Fly into Zürich and take the train from the station underneath the airport to Bern (a bit over an hour). You could easily spend a week or two based in Bern and in the mountains nearby, the Bernese Oberland ("Upper Land").

When you're ready, reserve an entire day for the scenic (not the direct) route to Innsbruck, right over the top of the alps: Train Bern-Brig, switch to either the Glacier Express (for added luxury) or to the regular regional train (follows the same route):

Brig - Andermatt - Disentis/Muster - Chur. In Chur you switch to the Intercity for nearby Sargans where you hop on the fast train for Innsbruck.

Use www.rail.ch but wait until Dec. 11 for specifics, timetables are adjusted all over Europe on that date.

Here's the old timetable for the Glacier Express: http://www.glacierexpress.ch/EN/time...s/default.aspx

From Innsbruck make sure you go to Bolzano/Bozen, http://www.bolzano-bozen.it/en/bolza...-dolomites.htm, visit nearby lovely Meran (city of flowers) - www.initaly.com/regions/taa/merano.htm - and then head down to Milan or wherever in northern Italy.

Now I'm not sure about going to the South of France on this short trip - if you spend only an <i>absolute minimum</i> of time in the locations mentioned so far in this thread (and there are some wonderful ones among those from the other posters!) your time will be up! That south of France, nice as it is, looks like an entirely different trip to me.

The train from, say, Milan to Nice-Ville takes about 6 hours, by the time you find your hotel that's the best part of another day of your trip... But you will have no more days if you do it right earlier on.

Anyhow, your call. Bon voyage.

DalaiLlama

May I add that you'll easily visit your friends in Garmisch from Innsbruck? Trains for that will be at www.bahn.de or at www.oebb.at

mangiacrauti

forget about milan! not worth visiting, because it's still a long drive from Innsbruck and highways&gas are expansive in italy. It's a chaotic city and I don't recommend to go by car!
about Nice and/or Monoco and/or Cannes, same like for milan...long drive, chaotic...and I wouldn't park my car full with luggage in the city...
I recommend Strassbourg in France, which is a 2h something drive from bern. beautiful scenery, good food&wine, lovely city!

alihutch

If you love lakes, mountains and scenery, then Lake Como would be great for your. This site and blog has a fair bit of info http://www.lakecomoapartment.com

bobthenavigator

With 10 days I would select 3 destinations---you pick it.

kerij

book marking for later. Thanks!