penjbuck

I want to travel by auto for 10 days from Milan to Salzburg, Austria. Any suggestions on where to go and stay? Interested in staying in convents, hostels, b&b's. I am traveling from mid-February to beginning of March. We like food, nature, and charming environments. Night life is not important to us.

nytraveler

Well in Feb you will be driving through (possibly heavy) winter weather. Is covered with snow/cold temps the nature you are looking for?

Have you driven in winter conditions before? It's really a different skill set and I would be hesitant to drive through the mountains if I wasn't comfortable with the conditions. (Yes, major highways are kept clear - but black ice is always possible and driving while snow is falling can be much slower and delay your itinerary.)

This is a trip I would do in May, not Feb - unless you want some winter sports.

flpab

I would be doing this by train. It is a bit scary driving those mountain roads in good conditions let alone ice and snow.

8 hour train trip and you could buy it so you could get off in
Bolzano or Brixen. I think the train stops in Innsbruck also.

asps

Having done countless times that trip, I would ride the lowest and easiest itinerary, Milan-Verona-Bolzano-Brenner-Innsbruck-Salzburg. You can stop almost everywhere along the road and with a stop in Tirol (northern or southern) you can't go wrong. The tiny village of Isera, near Rovereto, has a couple of outstanding restaurants if you are doing the itinerary in a single day.

An alternative itinerary, in summer much more pleasant to drive, is Milano-Lugano-Bellinzona-St. Bernardino-Chur-Liechtenstein-Arlberg-Innsbruck-Salzburg. It has two passes and the St. Bernardino tunnel is quite high in elevation, so I would prefer the Brenner itinerary in winter.

The shortest possible itinerary would be Milano-Chiavenna-St. Moritz-Landeck-Innsbruck-Salzburg. It takes forever to drive and you have some real Alpine driving at very high altitudes.

Just wondering if you will be doing your ride with a rental car; in which case consider the cost of dropping the car out of its home country, the Austrian highway sticker (cheap), the Swiss highway sticker (expensive) if you take the St. Bernardino. Consider also as a possible alternative Milan to Munich by air and then by train or bus shuttle to Salzburg.

flpab

Reifenstein Castle near Sterzing is a good stop if you do drive. We have driven in snow to Salzburg from GaPa in Germany and just took our time and I don't do it at night. We had a very hard time climbing some hills on the back roads to Berchtesgaden. They would not even run a bus so we could see Eagle's Nest. It was a freak Oct snow storm.

penjbuck

We want to drive or travel by train. The idea of the car is to have freedom to explore. Any suggestions on how to do that? Is it easy to rent a car for a day or two or is that more expensive?