Without knowing your interests it would be difficult to advise you, except to observe that with such limited time you cannot do justice to even one country, much less three. I would suggest you book an "open jaw" flight so you avoid back tracking, i.e., you make your outgoing flight to one city, and your return flight from your last destination city.

You won't be able to do justice to 1 country in 2 weeks or less never mind 3 countries. If you really need to do 3 countries I would narrow the focus to 3 cities; 1 in each country. But you'll be missing a lot. Plan on 3 to 3.5 days in each city.

Vienna
Munich
Paris

Which one you do first, second, third depends on your flights (availability and price). You need to make this determination yourself.

Take trains between cities.

This is the best information I have for you given that you haven't stated who the people are (young children, parents, ???) nor your interests. You've expressed an interest in cities so I'm assuming you are more interested in what cities offer than you are in the countryside/towns.

Come back when you are a bit less vague. Read some guide books to get an idea of what you might like to do.

Many thanks for your quick response. Our age group is 53, 46, 19 & 14 (Total 4 people). Since we cannot increase the duration of the tour to more than 12 days, I may even cut down the number of countries to 2. In which case, can you suggest 2 or more good cities (Paris and Vienna or Paris and Munich ? How about Paris and Amsterdam ?). Not interested in London as I have been to London in the past. Taking trains between each city should be fine I presume. If I have to take flights between cities, then is there any low-cost airlines recommended ? Thanks

These cities are not far enough from each other to fly which involves getting to airports (outside city center) and then the long time in the airport for security, etc. Trains are the much better option as they are located within the cities and easily accessible. Low cost airlines often fly from farther out airports and charge for luggage, etc. In fact, luggage charges can be high.

I would ask your children which cities they prefer. They are old enough to do some research and give input.

Definitely Paris and probably Amsterdam for a flavor of something different from Paris. Train tickets are the least expensive when purchased 90 days in advance (on line).

If you choose Amsterdam have your 14 year old read Postcards from No Man's Land which I read and enjoyed. It takes place in present day Amsterdam and WWII locales.

Use this web site to easily find train schedules. You won't be able to get pricing but you can see frequency and duration of trip.

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

Simple number of countries based limit does not necessarily lead to shorter travel arrangement. Paris and Munich are very far from each other. So these two 2 countries combination is probably more problematic than, 3 country combinations such as Paris+Belgium+Netherlands, or Switzerland+Southern Germany+Austria, Switzerland+Austria+Northern Italy, etc. You have to actually compute implications of the entire itinerary in question.

Whether trains are best option depend on where you are going and how you intend to connect them.

Paris and Amsterdam is a great recommendation. If you want to try two cities that are very different and further apart you could do Paris and Venice (or Rome), with an overnight train between the two. That saves you from losing a day of your trip in transit and is a fun experience. It won't be the best night's sleep you've ever gotten but it would be fun for the kids. With 4 you could get a 4-berth sleeper to yourselves, or split up and get 2 2-berth sleepers.

Thanks all the replies, this forum is quite helpful. I think Switzerland+South Germany+Austria combination will be ideal for me, as I might skip Paris for a later trip. Hope train connections are good between these 3 countries. I am quite obsessed with Austria ! If I have to tour these 3 countries, can someone suggest a good itinerary for me, for a 12-14 days trip. I have nothing specific in mind to see, as I have never been to Europe in the past.