jkF6hFD1v_asdfd

Hi everyone,

I am a new user. I am planning on Flying to Frankfurt (and back from frankfurt) for a 11 day European trip. Here is the schedule, wondering if it is sensible, thanks for all your help.

Day 1, Arrive at Frankfurt early in the morning, train to Heidelberg, day in Heidelberg, sleep there.
Day 2, train from heidelberg to Bingen, head to Sankt Goar by river, see Rhine Valley. Sleep at Koblenz or Bonn
Day 3, Travel from Bonn to Berlin in the Morning, day in Berlin
Day 4, Day in Berlin
Day 5, Travel to Prague, afternoon in prague
Day 6, Prague
Day 7, morning Prague, leave prague for vienna for evening
Day 8, Vienna
Day 9, Vienna
Day 10, Leave Vienna in the morning for Wuerzberg
Day 11, Rothenberg and back to Frankfurt
Day 12, Leaving

This is our second trip to southern Germany and one of us has been to Vienna and Berlin before. We are not sure if the plan is too tight or not.

Aramis

Nice nickname.

One night in Heidelberg followed by one in Koblenz, followed by a trip to berlin seems a little rushed within your first 2.5 days. That would be over 9 hours of driving, (3 one hour legs followed by 6 hours to Berlin) including some backtracking.

2 days in Berlin and Prague before 3 in Vienna is doable but a little quick on the Berlin and Prague end. Berlin to Prague is almost 4 hours and Prague to Vienna is about 3.5. Then you really hit the wall with a 7 hour trip back to Wurzburg.

I would not attempt this, and I don't think most other responders would. You will probably feel "calm" for one day in Vienna. Of course, if you don't mins that travel and want to see these places, you need to prepare yourself.

I guess each of you probably wants to share your previous Berlin and Vienna experience with the other, but those are the stretch points geographically. If you could settle on just one of those and stay in one place for both of your first two nights after arriving this would be a much slower trip. Vienna, is clearly the more obvious one to consider dropping because it would remove the most travel time.

nytraveler

I agree - too many one night stops and not enough time in major cities. You acutally have only 10 days on the ground and are planning to go to 11 places - one of them twice.

First - do an open jaws ticket into you r first city and out of your last - to avoid wasting a day returning to Frankfurt.

Second, limit yourself to three (3) hotels - no more. If you can't reach a place from the hotel as a day trip - drop the place.

otherwise you will b constantly rushing from one place to another and seeing very little - versus sitting on a train.

Bugler

I will just throw out a few thoughts. Perhaps when I was in Heidelberg, I was too rushed to get the full feel, but we did not find it that interesting. In fact, we left there a day early and headed back to Frankfurt.

I have not yet been to Vienna so I cannot speak for that. I have been to Salzburg and if your schedule is open, it is a nice place to visit, especially if you are a Sound of Music Fan. We even took the Bob's Sound of Music tour while there and enjoyed it.

Rothenberg--- I love this place. It would be a shame to not stay the night there. We stayed there for several nights in a row. It is so much nicer after the mass of tourists leave. We took the Night watchman's tour which provides some history and color. We went up in the walls at night and we spent a long enjoyable evening at an outdoor cafe, sharing a table with ten other people we did not know. Each of us knew just enough of the others' language to keep the conversations going. One of our best nights ever for catching to historical and cultural feel.

I used to visit there on fieldtrips as a kid (US military kid) and took my wife back there for our 15th anniversary. We were back in Germany for our 25th as well. I love that country and I really enjoy the history of Rothenberg.

Bugler

As others are talking about the long drives, you need to remember that Germany has a lot of highways and this time of year, a lot of those loveable orange barrels if it same as I experienced there previously. I ended up with an eight hour drive which was originally supposed to take five hours.

Don't make the trip a checkoff list where you simply said, been here, check, been here, check. Instead, go fewer places but take time to soak in the culture and history. Just my opinion.

Pegontheroad

I think you're doing way too much. For me, this trip would be very rushed. If I were you, I'd stay in Germany and not go to Prague or Vienna. I'd save them for another trip.

I also would arrange to spend the night in Rothenburg. It's jammed with tourists during the daytime, but in the evening and in the morning it is a different place. The last time I went there, I took the night watchman's tour, which was fun.

I lived in Heidelberg in the 60's, when it was a real city. Now it's just a generic tourist city. The castle is beautiful, but the town in general has been ruined by tourism.

rhkkmk

WAY WAY TOO MUCH

skip Heil... skip vienna

piece together the others

jkF6hFD1v_asdfd

thanks so much for everyone's response. Our itinerary does look a little bit too rushed...but since one of us really would like to explore vienna in this upcoming trip, is that sensible to just drop berlin and visit it next time? Or maybe dropping Rhine valley? coz we have heard so many good things about Heidelberg and we kind of want to go there. Thanks in advance!!

Aramis

I always vote for dropping the Rhine - it's an over promoted noisy barge way now. I haven't seen too many Heidelberg fans among the regulars in these forums - I am always fascinated by it's appeal.

Berlin, Prague, Vienna for 3 nights each along with a couple of days at the end for Rothenburg/Wurzburg makes more sense - as long as you are comfortable with the long trip back to central Germany from Vienna.

AisleSeat

You can probably ease your whole trip by flying open jaw (multi city), into one city and out of another. If you don't have to make a big loop to get back to your first airport you will save a lot of that very valuable vacation time.

Also, just because a lot of international flights come in to Frankfurt doesn't mean it has to be your starting point. Consider flying into Berlin, flying to Prague and to Vienna. Fly home from Vienna and save the rest for next time. If those aren't your top three substitute others. I think you will enjoy your trip a lot more that way. Enjoy your trip.

easytraveler

If you don't mind sleeping on trains, there's an overnight train from Berlin to vienna with no change of trains. Departs around 6pm and arrives around 6am.

You can check train schedules on bahn.com