krshep

Hello,
I am in the process of planning our first trip to Europe in Sept. and we have it narrowed down to Amsterdam, Brussels, Bruge and Munich (Oktoberfest). We'll be speding 15 days (14 nights). My question is, can anyone give me a good rough itinerary? Points of interest - castles in Germany, Dachau, Rhine Valley, etc. Also, can anyone give me tips on how to travel in between these cities. The train system seems like the way to go but there seems to be a lot of trains to choose from. Thanks!!

PalQ

Amsterdam - Bruges (4-5 hr)- Brussels (1.5 hr) - Rhine River (Koblenz area via Cologne) (4 hr)- Heidelberg (2 hr) - Munich (4 hr) day trip to Dachau (30 min); day trip to Fussen castles (2.5 hr each way); day trip to Salzburg, Austria (1.5 hr) - one of finest cities in Europe.
Train times given above
Investigate the Germany & Benelux Flexi railpass - good for travel throughout Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg and Germany and right into Salzburg - all of your travels - starts at 5 days in 2 month flexi - any five calendar days of unlimited travel Saverpass - two names on one pass: $200 p.p. 2nd cl, $246 1st cl; i recommend first class as is only $46 more and lots more luxurious though 2nd class not bad in these countries. For railpasses i always recommend BETS (800-441-2387) in US and for ideas on all these places you mentioned ask them to send you their free European Planning and Rail Guide which gives rail itinerary tips for places you want to go and rail map of each country, etc. Great planning tool to learn ropes of European rail travel. To see if pass pays off for you try www.railsaver.com

Intrepid1

The advice I would give you for this trip is that you had better start making hotel reservations for Munich NOW if you really are going to be there during Oktoberfest.

You can also check schedules easily online if you use the GermanRail website which is more comprehensive than those on agency sites (such as RailEurope)...I'll give the the faster URL in a subsequent post.

Intrepid1

here it is:

http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en?

vivi

I just got home from Bruge, Amsterdam, Brussels . (Have also been to Munich, loved it.) Of those 4 cities I would be inclined to spend the least amount of time in Brussels. Bruge is a gem, ditto Amsterdam.

I used the train from Brussels to Bruge, Bruge to AMsterdam, AMsterdam to Paris. I only had reservations to Paris. The Belgian trains were efficient and not crowded, I just bought those tickets at the station from very helpful clerks.

MaureenB

Having been to Amsterdam and Munich, I can only comment on those two cities. We went through Brussels on the train, but frankly it didn't look like much of a place to visit.

On the other hand, Amsterdam is an unexpected surprise with great restaurants, museums, and wonderful walks on the canals. (If you click on my name above, you can pull up my recent trip report with recommendations for an Amsterdam hotel, etc.)

In Munich we stayed at the wonderful little Hotel Uhland, very close to the Oktoberfest Park in a very nice upscale neighborhood. From Munich you can easily take day trips to Salzburg and Munich by train. The Bayern Pass, if it's still available, is a great bargain for up to 5 people round-trip to those towns for about 30 EU.

I highly recommend train travel as opposed to dealing with rental cars. There are websites for train travel, but I never could figure out the best routes and prices, so I've used a vendor I could call via its 800 number: EurAide http://www.euraide.com/

MaureenB

Sorry for my typo above. I meant day-trips from Munich to Salzburg and Fussen by train.