Amsterdam to Zurich
 

We will be traveling from Amsterdam to Zurich in July. We have no real plans other than a wedding in the beginning of the 2 week car trip. Looking for some you shouldn't miss places that we shouldn't miss?

any place in southern Germany would be fine - the Rhine and Mosel Valleys are awesome - the Black Forest and over to Munich and down to Zurich

But you can also do some of Switzerland before ending up in Zurich - like the Jungfrau Region - to me the best place for folks wanting to experience the dramatic high Alps - stay in Grindelwald and be eyeball to eyeball with soaring glacier-girdled peaks.

Are you ending in Zurich - check to see how much it costs to return a car there if you did not pick it up in Switzerland - can be very high at times so shop around.

What are you interested in - castles - nice rural areas - neat cities, etc.?

do you want to go say to Paris or France or Germany or Switzerland or Belgium and Netherlands south of Amsterdam?

Some guidance will narrow down the virtually unlimited places you could hit in 2 weeks - Europe ain't that big really.

How about Amsterdam-Bruges (one of the nicest old looking towns in Europe) - Reims for Champagne tours and a nice regional town - Burgundy again for wine lovers, etc.

We could suggest some really nice itineraries if you narrow down your open-ended question as there are unlimited ways to go between Amsterdam and Zurich by car.

Please advise.

Cheers!

How long do you want to take over the trip? A full two weeks, or does that include the wedding and time in Zurich?
Is it your own car or a rental? If the latter you are aware of possible one-way drop off fees? Also that you need a toll sticker for motorways in Switzerland and a green "umweltplakette" sticker to allow you into cities in Germany?

For great transportation solution if found through the RoutePerfect website, an amazing platform so find every solution you'd like in every place in Europe. It's called rome2rio.com and it's very useful.

Thanks for the replies! We arrive in Amsterdam Sat. 6/25 and will be leaving Amsterdam on Friday 7/1. We are open to day trips while staying in Amsterdam. Already been to Paris and Southern Italy, so we have no interest there. We have 2 points of interest we want to visit in Germany, a small town between Cologne and Frankfurt, home to my side of the family. We also have Dachau, near Munich, as a stopping point. Also, would like to add a German castle at some point in the trip. We fly out Zurich on 7/9. Looking for a few places in Switzerland that we can get the full Switzerland experience in a few days. We are still planning on a car for most of the time but are trying to figure out how to avoid the exorbitant drop fees. (thanks for the heads up on that one) We are very flexible travelers and prefer a some what open itinerary. A good day to all!

You can avoid the fees by keeping the rental to Germany only. So taking the train to say Cologne, renting your car there, and dropping it off in Germany before getting the train to Zurich.

Stuttgart would make a nice German drop-off spot as it has fast trains to Zurich and if you book well in advance at a very low cost - cheaper than driving probably figuring in you have to buy a 40 franc or so autobahn sticker to use Swiss autobahns (and side roads can take forever).

Lindau, just about in Switzerland, would also make a nice place to drop the car before Switzerland - a neat smallish city but one of the nicest ones anywhere - lovingly sticky out into Lake Contance on a spit of land. I really like Lindau.

Thanks all for the replies as we continue to figure out our itinerary we have taken many of your suggestion and made them part of our plans. THANKS