Hello, Thank you for your suggestions. I'm planning a trip with a friend who will be meeting me in Zurich. I am flying into Zurich and out of Milan. I have only from 9/1-9/10 to experience Switzerland, So. Germany and No. Italy. Since, I've been to other areas in these countries before by car, I thought it might be fun to experience a combination of train and car. But is that too much to juggle with so few days to travel?? I wanted to find out from experienced travelers - you - what you think of this itinerary ( I know it's a lot to cover, but for me that's part of the adventure ).
Should we rent a car for the entire journey or do part train and part car? Here's what I'm thinking: Train=Zurich to Bern Oberland; Train=Bern Oberland to Freiburg; Car=Frieburg to Castles near Fussen; Car=Fussen through Austria to Dolomites; Train=out of Dolomite region into Milan. How many overnights each particular leg of the journey has not been figured out yet, either...
I welcome your suggestions - all car or a combination? Thank you!

I think your plan is generally sound, and I'd certainly advise the train sections in Switzerland. From memory, the trip from Zurich to Bern is only about an hour, and from Bern to Freiburg is just a bit more than that. You will certainly need a car for the German and Austrian destinations if you are to see what you have listed and keep to your proposed overall schedule. If you collect a car in Freiburg, where in the Dolomites can you return it? And at what extra charge? Anywhere in the Dolomites to Milan is also a short train ride, but it might be easier to return the car in Milan. The car hire firm could surely advise.

If you pick up the car in Freiberg (Germany) and drop it in either the Dolomites or Milan (Italy) this could involve a fairly hefty dropoff fee. I'd rework your itinerary to involve the car pickup in Zurich, do your castle and Berner Oberland portions, then drop the car in Switzerland before taking the train into Italy. On such a short trip, you might want to rethink the Dolomites and instead take the train to Milan by way of, for example, Interlaken-Brig-Domodossola-Milan. This is a very scenic rail trip according to my rail guide.

I suppose you could also take the train across the German border, pick up the car at the nearest depot, backtrack to the Berner Oberland, then drop the car in Munich after seeing the castles; then take the train Munich-Verona-Milan. The idea is to use the train portion to cross the border - this avoids the dropoff fee.

Good luck and let us know what you decide.

Swiss trains are wonderful, although kind of expensive compared to say, Italian trains. But you can get anywhere in Switzerland fast and effeciently with the trains. I agree that the castles around Fussen are easiest seen with a car. But you do have to be careful of drop fees when you pick up in one country and drop in another. I have done that in the past and the fees didn't seem to add much (but those times they were long rentals, 3 weeks or more). This summer I looked into renting a car in Milan and dropping in Switzerland and the drop fee was somewhere around $400. The idea of renting the car in Switzerland and driving up into Germany and then back into Switzerland to drop it is a good one.

Thank you all for your responses. We chose to rent a car from autoeurope and got a great deal. Expensive, but still a better deal for the freedom. We dropped the black forrest and will do a little back tracking through zurich from oberland region to fussen. we will wrap up the trip in the dolomites and fly out of milan.
Thank you again for your suggestions!