ileness

Looking for some tips on traveling from Paris to Zurich... Present plan is to train to Luxembourg City, and then rent car... perhaps stopping at Baden Baden, the Steiff factory, etc. maybe Rothenburg ... need ideas about hotels, activities, and places to stop along the way. Thank you!

StCirq

If you rent a car in Luxembourg (which personally I would never even bother going to, though I once did) and drop it off in another country, you will pay many hundreds of extra euros.

As for tips and ideas, what guidebooks have you been looking at? There are hundreds that will give you all sorts of ideas, and since you haven't mentioned your interests, your ages, your budget, or much of anything else, it's near impossible to make useful recommendations.

Gretchen

I would also wonder why Luxembourg--we did because we flew Icelandic Air. I even wonder why Zurich unless you've been everywhere else.
If you want to tour Germany, take the train there and tour.

StCirq

I question Zürich too. So many more pleasant places to visit besides Luxembourg and Zürich.

PalenQ

Yup returning cars in countries other than in which you rented them can be very expensive - check that out first. And if you want to drive thru Germany that is sweet- from Luxembourg take the train to nearby Trier Germanuy and pick up a car and drive down one of the most awesomely scenci river valleys in Europe - the Mosel Valley to the Rhine and then along the best part of the Rhine and down to Freiburg and thru the Black Forest over to say Constance or Lindau on Lake Constance - both neat towns and return the car

and take the train to the Berner Oberland - the Jungfrau Region near Interlaken - to me the absolute highlight of any first-time visit to Switzerland and an area where cars are banned above a few base cities - teens can do things like river rafting or you all can do some neat hikes on easy trails for novices or more difficult ones of course.

The Jungfrau Region can only be explored by train or aerial cable cars or on foot - Grindelwald would be a good base - from it sheer cliffs rise thousands of feet to glacier-girdled soaring Alpine peaks - some of the highest in Europe - toylike trains and aerial gondolas go off in all directions:

Spend 3-4 days here and it will be the highlight of your trip IME:

https://www.google.com/search?q=jung...HbP2CaEQsAQIGw

Zurich is a nice but really modern and busy city - the type of which Europe has literally zillions of - the beauty of Switzerland IMO is in its Alpine areas!

For lots on Swiss trains check www.swisstravelsystem.com; www.budgeteuropetravel.com and www.ricksteves.com. If also taking trains enough in Germany check out the 2-country Eurail Select Saver Pass valid in those two countries at about $50/day for unlimited hop on any train anytime travel. Or for Switzerland the Swiss Pass + a half-off Half-Fare Card (see sights I give above for details).

PalenQ

The dreamy Mosel Valley - one of the finest places to drive in Europe in terms of scenic roads:

https://www.google.com/search?q=mose...HcoHA1cQsAQIGw

ileness

Alas, I sounded naive and lacking in good taste due to being brief.

We are landing in Paris... train to luxembourg because from there we want to head into the country side.. perhaps northern france, baden baden, rothenburg, romantic road, Steiff factory tour , fussen... those sorts of locations, and we didn't want to drive all the way from paris...

we have heard nice things about luxembourg for a night, but will reconsider...

Zurich is a mid point, and we are going there to meet a friend of my daughter's who has moved there this yeAR...

We have already travelled to the Berner Overland (awesome trip)..

This time we plan to go up into the alps to see the st bernards living in the monastery among other things.. some which we have not figured out ( open to ideas.) Thank you for your input!