France, Germany, Prague Itinerary Oct
 

My mother, sister and I will be travelling to France, Germany and Prague for 3 weeks on October 11-30.
Pls take a look at our itinerary.
Oct 11- 6:55am Arrive in Paris
Oct 12 - Explore Paris
Oct 13 - Explore Paris
Oct 14 - travel to Strasbourg in the morning.
-Explore Strasbourg
Oct 15 - day trip to Colmar.
-Stay in Strasbourg.
Oct 16 - Travel to Heidelberg in the morning by train.
Oct 17 - Explore Heidelberg.
- Travel to Nuremberg late afternoon by Flixbus.
Oct 18 - Explore Rothenburg ob der Tauber. use VGN ticket.
- Stay in Nuremberg
Oct 19 - Bamberg or Regensburg day trip from Nuremberg. Use VGN ticket.
Oct 20 - Explore Nuremberg in the morning. travel to Garmisch-Partenkirchen late afternoon. Use Bayern ticket or Flixbus.
Oct 21 - Day trip to Neuschwanstein Castle.
Oct 22 - Zugspitze or Innsbruck
Oct 23 - Travel from Garmisch-Partenkirchen to Berchtesgaden
- Stay in Berchtesgaden
Oct 24 - Boat trip in Königssee.
- Stay in Berchtesgaden
Oct 25 - Travel to Munich.
Oct 26 - Explore Munich
Oct 27 - Explore Munich
Oct 28 - Travel to Prague
Oct 29 - Explore Prague
Oct 30 - Explore Prague
Oct 31 - Fly to Paris in the morning. 15:05 Fly home from Paris
What do you guys think? I haven't booked hotels yet so I can still change our itinerary but roundtrip tickets to Paris have been booked already.
I would greatly appreciate it If you have any suggestions. I don't like visiting museums much. I prefer the aesthetic appeal of a building rather than what's inside.
I also love hiking and nature like beautiful mountain views.
None of us drive so we will rely on public transportation.

It sounds hectic to me. Any day that you "travel to X in the morning" and then "explore X" for the rest of the day is, IMO, a day lost to travel, orientation in the new place, and maybe the chance for a decent dinner and stroll. The same goes for days where you "explore Y during the day" and then get on a bus or a train in the afternoon. To get up and rinse and repeat the next day would never work for me. I don't know about you, but on any day that I have travel to anywhere scheduled, whether it be bus or train and whether it be a 1-hour or 5-hour ride, I spend a whole lot of that day dealing with logistics: packing, making sure I get to the station on time, figuring out where to grab a bite to eat on the way if I need to.....nothing earth-shattering, but just generally attending to all the details involved in getting oneself from one place to another without any mishaps or dumb mistakes. I certainly don't count those half-days of travel as being of much importance in the scheme of the overall trip.

And for someone who professes to love hiking and nature, it's odd to have planned an entire itinerary around well-trameled cities.

It's a shame you bought RT tickets to Paris, as this is a trip that cries out for open-jaw tickets.

You have almost a dozen cities planned for about the same number of days, once you factor in the downtime for travel and logistics. Devoting one-third of your itinerary to logistics doesn't make for fond holiday memories. What about these destinations inspired you to put them on your itinerary? Many of them won't offer hiking and beautiful mountain views, especially in late October when Central Europe can be gray. Could you reduce the destinations and base in two or three places and take day trips?

Since your Paris tickets are booked, perhaps reverse whatever itinerary you decide upon so that you are in Paris at least the day before you depart. All it takes is one canceled flight from Prague to Paris on your departure day to ruin your entire holiday.

I agree that this schedule is really hectic, but that may not bother you (will it bother your mother?). One thing I would definitely do is have refundable hotel reservations in case you have to shift things around if the transportation strike is still ongoing in France, which it may very well be.

I'm finalizing a eight night trip in Germany in March and I get it - you want to see everything and go everywhere! I've had to really back off of my idealistic agenda, lol.

The SNCF strike in France is just about over already, as far as I can tell. As of a week ago Monday, even the pokey little trains around where we live were up and running again, and every train that we want to take in February and March is open for reservations. It's almost inconceivable that this strike would still be going on next October. Of course, there could be another trike...........

I agree with everyone that this is a very hectic trip. And you should have booked open-jaw (multi-city) tickets: into Paris and home from Prague. Now you are wasting time and money backtracking to Paris. Please remember this for future trips.

Paris is a huge city that warrants more time than 2 full days. Do you plan to visit a few of the outstanding museums in Paris? Such as the Louvre or the D'Orsay? Or to see Monet's giant waterlilies at the Orangerie? Even if you don't spend a lot of time in museums, Paris is a great city for just wandering through the neighborhoods, sitting at cafes, etc. Do you plan on going to the top of the Eiffel Tower? Or have a tour of the Paris Opera House, the setting for The Phantom of the Opera? Visit some of the parks? Take a boat ride on the Seine? Visit Versailles? You need more than 2 full days. You will be jetlagged on your arrival day and most things you see that day will probably be a blur.

You won't have too many mountain views on this trip, except for the Zugspitze and perhaps other travels in Germany.

You need to delete some destinations. And I agree that you should be in Paris on October 30, so now you have hardly any time in Prague.

Ditto the above comments... Plus, for several reasons including weather/temps, I would reverse the itinerary and fly to Prague after landing in Paris.

If there is no nonstop flight from Prague back to their home, what they are doing isn't very different from just saying fly home from Prague. and there aren't very many nonstop flights from Prague to the US, if that's where they are from. The only difference is that it sounds like it isn't a single ticket/airline itineary so that adds on time for the connection due to having to collect baggage, etc, which is not a good idea. Otherwise, it doesn't really matter, they are probably going to have to connect somewhere.

It sounds a little hectic to me, but not that bad. Just a couple of the one day stops in Germany etc, I'd add a day to Strasbourg, drop some of those German places. And maybe knock out one of those short stops in Switzerland.

I would suggest calming this trip down a bit and prioritizing. Skip Strasbourg/Colmar and add those days back to Paris. Spend a day traveling then to Munich and base from there for all the other stuff you may want to do. Days in Bamberg, Rothenberg, Regensburg, Heidelburg? I'm not certain what the day trip allure is to these cities. Sure, they are pretty, but having done these city-hopping tours in even my younger days just proved to be more hassle than benefit. Füssen is a day trip, Zugspitze is as well. Along with Prien am Chiemsee. For time in the mountains I truly enjoy Innsbruck. Base there for a few days and explore the countryside. 8 hour train ride to Prague.

tl/dr: Condense the trip to 4 cities to base from and relax and absorb the place, pace and culture.

Thank you all for the suggestions. I appreciate it. I agree that our itinerary is a bit exhausting. I've always booked open jaw tickets in my previous solo travels. The reason I booked roundtrip tickets to Paris this time was it was cheaper.
I've been to Paris before and visited its famous museums like Louvre and Musee D'orsay so it's OK if we only stay in Paris for a few days. I have never been to Germany that's why most of our trip will be spent in Germany.
My original plan was to go in Sept but decided to go in October because of the possibility of experiencing fall foliage in. We're from a tropical country in Asia so this will be a different experience for us. Someone commented that we should reverse our plan. Do you guys think this is better? Weather wise? Instead of starting in Paris, we will start in Prague then travel to Germany then Paris.
If we were to drop German cities/towns in our itinerary, which will it be? Or should I also drop Innsbruck?

You'd have to give your reasons for visiting different places. Otherwise, we'd just be telling you to drop cities based on our personal preferences. It's your trip, not ours.

You can check weather records and decide whether you'd rather visit Prague and the mountain destinations earlier in the month. The weather in October changes a lot between the 2nd and 4th weeks.

I would do this:
Caps = OVERNIGHT.. Make day trips flexible

Oct 11- HEIDELBERG 6:55am Arrive in Paris. (taxi CDG to Paris Est) Take train(3+ hrs) Paris Est to Heidelberg .
Oct 12- HEIDELBERG Walking Tour of old city. Visit Castle. https://www.bigboytravel.com/germany...-walking-tour/
Oct 13- ROTHENBURG am train(3-3/4 hrs) Heidelberg to Rothenburg https://www.bigboytravel.com/germany/rothenburg/#
Oct 14- NUREMBERG am train(1-1/4 hrs) Rothenburg to to Nuremberg https://www.bigboytravel.com/germany...-walking-tour/
Oct 15- NUREMBERG DAY TRIP to Regensburg. https://www.travelyesplease.com/trav...sburg-germany/
Oct 16- NUREMBERG DAY TRIP to Bamberg. https://www.bigboytravel.com/germany...-walking-tour/
Oct 17- SALZBURG am train (3 hrs)Nuremberg to Salzburg https://www.bigboytravel.com/europe/...eewalkingtour/
Oct 18- SALZBURG DAY TRIP to Berchtesgaden, Kings Lake https://www.bigboytravel.com/germany...-walking-tour/
Oct 19- SALZBURG DAY TRIP to Hallstatt Village https://www.bigboytravel.com/europe/...g/topdaytrips/ (See #1)(See #4 for Kings Lake)
Oct 20- MUNICH am train (1-1/2 hrs) Salzburg to Munich.
Oct 21- MUNICH Explore Munich-Old Town Walking Tour https://www.bigboytravel.com/europe/...eewalkingtour/
Oct 22- MUNICH DAY TRIP to Neuschwanstein Castle https://www.bigboytravel.com/europe/...h/topdaytrips/ (See #1)
Oct 23- MUNICH DAY TRIP to Zugspitze (near G-P) https://www.bigboytravel.com/europe/...h/topdaytrips/ (See #8)
Oct 24- MUNICH Explore Munich.
Oct 25- PRAGUE am Train to Prague.Explore Prague. https://www.bigboytravel.com/czechrepublic/prague/
Oct 26- PRAGUE Explore Prague. https://www.bigboytravel.com/czechre...-walking-tour/
Oct 27- PRAGUE Explore Prague.
Oct 28- PARIS Fly Prague to Paris in am.Explore Paris.
Oct 29- PARIS Explore Paris
Oct 30- PARIS Explore Paris.
Oct 31- Fly home at 15:05

For what it's worth, we didn't find Innsbruck especially interesting.