Hello all, I hope this message finds you well! I am planning a two week trip to Europe in June of next year and I desperately need your help.

My boyfriend and I are planning on the following:
Departure: Houston, TX
Arrival: Berlin, Germany

We then want to travel by train to Munich, Bern and Basel Switzerland, Venice and Rome, Italy. We plan to fly from Rome back to the States.

Here is where I need you! Any advice you can offer on the following questions will be very much appreciated:

Which train pass should I consider?
How many days should I spend in each of these cities?
Is there a way to limit hotel hopping to save on spending?


Thank you in advance. <3

Can you be specific on the days you plan to arrive in Berlin and depart Rome? With air travel included, two weeks can quickly become 12 days.

Plan on your first transfer from Berlin to Munich taking most of one day, from the time you walk out of the Berlin hotel to the time you get settled into the Munich hotel. Same with Munich to Bern but less so Bern with Basel. Basel to Venice is another full day and Venice to Rome is another 3/4 of a day gone.

So you are down to about 8 days of actual sightseeing which doesn't go very far between 6 cities.

If it were my trip, I'd leave out Basel and Bern and concentrate on Berlin, Munich, Venice and Rome.

I think you're trying to see too much. You will lose a day each time you change cities.

There's an 8 hour (I think) time difference between Houston and Berlin, and you'll be jet-lagged unless you get a lot of sleep on the plane. Jet lag always wipes me out.

What about night train, easyjet plane (cheaper) or bus (even cheaper) from Berlin to Basel, train Basel - Bern - Zurich, bus Zurich - Munich and night train Munich - Venice?
There are also planes from Bern to Berlin and Munich: http://www.flyskywork.com/
Basel and Berne can each be visited in 1 day. Plan more time if you are interested in the outstanding museums or the surroundings (but you don't seem to be interested in the Swiss Lakes mountain scenery close to Berne).

Thank you for your responses, I really do appreciate it.

Toucan: I don't have specific dates at the moment but I do know that my departure from Houston to Germany will be late May and I will return home within the first-second week of June. I don't have much planned and I honestly don't even know where to begin. You taking the time to answer my questions is a great helping hand. Thank you.

Pegontheroad: If I were to leave out Bern and Basel, what would be the best way to travel from Munich to Venice?
Also, is ther

Thank you for your responses, I really do appreciate it.

Toucan: I don't have specific dates at the moment but I do know that my departure from Houston to Germany will be late May and I will return home within the first-second week of June. I don't have much planned and I honestly don't even know where to begin. You taking the time to answer my questions is a great helping hand. Thank you.

Pegontheroad: If I were to leave out Bern and Basel, what would be the best way to travel from Munich to Venice?
Also, is there a specific train pass you would reccomend?

neckervd: Seeing the lakes and mountains in Bern is what I want to see most, actually. The pictures alone are breath taking.

Which train pass should I consider?>

Need more info on what trains you are thinking of taking before one can recommend for or against a pass - the Eurail Select Saverpass may be one to research or if traveling 4 days or more in Switzerland a Swiss Pass and pay for tickets in Germany and Italy - both of which offer deep discounted tickets if you book weeks in advance to get them as they are sold in limited numbers and can sell out fast - full fare walk up prices can be astronomical and since a pass except in Italy allows that then flexibility could be a key aspect of a pass.

Anyways to get started check out these IMO fantastic European train planning sites - www.ricksteves.com; www.seat61.com and www.budgeteuropetravel.com - download the latter's free and superb online European Planning & Rail Guide for lots of suggested rail itineraries in each country (http://www.budgeteuropetravel.com/id2.html) - for Swiss trains check out www.swisstravelsystem.com.

For Italy check out www.trenitalia.com for sample fares and train times and for Germany www.bahn.de/en - see what discounts are available and what full fare is and compare to pass to see what kind of savings if any for your style of travel - book in stone up to three months in advance or the flexibility of a pass to chose which trains to take once there and in Germany and Switzerland to just hop on virtually any train anytime.

We then want to travel by train to Munich, Bern and Basel Switzerland, Venice and Rome, Italy. We plan to fly from Rome back to the States.>

curious as to why Basel - from Munich it's a straight shot to Bern - maybe make Bern or the Interlaken area your base and do a day trip to Basel - and much cheaper to go from Munich to Bern than from Munich to Basel - if go to Bern first then you can use a Swiss Pass to go to Basel.

Pegontheroad: If I were to leave out Bern and Basel, what would be the best way to travel from Munich to Venice?
Also, is there a specific train pass you would reccomend?>

not speaking for peg but I would say the best way to travel from Munich to Venice would be to fly - by train you can take an overnight train or a day train through rather nice scenery but it would take much of a day - I have taken the overnight hotel train several times and found it very comfy - yet some folks with sleep problems may not get much rest so it depends on how well you sleep.

by day train - Munich - Innsbruck- Verona - Venice. Takes between 6 and 7 hours.

Re train passes - if going Munich to Venice to Rome - no train pass will be cost effective for this limited train travel - best to buy discounted tickets far in advance - that will save lots of moolah over just buying as you go along.

It's called 'putting the car before the horse' courtney.

First, you have to decide how much time you want to spend moving from place to place vs. how much time you want to spend IN places, seeing and doing things.

Trying to cover too much in too little time is one of the two commonest mistakes travellers make. The other is packing too much stuff.

Each time you move you will lost most if not all of a day that could have been spent IN a place. In travel, less is always more. That is move less, see/do more.

A rule of thumb you can use to begin planning is the 'Rule of 3s' which in terms of travel planning says, never spend less than 3 full days/4 nights in a place unless it is just a necessary overnight stop between A and B. Note the 'less than', it is a minimum. Also note the 3/4, it allows for travel time between places.

So using that rule and assuming you have 2 weeks including your arrival and departure day which are both basically a write off, it tells you that you would have 12 days/nights to divide by 4. So no more than 3 places total. You list 6 which means you are going to spend a high percentage of your time on travel days rather than days IN a place. Is that what you really want?

Once you have decided which places you will visit based on what interests you most, THEN it is time to look at how best to move around, not before.

Should have added, what you should NOT do is come up with a list first and then try to SHOEHORN that list into a fixed amount of time.

IMHO in 2 weeks you should stay in no more than 4 places (4 hotels- including the landing and departure cities) if you really want the time to see much of anything.

Your draft itinerary has you speding alsmot 50% of your time just getting from one place to another - time that could be better spend seeing sights, enjoying activities, sitting in a cafe and absorbing the local culture.

Only you can decide on the purpose of your trip: chcek off boxes, see a specific sight in each city - or actually spend a little time to see more than the top sight and get a feel for the city.

Also - Switz is really about mountains - and just visiting 2 cities (and Basel is a really boring one IMHO) doesn;t make a lot of sense.

Also - Switz is really about mountains - and just visiting 2 cities (and Basel is a really boring one IMHO) doesn;t make a lot of sense>

Yes Swiss cities like Geneva, Lausanne, Lucerne, Basel are really nice nice places (I disagree wiht nytraveler about boring Basel) but the Switzerland you've been dreaming of all your life is in the mountains - the Jungfrau Region is rightly the most popular place for foreign tourists to go because that Alpine wonderland of glaciers, snow-capped peaks, toylike mountain trains, thrilling aerial gondolas, cute litte chalet-style guest house with awesome balcony views, etc is just so so awesome - first time travelers should first head for the hills IMO!

I also disagree re Basel and do agree that it is usually the mountains people envision.

Nytraveller, you just haven't spent enough time in Basel yet to get to know its real attractions.

I agree with PalenQ. We have been to Switzerland twice. The first time included a lot of mountains and cable cars. The second we biked the Rhine Valley (very flat except Disentis to Chur) followed by a few urban days. Basel is a wonderful city, and you can eat (or even stay) just over the German and French borders to save money. Perhaps nytraveler was thinking of Zurich, although we found gems there too.

Anyway, as far as the entire itinerary, for two weeks I would simply drop Italy. That can come next time. You could spend two weeks in Berlin easily. I haven't been to Munich in a long time. And I would consider flying Berlin or Munich to Basel if you get a cheap flight. The airports are on public transportation and check-in times inside the Schengen Zone are not as long.

And I would consider flying Berlin or Munich to Basel>

Or take overnight trains that roll between Munich and Berlin and v.v. - save on the cost of a hotel and travel time as well thru scenery that is nice but can be missed.

sorry - i have been to basel many times - at least 25 - i used to have a client there. there is a cute old town area - but everything shuts down at 6 pm and restaurants are emptying by 9 pm. and simply not any world class sights.

if you enjoy it fine = but i would send a tourist to lucerne instead,

Basel is not as nice as Lucerne for the average tourist at least but what you characterize it as being churchmouse quiet at night is true of nearly every Swiss town I have been in - sometimes over familiarity lends one to be blase about a town that a first-time visitor may really think is neat and I think Basel's old town center is one of the finest I've seen in Switzerland - Lucerne actually rather bores me - yeh smashing setting bugt what you say about Basel otherwise I could say about Lucerne.