Heimdall

Garmisch hosted the Winter Olympics, too - in 1936. These days it is one of the venues of the Alpine World Cup downhill series.

Garmisch has the same problem as Igls and Kitzbuhel - low altitude, so good skiing isn't guaranteed. Both times I skied at Kitzbuhel (in January) runs to the resort were closed, and snow on the upper slopes patchy.

Best plan for your son is to remain flexible, and look at the snow reports when in Germany. Skiing at Igls and Garmisch may be okay when they are there, but if they are prepared to go a little further, St Anton in the Arlberg region will almost certainly have good snow.

travelgirl2

aussie_10 - I'm not familiar with transvia, so I don't know their procedures. I would think you are guessing correctly about how to purchase a flight. Good luck.

yk

Just curious, why aren't your 23 year-old son and his mate doing the trip planning but you?

It's their vacation, let them do whatever they want.

For traveling on a shoestring budget, direct them to check out the Thorn Tree forum (Lonely Planet).

Vttraveler

I agree with others trying to do the skiing in Garmisch makes more sense than Innsbruck especially if they also want to see the castles.

I would cut out Belgium and Vienna and Innsbruck from the itinerary for sure. Even then with Amsterdam, Paris, Munich and Berlin they will have a lot to see and do in only 16 days. Cutting down to three destinations would be even better

altamiro

>i agree that innsbruck is not a good fit for your lads.

>Garmisch is much better, or Kitzbuehl which will have a lot more youth around.

???
Innsbruck is a smallish city, with a large university and respective student life. Kitzbühel is mainly glitter and furs. More youth around?

logos999

I've been asking myself for decades what should be so good about Garmisch. There isn't much!
The town is so boring, it takes ages to get to the Zugspitze and most of the time there's not enough snow to ski down from the top.

Even the runs at the Spitzingsee or Lenggries are better. (I like Lenggries very much.)
I would highly recommend the Steinplatte. And if it really has to be Garmisch far better than standing in line and waiting an hour to get on top of the Zugspitze is to drive the few extra km to Ehrwald or Bieberwier.

There's nothing, except for a lack of snow elsewhere, that will make a fellow from Munich want to go skiing in Garmisch. Bad idea for everybody else!

Heimdall

I wonder how many of the above who recommended Garmisch have actually skied there? I haven't, nor would I want to, with so many much better ski resorts nearby.

Cowboy1968

Garmisch is boring and usually has only a poor chance of snow that early in the season, Kitzbühel is boring for those not into rattling their jewels or showing off fur, and Salzburg is just too cute and corny that any European 20something would admit to spend the vacation there.

If they want to ski, and meet people from same age group, St. Anton is a great place. Due to the high number of guests from abroad, English is more or less the common language in pubs and bars (which are at least as important as the slopes there).

The only problem may just be to squeeze the travel to/from that resort into their itinerary.

suze

Maybe you already figured this out but I don't think a rail pass is in order for what you describe. Point-to-point tickets and budget airlines.

Also they don't have to book their tickets both in and out of Amsterdam and could save some time at the end by flying out of their last city instead ("open jaw" ticket).

Since skiing seems important to them, I'd suggest cutting it to 2-3 cities, plus the time somewhere for the skiing part. That's still plenty fast-paced but doable in 16 days.

aussie_10

Hi Suze

We are certainly doing some serious itinerary scrutiny. I think the guys didn't take into consideration the shorter days. It is not like that in Oz

They have to go back to Amsterdam as they are splitting then, my son goes off to London for 10 days. The other boy has family in Amsterdam.

Thank you to everyone for your comments. They thought they had it all planned but there definitely will have to be changes.

They are both working in different cities and working long hours together with University and haven't had time to get together for a while.

The next hard part will be booking accommodation!