bqycc

My husband and I are spending some days in Prague in May. We will be departing Prague 5-6 days before arriving Lausanne., before his conference.
We would love to rent a car and drive from Prague to Lausanne and visit nice towns / cities with a mixture of history, old towns/cities and modern ones, etc.

We are thinking about going o from Prague to Dresden by train (would it be better by bus? By train, it takes around 2:15 hours and costs US$50 both one-way tickets) and then choose one of the itineraries to go from Germany to Lausanne.

Possible itineraries:beginning from Dresden....
A) Munich, Heidelberg, Baden Baden, Strasbourg, Lausanne
B) Köln, Koblenz, Heidelberg, Strasbourg, Basel
C) Munich, Augsburg, Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Heidelberg, Strasbourg, Lausanne
D) Wurzburg, Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Nordlingen! Augsburg, Hohenschwangau, Munich, Lausanne

We know we won't have much time in any city, we have 6 days to drive to Lausanne. What we are thinking is that instead of driving 10-11 hours in one day and reach Lausanne, we could get to know some nice cities /towns.

Which itinerary would you recommend us. It could be one of those a to e, or it could be another one.

The option of renting the car in Prague and drive to Lausanne is out of the question because the rental cost per day duplicates. We chose Dresden, because the train ticket is not expensive, it's only 2 hours away from Prague and the rental car cost per day is ok in comparison to other cities (US$78 per day).
However, if you think there is another city that is better, please tell us.

Thanks for reading this long post and for your help in advance

nytraveler

IMHO in 5 or 6 days between Prague and Lausanne I would stay in 2 hotels - no more. There is really no point is visiting 5 cities for 3 or 4 hours each - you wil have time for one sight and then move on.

I would spend 2 or 3 nights in each city - so you can actually see something of the city - and perhaps even a little of the countryside. Munich and Strasbourg especially each deserve several days.

So unless you just want a series of drive bys and 5 minute photo ops I think you need to make some choices on which places re most important to you.

Ingo

Agree with nytraveler that 2 bases max. make sense.

You could actually spend all these 5-6 days between Prague and Dresden. Or in Dresden. Or in Baden-Baden. Or in Freiburg. Anywhere, basically.

Btw, there are convenient train connections from Dresden to Basel with only one or two changes (depends), you can get saver tickets for specific train connections in the 29-59 Euro range per person, which is much cheaper than rental car cost (gas!).

Dukey1

You can easily do this by rail including the easy ride from Prague to Dresden (I would forget the bus)

I would do a MAX or two cities after Dresden and frankly I would probably do a couple of days in Dresden and then a copuple in Munich. You can easily do a day trip between Munich and Augsburg

or Dresden to Nurnberg to Munich and then Lausanne.

neckervd

A car is of no andvantage, as you plan to visit only places with excellent train connections.
Dresden is a beautiful town. But it's in the wrong direction. If you are not particularly intererested in Dresden, you could check a more direct itinerary like Prague - Krumlow - Linz - Salzburg - Herrenchiemsee - Munich - Constance/Mainau/Unteruhldingen - Stein am Rhein - Schaffhausen/Rhine Falls - Laufenburg - Rheinfelden - Basle - Lausanne.
Cheap buses from Krumlow to Linz and from Munich to Constance.

bqycc

Thanks for your advice.
I would love to go to Munchen. I was wondering which other city would be a good idea to go: Strasbourg, Salzburg, Heidelberg? Another one?

So, after your replies, I searched for another city to begin the trip after Prague.
It would be great to begin in Munchen, but the train tickets I found cost US$300 for my husband and me (Prague-Munchen).
Could you please tell me where can I get less expensive train tickets?
If we get good tickets we could go there, stay there for one or two days without car, and then rent the car up to Lausanne or Geneve. After Munchen and side trips we could go to Strassbourg for a couple of days (if time allows we could go to Baden Baden, if not we would head to our final destination)

The Prague-Munchen option looks good, if we find a good price, It is better for us to rent the car in Germany and not un Czech Republic, and also in big cities.

Train hopping is not our preferred way of traveling, since we are taking luggage with clothing for 15 days (I know, we could take less clothing!) And also being in a car, we feel is more flexible for side trips and for staying in bed and breakfasts that let us mingle with people from the zone visited.

Does it sound more reasonable? Would you help us with advice for the Prague Munchen train ticket?

Thanks
Barbara

neckervd

A bus ticket Prague - Munich one way costs 29 EUR/pax
http://www.studentagencybus.com/en/4...AGUE-COACH-BUS
train fares start at 29 EUR too
https://www.bahn.de/i/view/DEU/en/index.shtml