Italy,Swtizerland,Austria & Germany
 

I really need some help. My family of six with ages from 69 to 7 are flying into Milan (June 23)and trying to plan a trip from there. Some want to go to Lake Como and also take in Switzerland, Austria, Germany and back to Italy. My parents will leave from Milan on July 2 with us going on to visit family in Venice.

We were thinking of going to Munich, Zurich and Innsbruck, but not sure if this is even possible.

Is it possible to do all of this or is it better to have a home base and travel around. We were not going to rent a car only travel by train.

Also, are there things to do for all of our ages?

We welcome all thoughts and suggestions.

HOw much time do you have to do Switzerland, Germany and Austria? If you just have the time from June 23 until July 2, then I think it might be too many places in too little time.

Lake Como is beautiful. Zurich is just a large city. While it does have some charm, I would spend my time in the mountains of the Bernese Oberland say in Lauterbrunnen or Wengen.

Instead of Innsbruck, I think you will find more people here that would recommend Hall in Tirol, which is just a few miles from Innsbruck. A better alternative, I think would be the area around Salzburg as an alternative. You could spend some time in Salzburg itself and if time allows, go to St. Gilgen on Wolfgangsee for a couple of days. Or, use St. Gilgen as a base for a few days and make day trips from there to Salzburg and some of the other lovely towns in the area.

You only have 8-9 days to travel around, so you may need to limit the areas you wish to visit. We travelled around the countries you've mentioned by train in 2006 and found it easy to do.

As bettyk said, I would skip Zurich and visit somewhere more scenic. Lucerne was very nice. I can't vouch for the following places, but you may consider Lugano or Locarno, which are close to Italy.

Salzburg is nice to see and can be done in a day or so. Munich is okay, but somewhere in the Bavarian Alps might be nicer (we went to Fuessen).

The train between Salzburg and Munich is only about 1.5 hours. The trip from Venice to Salzburg took about 7 hours as did the trip from Zermatt, Switzerland to Venice. Therefore, we spent the best part of 2 days travelling to and from Venice. I would recommend choosing an itinery with shorter travel times than what we did.

also have a look at the current thread "going to Switzerland from Como" which has more info about places to see in Switzerland and how to get there.

4 countries is WAY too much to try to do in 10 days imo.

t

In that time you will be lucky to see 3 good destinations. I would do Lago Como, Luzern, and the Berner Oberland---all doable by train. Save Austria and Bavaria for another trip---with a car.

Thanks for all of the advice. We are going to trim it down and enjoy the trip!

Hi jameg,

with participants of those ges, you need to plan for people wanting/needing to do differnt things.

I would find a nice villa on lake como or maggiore. then those who want to can tour around the lake, and the other, possibly older members of the party, can take boat trips.

then your parents can leave from Milan and you can carry onto Venice.

I know that you were being more ambitious than this, but this would be a lovely holiday - touring with a party of the ages you describe would in my opinion leave you needing another one.

just my opinion.

regards, ann