Itinerary
 

Traveling to Weisbaden, for 1 st time ever, to visit daughter in May. We will have 9 days. Looking to go to Paris( eifle tower, louvre, notre dame, arc) for 1-2 days incorporate day trip to Normandy (d-day beaches). Back to Weisbaden for a day then from there to King Ludwig castles and eagles nest, seeing the Rhine, Black Forest area & alps and maybe garmish or similar town along the way using maybe 3-4 days. If possible a day trip to Heidleburg. Group of 5 adults & 2 children. Probably renting a vehicle for the travel. Is this realistic ?Any suggestions or thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

It wouldn't be at all realistic for me. I am wondering if you have taken into account the time it will take you to travel from one destination to the next and to check in and check out.

I suggest that you do some research as to the actual time you will need to visit each place and travel to the next.

Prioritize. As Rick Steves says, assume you will return. If you're like the rest of us, you'll get the travel bug and want to come back.

I really don't think it's even possible, let alone realistic.

Check the itinerary you want to do on viamichelin.com

It will give you accurate driving times for the destinations you want to go to (in sequence).

Add time for traffic jams being lost or a if peestop.

Add time to look for your hotel at arrival time for check in installation etc

Then see what you have left.
Don't forget you are supposed to sleep and eat.

You can squish the experiences you would have in your unrealistic itinerary into a smaller geographic circle.

Garmisch and Ludwig's palaces (he was born way too late in history to build castles) need to go. The Black Forest is nice too but not so nice that you need to drive yourselves crazy to see it. But your trip will not lack for great natural scenery...

"We will have 9 days."

Are you flying into Paris or FRA? I'll assume FRA.

Day 1 is in Wiesbaden, right? Get over your jet lag there. Don't think of driving to Paris or anywhere else. If you're flying into FRA just take the train to Wiesbaden and relax or if you've got the time and energy, take the train to Rüdesheim for a look around there.

Day 2: Train to Paris: 4.5 hours if you leave at around 8 am or 6 hours of driving. Half a day's sightseeing.

Day 3: In Paris

Day 4: Outing to Normandy beaches

Day 5: "Back to Wiesbaden for a day"

Day 6: Travel to Ludwigsburg (about 2 hours by train) for a fabulous Baroque castle:
http://barockerlebnis.de/en/home/
Return north to Heidelberg (about 1.5 hours) for the late afternoon and evening.

Day 7: Morning in Heidelberg, travel about 2 hours north in the afternoon to the Middle Rhine Valley north of Wiesbaden (Bacharach?) for two nights.

Day 8,9: Rhine River Cruise; Marksburg (real, intact medieval castle) and Rheinfels Castle; Boppard, Oberwesel, Braubach (old-world villages.) Possible day trip north to Linz and Remagen (good WW II museum there at the site of battle for the former "Bridge at Remagen" (which was memorialized in a film by the same name.)

Marksburg: http://www.wald-laeufer.de/fotos.bil...h-am-Rhein.jpg

Remagen: http://www.bruecke-remagen.de/index_en.htm

Rheinfels Castle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxFF80wORNQ

Braubach: http://www.romantischer-rhein.de/upl...ltstadt_02.jpg

Boppard, near top of chairlift: http://ext.pimg.tw/samlucky5711/1379...g?v=1379089585

Bacharach: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...arach_BW_9.JPG

Thus you have some WW II stuff, some old-world villages like the Black Forest, a palace, some real castles, and some great scenery, all without the insane mileage.

As proposed, no it's not realistic. To many places, too much distance, too little time.

Trains will speed up the whole thing - high-speed German and French trains blow along at speeds of up to nearly 190 mph- and in Paris you need no car nor do you want one - take the metro like Parisians do instead of driving in that hectic trafficky city.

for lots on trains check www.seat61.com - great info on discounted tickets like at www.voyages-sncf.com for to and from Paris and to and from Bayeux, railhead for the D-Day beaches; www.budgeteuropetravel.com and www.ricksteves.com.

Normandy is a long drive from Paris but trains do it in about 2 hours - hook up with any of several D-Day (Jour-J in French) tours of the highlights from Bayeux - need not stay over and take train back to Paris.

Fussgaenger as usual has given you sweet info on places in Germany on your hit list - too bad you can't wrangle a few more days and make it all the more leisurely, especially for the kiddos.

If you want to see/do/experience anything of these places in 9 days, choose two places. Otherwise your trip will consist mostly of being in transit and feeling exhausted.

Sorry - but this looks like the Bataan death march - not a vacation.

You will be spending a very large part of your trip just getting from one place to another - esp with 7 people, 2 of them kids (and how young are these children?). and are you flying in and out of FRA?

Agree to pick 2 places and actually see something of them rather than bounce around like ping pong balls.

At a minimum you need to decide between Germany and France - not try to see several parts of both.

If you could have more time in Paris - say 2 days - I think fussgaenger's itinerary could be possible without being in that Bataan death march mode. But there is a lot of travel time eating into the itinerary - to go to Paris and back for just a day in Paris and a rushed day in the D-Day area seems too rushed - the German part fine - as fuusgaenger shows or could be done anyway - I would do it anyway!

If you don't mind skipping the Louvre and just want to do a city tour of Paris landmarks, a Seine cruise, and have a nice meal or two, the 1.5 days in my proposed schedule will cover that. But even 2 - 3 days are not enough if you really want to uncover Paris; for that you'd need 5 days or more, one alone for the Louvre, probably.

God love you all !!! Ok... Sounds like I need to rethink this trip. So.. We are flying into Frankfurt then driving to my daughters in Weisbaden. That will be home base. She , her husband & 2 children.. 5 & 9 yrs old are our reason for coming to Germany. They are stationed there till September. Our original thought was to see the southern part of Germany and go to Paris for a couple days. Son in law really wants to go to Normandy and we want to see a castle and the alps.. Guess question is what to see considering this will probably be only opportunity to come to Europe.

Additional bthoughts and advice please ??!
1 night .. 2 days in Paris. Should be enough to time for eifle tower, mass at notre same, arc & view outside of louvre. Then from Weisbaden to eagles nest, Hallstatt & points in between by car taking 4-5 days ?? Leaves 1-2 days for Rhine area ???

Ever been to Paris before if not I'd take a day or 2 off the car in Austria and add to Paris - maybe do the short jaunt by RER out to Versailles, to me one of Paris' absolute must sights.