Itinerary Salzburg and Florence
 

Suggestions on itinerary please. 10 days including travelling from california. Using AA miles so thinking of flying into Zurich travelling by train to Salzburg (priority), driving Florence (also a priority). We could either fly out of Milan or would we have time to go to Lucerne and then fly out of Zurich? We want to have a somewhat relaxing pace and don't want to over schedule but want to make the most of this once in a lifetime trip. Thanks in advance for any tips!

Not a good plan--too far to Salzburg.
Fly into Munich---train to Salzburg. Then train to Florence--you need to drop a car in the same country.

Then train to Luzern and fly home from Zurich--only 1:20 by train from Luzern. You only have time for 3 stops---those are 3 good ones.

You will suffer a cross border drop fee on the car but this could be a really nice drive. If you go straight through it is about a 5 hour drive but here is the route I would take that even though it might take a few days.

Go from Zurich to Vaduz Lichtenstein and see that country (don't blink), Make a stop or two at Lindau, Meersburg, and the Mainau the flower island on Lake Constance (Bodensee). Then head across to Fussen to see Neuschwanstein and Schloss Hohenschwangau near Fussen. Next stop the rococco Wiesekirche, Oberammergau and Schlos Linderhoff. From there go to the Ettal Monastary on the way to Garmish. If the weather is good take the cable car ride to the top of the Zugspitze. From Garmish go to the violin makers village, Mittenwald on the road toward Innsbruck.

From there skip Innsbruck but go on to Bertschesgaden and the Koenigsee. Then you ae just a few miles from Salzburg. Salzburg's altstadt is pretty small and all pedestrian so you won't really need your car while you are there. You may want to turn in the car when you get there and take the train on to Florence. You can decide if you need another car from there to wherever you fly home from or you want to do the train again.

Have you already secured your seats using miles? Where in the U.S. are you flying from? I find that AA FF miles are not helpful for much of Europe which may be why you've zeroed in on Zurich. I'm not sure Munich and/or Milan are options unless you fly BA and connect in London (which I avoid whenever possible).

But Florence is actually closer by train to the Rome airport than the Milan airport. Is that a possibility with your miles?

The train ride from Salzburg to Florence is 8.5 hours, so there's one day gone. The route via Innsbruck is scenic. I haven't been on the other route via Villach.

The train ride from Florence to Luzern would take the better part of another day, but it is a scenic route. Only you can decide whether you want to spend more hours on a train in order to see Luzern.

How many days were you thinking of spending in Salzburg and Florence?

@Jean Yes. I am attempting to use AA FF miles. I don't have much (recent!) experience with booking a trip like this with miles so I'm not sure what I'm doing. I have scoped out the AA FF flights from SFO and LAX and narrowed it down to Zurich and Milan because of availability of flights - though both look like they go through LHR. I don't think Rome or Munich are viable options but again, I'm not positive. Didn't realize the train from Rome airport was closer.

@bobthenavigator I appreciate the feedback about Munich. I'd like to make that work instead of Zurich but with AA FF miles not sure it will work.

@Aisle Seat - That driving itinerary sounds great but that's not the area we want to spend the most time in. Thanks for the input though. Sounds like another trip :-)

Anyone FF mile experts?

You say you've checked the availability of flights, but does that mean you've checked the availability of FF award seats and/or you're actually holding award travel reservations?

When is this trip? Award seats are snapped up almost as soon as they are released, and I think American releases FF award seats 330 days in advance. You can use this calculator to count calendar days forward and backward:

http://www.timeanddate.com/date/dateadd.html

I always book award travel with an airline reservation person and pay whatever fee applies. If you're lucky, you get a person who really wants to find flights/connections that work for you on or near the dates you want to travel. Don't assume you'll have exactly 10 days for sightseeing until you have your flights booked.

If your preferred home airport is SFO, you can fly SFO-JFK-ZUR and SFO-JFK-MXP (Milan). Munich would involve an additional flight/connection. The link below will show you possible routes/connections between SFO and various cities in Europe on American and its airline partners:

http://www.aa.com/i18n/aboutUs/where...false&from=Nav

Good luck!

@Jean Thank you! My travel dates will be released in a few days which is why I am trying to nail down where I want to fly to. My departure dates will release 10 days before my return date. Does that mean that I wait until my return flights are released to book my whole trip? I will take your advise and call an agent to book it.

I book the outbound flight on the first possible day and book the return flight on the first possible day (10 days later, 14 days later, whatever). The airline will put the outbound reservation in 'suspension' for several days until you must commit. They'll do the same with the return flight, so you'll have a few days to decide whether the dates really work for you. Then, you confirm the whole trip and pay the taxes and fees. There's no guarantee you'll get flights on the precise dates/routes you want at either end, so it helps if you can have some flexibility and quick decision-making when you're talking with the airline. Theoretically, you can check later to see if any award seats open up on your precise dates or preferred routes, but I'm sure there would be change fees and it would require your calling the airline on probably a daily basis.

Good luck! The airlines don't make it easy, but it sure feels good to fly for (almost) free.