saywew

Planning a trip for October '09. Will start in Frankfurt for 3 days to visit family... then want to see Munich, Vienna then Salzburg, hopefully driving this leg of the trip. Would like to take a train from Salzburg thru Switzerland to Lyon. Then renting a car again to drive up thru Burgundy to Paris for a few days, then up to Brussles, Brugge, then back to Frankfurt.

I know this is ambitious, but is it doable???

Would LOVE advice on driving vs. train travel. (We love the freedom of driving, but we are open to ideas!)

What train line do we take when traveling from Salzburg to Lyon?

Thank you SO MUCH for the help!!!!!

nancicita

I think you could do the entire trip using just train and public transit. Driving might be a hassle and I don't think it would give you "freedom" at all. There's nothing worse than being stuck in traffic, being lost, not being able to find parking, and/or (hopefully not) getting into an accident abroad. It's just easier to use the train.

>> I know this is ambitious, but is it doable???
Well it depends on the type of traveler you are.
If you've been to Europe before and you're a good planner, then I think you'll have a great time.

I hope that you're giving yourself 3 weeks or more to do the trip that you described above. You want to visit 8 cities. Do the math.

ira

Hi say,

>I know this is ambitious, but is it doable???<

Of course it is doable.

You will spend almost all of your time on the road. You will see very little of each of the places you mention.

You will come back in an exhausted haze with little memory of where you were.

You will be able to stick pins in your map.

I strongly urge you to rethink this expedition.

nancicita

ira

Palenque

Salzburg-Lyon

most direct goes via Salzburg to Zurich to Geneva to Lyon - a very long train trip of i'd say about 12 hours or so.

november_moon

I'm tired just from reading your itinerary

I think that the key to creating a good itinerary is to look at the places you want to visit and figure out how long you need to stay in each place to see and do what you want - then try to strike a balance with the time you actually have. Some places, a few hours may be sufficient, and other places you may need several days.

You wont be able to see everything you want in a couple weeks, so you will have to make choices. We tend to use geography to trim our itineraries - to limit the amount of time we spend in transit versus sightseeing, and also so that we can use one location as a base for visiting other places near by, then move on to another location. With 2 weeks, we like 3-4 locations - that is a relaxed enough pace that we are able to spend some time in the places we go, but fast enough that we can see several places in one trip.

Remember that every time you move, you will lose sightseeing time because you need to allow for packing, transit, checking in, and unpacking.

Regarding the choice of train versus rental car - I think it depends on where you are going and what you want to do. Trains are efficient and convinient and esspecially nice for travelling from city to city - trains are fast and run often, and you wont need a car in the cities themselves. Out in the countryside though, a car does allow for more freedom because you can get to smaller places.

iris1745

Hi; Ira is right and november_moon has very good advice. September will be our 30th trip to Europe and I have planned and driven 26 of these trips. For me, never could I consider all the destinations you are suggesting. Respectfull, reconsider and use the previous posters suggestions. You canno't do your first 'outline' of places to visit and enjoy the trip. Come back with your 'must visit's' and then you will receive good advice. iris1745/dick

Palenque

Planning a trip for October '09.
Will start in Frankfurt for 3 days
Munich (2 days),
Vienna (3 days)
Salzburg (2 days)
Would like to take a train from
Salzburg thru Switzerland to Lyon ( 1 day transit).
Then renting a car again to drive up thru Burgundy to
Paris for a few days (2 days enroute
Paris 3 days
Brussles ( 1 day)
Brugge (2 days)
back to Frankfurt.

Well i have 19 days and the OP could have a month - even at the 19 days this is not too ambitious necessarily IMO - and if they have the whole month then it's perfectly fine IMO

I would say take the train from Salzburg to Dijon and Beaune, rent your car and drive (via Vezelay) to Paris

no reason to go to Lyon if driving thru Burgundy is your goal.

In any case i do not think your plans are insane - ambitious yes but not insane (and the kind of travel i have done in 50 plus trips to Europe and still enjoy doing - it's a personal decision and no one should IMO automatically say it's insane.

Palenque

OK i am an idiot - i read the OP think and kept looking for how long and did not see 15 days

so as i have proved to myself - this in 15 days is insane - i was thinking a month and that would be fine.

Je suis Dumpkopf!

iris1745

Hi again; If you chose Palenque thoughts, [incidently, they suggested they only have 15 days] you should consider flying Frankfurt to Vienna on www.airberlin.com Then stay in Salzburg and then Munich. This way there is no wasted time doubling back, Salzburg to Vienna and then back to Salzburg. You will gain about six hours. You could hire a car in Vienna and drive to Munich. There are many interesting places to visit between these two cities. iris1745/dick

Palenque

And drop Belgium perhaps

saywew

WOW!!! I love it! Thank you all so much for your input! We have decided to drop Belgium... and I am feeling real good about that. I will be re-mapping and figuring this out now... perhaps flying to Vienna from Frankfurt is not a bad idea.

And yes, Palenque, we don't care about Lyon as much as the Burgundy wine country, so I will look at the Dijon route and see if that makes sense for us.

We do want to drive thru some of the Romantic road area in Germany as well as the Burgundy region in France, but are happy to rail it the rest of the time.

We have traveled like this many times and love it!!! (Not just pins in a map! I do however, want to take in every beauty and not move too fast!

Thank you again for all the help. I will post an updated itinerary when I have it!!

jfletch

In 1997 I drove from Paris to the Normandy coast, to Mont St Michel to Nantes, to St Emillion (close to Burgundy) to Lourdes and back to Paris in about 6 days. Their interstates are perfect but charge tolls. If I could avoid it I would not drive in any large city. I had no problems with getting around outside the large cities.

nancicita

Enjoy your journey saywew! Don't forget to post a trip report and let us know how your trip went.