Nancy45

We are a family of 6 travelling this summer. We would like to see as much as possible, but not bore my teenagers with museums and such as they have done alot of that already in London and Paris.My proposed itinerary is as follows:

Day 1. Fly to Geneva from Paris in morning, rent a car, drive to Grindelwald (about 5 hours from Geneva)
Day 2. Explore the area - white water rafting
Day 3. Explore the area - paragliding
Day 4. Drive to Lucerne (how far is this from Grindelwald?), dinner with relatives
Day 5. Leave in the early am to arrive at the Neu. castle by 8:30 am with prearranged tickets. (how far is this by car from Lucerne?)Tour and do the nearby luge and then drive to Munich (2 hour drive from Fussen)
Day 6. Explore the Marienplatz, visit the Haufbrauhaus and then leave early afternoon for Rothenberg via the Romantic Road. (Is this about a four hour drive from Munich?) Take Night Watchman Tour
Day 7. Explore/shop Rothenberg and leave by midday to drive to the rhine area (how long of a drive is this?)
Day 8. Take the cruise along the rhine. Drive to Frankfurt
Day 9. Fly out of Frankfurt.

What do you think? Too ambitious? I've seen posts where people say if need be you can spend a half day each in Munich and Rothenberg, although I realize there is much more to see and do.

Don't know how long the drive from Munich to the Rhine is or if it is worth the drive. Comments please.

Thanks.

mindylt1

We have been to the places in in the German part of your itinerary, and I think your plan is doable in an "overview" sort of way. Hopefully you'll want to return later and spend more time in each place.

A couple of thoughts: www.mappy.com says that you can get from Munich to Rothenberg in about 2.5 hours. Given that you're short on time, I'd take the quickest route. That would give you a little more time in Rothenberg. Definitely do the Nightwatchman Tour. We've done it twice, and our kids love it. Also see the Criminal Museum. It has a great collection of medieval torture devices, which our kids find facinating.

According to the same map site, the drive from Rothenberg to St. Goar (on the Rhine) is 2 hours and 49 minutes. Take advantage of the long summer days and see as much as you can of the area. Try to make time to tour a castle or two. Some of these are much older than the relatively new Neuschwanstein, and are really interesting.

Good luck with your trip. Hopefully by bringing this to the top, you'll get more replies.

bavariaben

Your itinerary looks very doable except you might rethink this one -

<<Day 5. Leave in the early am to arrive at the Neu. castle by 8:30 am with prearranged tickets. (how far is this by car from Lucerne?)>>

No matter which route you take - this is a 3 to 4 hour drive. Better get later tickets for the castle or be prepared to get the troops up really early that morning... Ben

Check your routes and times at www.mappy.de

cod

Hi Nancy 45; I posted you some replies on other posts about Switzerland. I'm glad to see you will have a car! It's only a 3 hour drive from the airport, so if you get there early afternoon, you might have time to take the cable car to Mannelichen, and do the walk to Kleine Scheidegg. Or else take a wee trip up the Pfingsted cable car, and let the youngsters have a go on the tobogan run (steel, great fun) Next day; paragliding in the morning, and go up to the Schilthorn in the afternoon, or go to the Trummelbach Falls outside Lauterbrunnen (this is where the car is handy - to get to these places without waiting for the trains). Day 3; White water rafting in the morning, and do something else that you might like for the afternoon - maybe go uo to First, and walk to Bachalpsee or to Grosse Scheidegg. On your last day, get up at the crack of dawn and go up the Jungfrau on the early train. You'll be back down again by mid afternoon, and it's only about 85km to Lucerne ( less than 2 hours. Plenty of time for dinner!)Bonigen (near Interlaken) is a great place to swim - there is a swimming pool on the lake, and a cafe for those who prefer to spectate - you could do that after the rafting if you didn't want to go back to Grindelwald. Have fun.Don't forget to buy Junior cards.You should get a CD called Microsoft AutoRoute to plan your journeys - I would be lost without mine.

Nancy45

Cod, thanks again for your wonderful advice in planning our itinerary. The kids would love all the activities you mentioned! Please give me more information about the Junior Card. I've been on the web site for the swiss card and the pass and remain confused. Could you advise me on what the adults and children need in regard to passes for this region? Children ages 12, 13, 16, 17 and two adults. Thanks ever so much.

cod

Probably the best thing for the adults in relation to a train pass is the Jungfrau Pass. Go into www.jungfraubahn.ch, then hit English, go into offers, then special offers, and it's there. The information for Junior cards is somewhere on the www.sbb.ch website, but in any event, all you do is go to the Railway station and ask for them. Email me at [email protected] and I'll tell you more about them. You get the Jungrrau Pass at the railway station too - you don't need to have them before you arrive in Grindelwald.
I see from your other post that your car is going to cost a fortune. Our minivan (Citroen C8) was a diesel. Would it be practical for you to rent from citer.fr in Geneva for the time you were in Switzerland, and call into Geneva on the way back to give the car back, and get one from Hertz or some other agency for the next few days that you could give back in Germany? Or maybe cross the border into France, and go north along the German border for a bit, and give the car back in France somewhere along the route, and change to another one - it might save a few dollars. Ford have a Galaxy minivan which is a diesel,(we have one) and some of the Seat Alhambra and VW Sharan are diesels as well (the model comes in diesel and petrol)and so is the Peuogot 806 - maybe the European names of various cars are a little different from yours (U.S.A.?) See what you can find.