Road Trip Planning Help
 

Hi all,

We are planning a trip for our honeymoon throughout Europe and was hoping you guys could help with the planning. This is the current plan:

Fly to:
Paris, France - Oct 15-18, 2018

Rent car and drive to:

Champagne, France - Oct 18-20, 2018

Drive to:
Colmar, France - Oct 20, 2018

Drive to:
Lucerne, Switzerland - Oct 21-24, 2018

Drive to:
Fussen, Germany - Oct 24, 2018

Drive to:
Munich, Germany - Oct 25-28, 2018

Drive to:
Braies, Italy - Oct 28, 2018

Drop off car in:

Venice, Italy - Oct 29-Nov 1, 2018

Fly to:

Amsterdam, Netherlands - Nov 1-Nov 3, 2018

Fly Home

We're seasoned travelers and have driven all through Italy and France before and like to be on the go more than "slow travel".

That said how does the itinerary look? Anything to be aware of? I'll need to research ZTL type areas for my route.

Thanks
Shawn

I would start in Amsterdam and work my way south at that time of year. Take the train to Paris. Fly home from Italy.
You need to look into one-way drop off fees on a hire car - they will be high for dropping in another country, if allowed at all.

I think it's a shame that, after all that driving, you'll have so little time in the Dolomites and won't see the most dramatic peaks and passes. I hope the weather is clear.

I hesitate to contradict hetismij2 who lives in Europe, but I think I'd start in Venice. I'd rather be driving to Braies and beyond earlier in October.

I'd probably skip Amsterdam altogether and eliminate the one-night hotel stays.

I only suggested Amsterdam at the start as Amsterdam in November is cold and dark and grey normally. I agree it is the outlier on the trip and could be skipped altogether. That would give time to slow down a bit and enjoy the road trip more. It is your honeymoon after all.

Not easy to find out what you really want to do. May be something like that:

Oct 15th:
arrival at Paris CDG, transfer to the city and to your hotel, recover from overnight flight
Oct 16th-17th:
visit Paris
Oct 18th
rent a car and drive out of Paris into Champagne. Spend afternoon in Champagne
Oct 19th:
fulll day stay in Champagne
Oct 20th:
5 hrs drive to Colmar (bypassing either Metz and Strasbourg or Nancy and les Vosges), afternoon at Colmar
Oct 21st:
2 hrs drive to Lucerne (bypassing Ecomusee d'Alsace, Mulhouse, Basel), most of the day at Lucerne
Oct 22nd-23rd:
Lucerne
Oct 24th:
4 hrs drive to through the Swissw and Bavarian midlands to Fuessen (bypassing Einsiedeln monastery, Rapperswil castle, St. Gallen Unesco World Heritage site, Lake Constance, Allgaeu), afternoon at Fuessen
Oct 25th:
2 hrs drive to Munich. Most of the day in Munich
Oct 26th-27th:
in Munich
Oct 28th:
5 hrs drive to Pragser Wildsee (bypassing Garmisch/Zugspitze, Mittenwald, Seefeld, Innsbruck, Sterzing, Bruneck, the famous Dolomites road)
Oct 29th:
6 hrs drive to Venice (bypassing Misurina/3Cime del Lavaredo/Cortina d'Ampezzo, Belluno, Treviso), lunch, car drop off and late afternoon boat transfer to your hotel
Oct 30th-31st:
in Venice
Nov 1st:
transfer to airport

Your trip is perfectly feasible if you take motorways whenever it's possible and if you bypass most smaller sites, scenic roads and scenic landscapes.
As said above, the drop off fee at Venice may be very high.

Thank you very much all. We've been to several of these places before so don't need tons of time in each.

That said neckervd - thank you for highlighting what we will be bypassing. I will check them all out and see if we should extend our trip or spend more time in certain areas.

Amsterdam is only to break up the trip. Instead of a required stopover on KLM with miles I figured we'd spend a couple days.

Ah that make sense then for Amsterdam.