suze

I have to book the airline portion of whatever we are going to do by Wednesday.

I would start with checking plane tickets. Pick your top 3-4 ideas & then see about routing, layover, prices, times, dates. Start with that (it could eliminate some destinations right off).

RaleighLaura

Suze, I checked the times and availability, and we’re flying for free. I can get over the pond and back relatively easily on United or Delta, so once we pick the final destination, I’ll get the best combinations of times and seats. The best airports for us to fly into and out of are Brussels, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Munich, and Milan. Any combo of these will work, so we can also do open jaw or take another flight/train to get into position. I generally prefer to fly into one place and out another just to see something else along the way.
The options for over the Atlantic that are eliminated are flying in or out of PAR, ROM, and LON.
Thank you for your help!

suze

Fly into Paris and out of Rome. Have each family member pick one place they want to go that would fit with that (4 places max.).

There's your trip!

PalenQ

Paris and Rome not available for OP- see post right above.

Brussels-Amsterdam-Frankfurt only about 4 hours or so apart by train.

Into Frankfurt and out of Amsterdam - taste of Germany - maybe Rhine Gorge near Frankfurt for few days and Asmterdam and day trips other days?

Or Munich - overnight train to Italy - Venice and out of Milan?

suze

Sorry my mistake... misread what were NOT the options for the options

RaleighLaura

PalenQ, I like the Munich-overnight train-Venice-Milan idea very much. We talked about it at dinner, and everyone is up for an overnight train. We’ve never done that before. I’m going to check out seat 61 to figure out how we’d go about doing that! Thanks for the idea.

RaleighLaura

No worries! The PAR-ROM trip was my original thought, but when the cities didn’t work for ticket availability, I thought it might be a blessing in disguise. I’ll have to be a little more original!
Thank you for your help.

PalenQ

Well yeh my son thought night trains were fun when we took them long ago in Europe - something we don't really have. For more about them yes www.seat61.com - BETS-European Rail Experts and www.ricksteves.com as mentioned above have lots on night trains.

These are best booked thru German or Austrian Railways which actually runs the trains - so check both sites.

You can book your own quad or perhaps two adjoining doubles in case old farts and young whippersnappers want their own room and privacy. (My good friend swears his first child was conceived on a night train to Venice!) Just joking, kind of!

Yes bring any drink or food aboard - limited snacks and drinks sold on train at hyper-inflated prices.

RaleighLaura

You made me laugh out loud! Two doubles is fine, thank you for the booking info.

PalenQ

Bring protection if of a certain age!

RaleighLaura

Thank you, all, for your help! We have decided, and in trying to book our tickets through the arirline website, I had an issue. To make a long story short, the nice Delta rep helped us get tickets into Munich and out of Rome. Yes, Rome! I’m thrilled. We will travel by train and will stop along the way as we can. We are arriving Munich on March 30, and leaving Rome on April 8. I am now going to turn my attention to figuring out what we’ll do in the middle, knowing that Florence is high on the list.
I’ll try to post questions in the appropriate forum, but if you have any advice, generally, I’ll take it! Thank you again!

Cowboy1968

The night train from Munich to Milan is run by nightjet, an Austrian railways subsidiary.
You find all the information regarding the train, bookings, etc on its own website.
Before you book through 3rd party websites, you should check for offers and possible saver fares here:
https://www.nightjet.com/en/

PalenQ

Curious Cowboy -do you consider bahn.de to be a 3rd party or just ones like RailEurope,
; thetrainline.com, etc. thanks.