My 16 yr. old daughter and I are planning a trip in June to Southern Germany. I want to take her to Prague, Salzburg, Venice, Florence (Sienna and San Gimignano)and finally to Garmisch (we're military so we'll be there for about 10 days). I considered a Eurorail pass, but renting a car seems much cheaper, and we can dart off to small towns, and sights. Any ideas on the smartest move? Which would be cheaper, but still flexible. I've driven most of the area, admittedly it was 20 years ago, and do have concerns about cars in the cities.
thanks,

I'm confused - are you in Garmisch for 10 days after the trip? I hope so - since there's no way you could come close to seeing all those other places in 10 days.

As for choice - we always drive if we're aiming at something other than a couple of big cities. It gives you much more freedom to explore and allow serendipity to rule.

Sorry, no, we'll have a couple of weeks before Garmisch. We plan on flying into/out of Munich. I don't have firm dates yet, except for the Garmisch leg. I hope to stay as long as the money holds on budget travel. I'll take any help on the best car rental agencies too. I've looked at Hertz and Europcar so far. I can't decide which is cheaper for 2 to travel, car or rail.
thanks all!

You want to do all that in 2 weeks? You'll hardly stay in one place long enough to check in and see anything before you check out and run off again.

Have you looked at the distances - on a realistic map, not one of those that make all of Europe look like the Bronx...?

Renting a car in one country and surrendering in another usually costs a lot extra, and filling a tank costs a fortune, so figure out a way of combining trains with a car, or maybe no car at all.

All the cities you mentioned are linked by excellent fast train service, except Siena (not so fast but there are trains) and San Gimignano (no trains nearby).

But Siena and San Gimignano are a popular coach trip from Florence - sit back and relax, you get to see both in one fine long day. Any hotel will have fliers, any travel agency in Florence can hook you up, it is that popular an excursion.

Start by looking at the map - if nothing else, http://maps.google.com/ will do. Make sure you use the "Directions" feature to input trip legs and get distances, step-by-step itineraries and travel times.

Then start looking at trains - for all of Europe I like this one:
http://plannerint.b-rail.be/bin/quer...n?L=profi& and the German one also goes beyond Germany:
www.bahn.de

For Italy specifically it is www.ferroviedellostato.it
For Austria it is www.oebb.at

Then get quotes online from all the usual suspects:
AutoEurope, Europcar, Sixt, Kemwel, and Budget and Hertz and Avis and the others you know from home.

Hope this helps with your planning.

Dalai Llama,
No, no, no, my tentative travel dates are 21 Jun - 16 Jul, with the last 10 days in Garmisch, which gives me 14 days to get there! I figure the 21st is travel to Prague, spend 3-4 days there, ~ 2 days in Salzburg, then drive to Florence for 6 days, traveling to Garmisch on 5 Jul. I'll do Venice and Tuscany from local travel agencies, and send my daughter to Rome for a quick drive-by on a one day tour (she'll miss the vatican, but she's young yet, and has time). I've seen Prague, Salzburg and Florence and know pretty much what I want to do there. But my main concern is the most economical and painless way to travel, rental car or train, all the while keeping flexibility in mind??
Thanks all,
Magcota

I second DL's advice - look at train schedules and driving directions to give yourself a good feel for distances and travel times. A large paper map of Germany/Austria/Italy laid out on a table can help you visualize your routes & see if they make sense or not. It won't show train routes, so use bahn.de as DL suggests for schedules.

Many US travelers who aren't used to train travel think that a rail pass is the way to go, but in fact point to point tickets are often much cheaper.

When I look at your itinerary the one that stands out to me as the travel 'problem' is Prague. You could easily fly there but unless you're in eastern Germany (Berlin or Dresden) it's one of those 'can't get to from here' places without some long distance and/or round about routing. It's 6-7hrs by train to/from Munich & Salzburg - you lose 2 whole days to travel.

If you were to take Prague out of the equation you could do a route something like this that would be far less hassle.
- Fly into Munich
- Train to Salzburg (short ride)
- Train to Venice (6-7hrs, with a change in Villach) kills 1 whole day
- Train to Florence, use as local base with bus trips to SG and Sienna, maybe Pisa if you want)
- Train to Garmisch (7-8hrs, with 2 changes (Bologna and Innsbruck), kills 1 whole day. If you wanted to break it up you could spend a night in Innsbruck then move on to Garmisch at your leisure.

Do some homework and add up the total hours on trains or cars, Then you two can decide how much distance you really want to zig/zag versus enjoying your vacation more in one spot.

Hi Mag,

I'll accept that you want to do a whirlwind, "If it's Tuesday, it Must be Belgium" drive by.

Enter your itinerary for the two of you at www.railsaver.com and click "only if it saves money".

If they tell you that a railpass won't save money, you can believe them.

They do their calculations on the full fare prices.

You will find the cost of discount tickets at
www.bahn.de - Germany and Austria
www.oebb.at/ - Austria
www.trenitalia.com/en/index.html - Italy

Check auto rental prices at www.kemwel.com and www.novacarhire.com.
Kemwel will beat the Nova price (usually).

Look up the driving routes at www.viamichelin.com

They will give you fuel and toll costs.

Enjoy your expedition.

I do not drive, or at least I have not driven in my travels to Europe.

The reasons are: on holiday I drink (never had a breakfast beer but next time I'm in Bavaria I will), I have had many great encounters with locals on the train, bus,or even at the station. the people who operate the trains and buses dont get lost. Looking out the window at the sights, not the tail lights of the car in front of me. The bigest reason is that I have to drive at home,on call day and night, and we have no public transportation here in rual PA. Enjoy your trip.

Thanks to all of you. Having lived in Germany a total of 6 years (albeit in the 80's and 90's, I'm used to driving there. I can only guess the roads are more heavily traveled now. I have looked at many of the sites the sites ya'll have recommended and will further investigate. I hope others will chime in as well. I will do southern Bavaria from Garmisch, as I know that area best from living there. I can also do Salzburg (would limit it to 1 day however from Garmisch), I don't drink and I will take every last drop of sunshine to travel. Thanks again, and don't stop the comments!!

I would drive, and have driven, that route and it makes good sense with the exception of Venice. Get the car in Munich---best prices. I would add a stop in the Dolomites as you drive south and skip Venice.