"I wish my family had been more outspoken on things they wanted to see, but they weren't."

I think it's awesome that you are doing all the planning. It's such a burden to make decisions for other people with no input from them. Do what you want to do and enjoy it.

>Who thinks I can hit 5 countries and 10 cities in 14 days?<

Of course, you can.

<b>Why?</b>

Funny, the word 'hit' has never been part of our travel vocabularly. Good luck to you and your family. Glad you are thinking of revising the hit list.

I'm glad you are re-considering. Remember how much extra money all those train tickets cost, too.

Map out every morning/noon/night you've got, and see how much moving around you can tolerate. Personally, I like to stay a minimum of 3 nights in a hotel, and day-trip from there if desired.

What's in St Georgen?

What's in St Georgen?

That's where he killed the dragen.

Everyone has their own travel styles.

At least you'll be able to say, "when I was in Munich last year..."

We'll be going to 2 countries in 14 days and a handful of cities. Still paring the list down.

Have fun.

Some folks like me prefer to travel then to stay put in one place - traveling to me is exciting - taking trains - seeing the other passengers - the stations - overnight trains, etc.

To me getting between points A and B is as fun or more than those places themselves. I like to travel nearly every day - even if staying in a base city for some days.

Travel is not travail for me as it seems to be for many!

IMHO nothing is worse than wasting hours on a plane - and a train isn't far behind.

Perhaps because I live in an area with a lot of commuter trains (that I rode for years) and even the longer distance - to Boston or DC - are better than flying - but not a lot. More comfy seats and no long lines - but not much to see - just a chance to work on the way to whatever.

Bookmarking in case he comes back on this thread.

IMHO nothing is worse than wasting hours on a plane - and a train isn't far behind.>

A chacun son gout however as the French are want to say long ago - yes anyone gets bored on an airplane but on a train, depending on the scenery, it can be a thrilling ride or just mildly interesting as you do see the lay of the land in between the mega tourist cities and not just mega tourist cities and tarmacs and airports.

I have no problem with seeing the smaller town and countryside - we do it all the time and love it - but by car - not train.

We both love to drive - esp in europe - and have serendipitously come across a large number of sights we never would have found without a car - and enough time to explore.

My nephew and his pilot friend (in their 20s) take this type of trip all the time on free flight passes. They hit the ground and travel from place to place in the time they have. They never visit a museum, concert, church, or do a walking tour, but spend their time walking through towns, eating local foods, and doing various activities such as a local football game, a Turkish bath. They stay in hostels or camp. They enjoy the experiences they have and can tell you about being in different places, but not the history or major sites. (He majored in history in college!)

He took his wife on a trip like this to Europe and after the second hostel in the second city, she did revolt and the trip changed. They still agreed not to visit inside any buildings, but they did start at least walking past major sites like the leaning tower in Pisa and doing some typical tourist activities such as riding on the vaparetto in Venice. They also took one bus tour that targets college and 20somethings.

My nephew is back to taking the old style trips with his friend while he and his wife now take single destination trips. They are still married four years later.

I think EuroFred maybe having some fun with Fodorites. Did he really change is view of his trip plan in a little over 2 hours?

Fred--where are you? We're anxiously awaiting your trip report!

His family murdered him on day 6 when they reached Zurich - then went off to enjoy themselves somewhere nice.

my guess was he tried to do a day trip from Fussen when he spotted what appeared to be a helicopter tour. The search continues.....

<I am going to try to loosen up our schedule by eliminating a few day trips and staying longer in places that I don't have a hotel booked for the next night.>

Excellent idea!! What is right for a college student on a mad dash around Europe, is not a pace that most older people or families would enjoy doing.

suze: Hopefully that is what he did - the trip ended last weekend

oops. thanks janisj (obviously) i didn't notice this was an old post.