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Alps - Munich to Florence via Train

Posted by on

I’m traveling with my daughter in mid January. We are flying into Munich and making our way to Florence, IT for her college study abroad semester.

I wanted to do a 6 day trip with her and was looking for some advice and feedback from the community.

I was thinking 2 1/2 days in Munich, 2 1/2 days in the alps and the last day in Italy.

Is that a good itinerary? Are there must do’s in Munich? City tour, castle tour?

How about the Alps? Skiing for a day, sightseeing, thermal spa?

I was looking at trains and there are many routes through the alps. Some through Innsbruck or Salzberg and others through Zurich.

The matching up the train trip and a 2 day stop in the alps is killing me. Too many options. Help!!!

Thanks in advance for your help on this.

Brian

Posted by
1071 posts

It will be cold and dark early. What you do depends on what your interest are. Assuming six nights on your journey, Day 1/night 1 in Munich - Great Museums and food for the afternoon. Day 2/Night 2 Munich something else you are interested in doing (ie. watch RS Munich episodes/check his Audio Europe app for walking tours that may be of interest). Day 3 Train to Bolzano via Innsbruck. Direct train takes 4 hours from Munich to Bolzano. Explore, visit Otzi the Ice Man at the Archeological Museum. Night 3 in Bolzano. It is an hour by bus from the Bolzano bus station (next to the train station) to either Ortisei or Kaselrotto. There are two gondolas in Ortisei from which one can go up to ski. Lots of ski shops for rentals. Day 4/Night 4 and Day 5/Night 5 in Ortisei. Day 6 - bus back to Bolzano and Train to Florence (3.5 to 4.5 hours; some trains are direct, some have a change in Verona). Night 6 in Florence. The only flea I see is that for a "term abroad" folks usually are packing heavily and hauling lots of stuff on multiple legs of a trip is a pain. Maybe that will work if you only have to carry extra baggage on the extra legs to and from Ortisei.

Check out connections on Bahn.com and Trenitalia.com

For Bolzano and Ortisei see:
https://www.suedtirol.info/en/en

NOTE: Given your active week after arrival maybe book a hotel for the night before you arrive so you can go directly to a reserved warm welcoming hotel room to get some rest and unwind before launching a day/evening in Munich and the rest of your trip. It is a luxury, but I LOVE it.

Posted by
1109 posts

In my opinion, going up to the mountains to ski for a day is a pretty inefficient use of
time. The day could be great and the snow awesome. But your transportation will
become more lengthy and inefficient (buses or taxis instead of trains), lots of overhead
(renting equipment and maybe ski clothes), and not necessarily pleasant, since you
will be in a place you've never been to before, and depending on the resort, risky
as you can ski into places where your ticket isn't valid or into slopes you're not equipped
to ski on (ski maps and trails are a bit harder to read in Europe than the US).

Going to a mountain village for a night or two for a spa or ambiance is still a bit inefficient
on transit but removes some of the ski-related hassles. Note that the Winter Olympics
will be starting in Milan and the Italian Alps a week or two after your dates and that
could have some impact on getting around.

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