12 Day Trip - Italy, Austria, Switzerland

Sorry but just seeing the places you want to see in Italy will take 12-14 days. If you spent 2 days in Switzerland and 4 in Austria that would only leave 7 days for Italy. It takes at least half a day(more to destinations that far away) every time you change locations. It would take a busy month to alsosee Austria and some of Switzerland.

Well, for a 12-14 day trip, I'd strongly suggest a focus. I would suggest visiting no more than 4 places. You list 20. You are going to have to trim a bunch of those off. I'd get a planning map, and choose 4 places, to stay 3 nights in each. With your relatively short trip, I'd really suggest 1 country, MAYBE 2.

For instance, concentrate on Austria. Vienna, Salzburg, Innsbruck, Linz (Mauthausen concentration camp). If you want Italy, you can add Trieste or some other northern city. Milan or the Dolomites. Rome is very far from Austria.

Since it's your first trip, you want to do it all. It's not possible. Trips where you do more tourism and less transit from one hotel to another really work better.

Unless you can make 2-4 clones of yourself, you really need to narrow your focus.

Not sure about 'blending in' when you are going so fast as to be invisible..

Not my intent to be mean and negative, but what you propose is, if not literally impossible, would be a truly miserable endurance test.

This site will help you look at transportation options between destination. Once you see the time needed to move from A to B, you will see the impracticality of what you are trying to do----- https://www.rome2rio.com/

Love the replies everyone - thank you. Agree with narrowing the focus for sure. I should have been more clear that I am throwing things out for what we'd like to do. I think narrowing down the list to Italy and Austria would be better. Spend a total of two weeks on the trip- perhaps fly into Rome, spend a night, and go up from there? I will work on narrowing this down and planning a bit more and post that mock itinerary.

Appreciated!

Pick Italy OR Switzerland and Austria

Switzerland is one of the most expensive countries in Europe.

Perhaps you should visit Italy first. I suggest the big three, Venice, Florence and Rome, that will take 10 days. You need 4 days to see Naples, Pompeii, Capri, Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast. Since you have 12 days, do the big three and perhaps do a day trip from Florence to Pisa and Lucca, or Sienna.

Italy is a blockbuster of beauty and sights u have listed places to see which u could partially do in your 12 days. Stay with Italy this trip,and assume u will return. It is worth it if u have at least 2 wks.
Not sure where u are from but jet lag upon arriving is real, so plan on it for at least for your day of arrival.
See your highlights and enjoy. To and from travel even by train uses at least half day. Plan accordingly.

Rome is a 4 day city and Florence is a 3 day minimum city. Venice is also a 3 day city. The first and last days of your journey are essentially coming from and going to the airport. That would leave you a maximum 2 days left. Italy is so important with such history, architecture, culture, art and food that it would be a shame to not see it right.
Next year, fly into Munich and drop south into the Austrian Alps, go around to Salzburg and over to Vienna. We find it so much easier and less expensive to travel there vs. Switzerland. And if time allows, pickup either Budapest or Prague as secondary cities to Austria.

Years ago my husband and I spent 3 weeks in Europe and saw parts of Italy, Austria, and Switzerland. We went to Rome and Florence in Italy, including a bus trip to Venice. From Florence we went to Innsbruck, Salzburg, and Vienna. From Vienna we went to one town in Switzerland (which I cannot recall) before flying home.

We had 5 nights in Rome, 3 in Florence, 2 in Innsbruck, 2 in Salzburg, and 4 in Vienna. We were in Switzerland for 2 nights. (We also had spent 4 nights in Paris before Rome.) It was a reasonable pace but you can see we had much more time than you and did not see any country very throughly. I was fine with that-we really enjoyed the contrasts between counties. But you really have to make severe choices to do a multi country trip.

Review there RS Travel Skills Videos.

Pick a line N-S or whichever with an arrival at one end and the departure at the other end. From the US there are several cities that are "easy" to access, Venice, Munich, Vienna, Zuridh, etc. Figure out where you can most cost effectively begin and end your trip. Assign 3 nights to each place to visit. Three nights allows one day in the middle to side trip to something else interesting. That gives you 4 locations for this trip.

With your stated interests I would suggest fly into Venice - then to the Dolomites - to Innsbruck - to Salzburg or Vienna and back to Munich for departure. All are are easy by train or local bus.

https://www.bahn.com/i/view/index.shtml
https://www.trenitalia.com/en.html

Rome/Amalfi Coast and Florence are a separate trip with stops in the Tuscan countryside and maybe the Cinque Terre.

Switzerland from Geneva to Lausanne to Bernese Oberland to Lucerne to Zurich is another two weeks.

Planning is great fun, and as RS said in one video - Don't try to doit all, you will be back.

Always, always, always take as much time as you can for a trip. There are always painful itinerary cuts to be made, but the shorter the trip, the more painful the cuts will be. 14 days is a lot better than 12.

Wholeheartedly agree with David. 12-14 days will give to time to experience a few major cities (Rome, Florence,Venice) well. You can’t possibly see Rome in a day. Unless all you are see is the airport and train station. Give it 4 nights minimum. Florence, 3 nights, Venice 3 nights. Leaves you 2-3 nights. Maybe Milan.

Did not go in the summer. We’ve gone in March and December and loved not dealing with heat or crowds. Off season is the way to go.

I like to plan how many nights I will be in each location to give me a realistic view of how much time I will have there. For example, if I stay somewhere 3 nights I only have 2 full days. As has been mentioned before, you will lose time with every location change. Figure at least a half day each time to leave your hotel, get the the train station, wait for the train, take the train, get to your next hotel... Doing that every couple of days will be exhausting and you will mostly experience train stations.

Your up to 14 days, does that include your arrival day and departure day? You can't count those days. If you live in North America you will arrive in Europe the day after you leave home. I personally would chose to spend the entire time in Italy since that is your main focus. If you have 14 nights there, I would start in Venice. It will be easier to get over jet lag there. Spend 3 nights there (2 days), then take the train to Florence. Spend 3 nights there (2 days), then rent a car and stay at an agriturismo in the Tuscan countryside for 4 nights. A car is the best way to see Tuscany. Drop the car in Orvieto and take the train to Rome, where you can spend the remainder of your time. Fly home from Rome.

Save Austria and Switzerland for another trip when you can devote more time to them.

It just depends on what you want to see, and what your stamina is. Don't list the cities, list what you want to see in each city. If all you want to do it ride up and down the main canal of Venice and walk around St Mark's square,you can do that in an afternoon or evening, and be on your way.

If this is your first trip to Europe, you can hit a bunch of places, and then decide is any particular place gives you the urge to return in the future to spend more time. Better to do that than to spend 5 days in one place, be bored because it really isn't as interesting as you thought, and be stuck there because of hotel reservations or pre purchased train tickets.

As for Switzerland, use a scenic train to see the countryside. and when you are done seeing the alps, boom, you're at your next location.

I also disagree with the idea that every day you travel is a half to a full day lost. With the high speed trains, so many destinations are just a couple hours away from each other. Plan out your route logically, maybe even use the night trains to go to the places that are farther away (like Vienna to Venice) and you can have a nice European sampler that you will never forget.

All of that advice is predicated on the idea that this might be a once in a lifetime , bucket list vacation. If you have the means to go back to europe several times in the future, (like so many on this board seem to) then feel free to ignore everything I said.

Sightseeing time lost on travel days is not limited to the time spent on a moving train. It also includes time spent packing up, checking out of the old hotel, getting to the train station, waiting for the train, finding your way to the new hotel, checking in, getting settled in the new room and getting oriented in the new city.

That's why many of us say it typically takes a half-day or more.

Acraven - thank you for expressing in a much better way what I was trying to say about losing time when changing locations. Unless one can magically just appear at the train as it is departing and upon arrival at the destination magically transport yourself to your new hotel and already be settled in, it all eats away at your day.

You can definitely spend a day, maybe two, at each place, but after your trip you likely aren't going to remember much of what you saw. You will remember rushing around and being at train stations and on trains.

I agree with earlier post that Rome is at least a four day (five night) city for the major sites. Florence and Venice need at least two-three days (three-four nights). I also agree that I would prioritize Italy only (that would be my recommendation based on your stated interests), or combine your top sites in Austria and Switzerland, with no one-night stays except perhaps at an airport for the night before flying home.

Edited to add: If you can swing 14 days (15 nights in Europe), that would give you a little more time to enjoy the trip and add a day trip or two to a Rome-Florence-Venice trip.

I NEVER post, but when I read yours, it was so close to what my husband and I are planning, I wanted to share our itinerary.
We are flying into Munich and spending 3 days there, then by train to Salzburg. We are taking the train from Salzburg and spending one night at a 5-star ski lodge in Davos, Switzerland, then the Bernini Express (one of the most beautiful train rides in Europe) into Italy with one night in Bologna. Then on to Florence for 3 nights and then 5 nights in Rome. From Rome, we will also do a day trip to Pompeii.
Yes, we left out Venice and yes, we expanded our original plans to make it 16 nights.
- Carol