17 night trip from Amsterdam to Venice this summer - tips on where to stop

Lauterbrunnen Vally in the Berner Oberland area of Switzerland. . 3 days or so in the Mountains would be nice.

Take a train to Paris, then head east to Strasbourgh (1 night), down to Zurich (1 night), train across Switzerland (Zurich to Chur, then Bernina Express to Tirano, stopping in St Moritz for a few hours if possible) ... from Tirano it's a quick train ride to Milan (2 nights ... get your tickets to see Da Vinci's Last Supper early) before heading to Verona.

You have 9 out of 17 nights accounted for so only 8 days for a family to travel a long way via ground transportation. I'd fly Amsterdam to Rome and then take short train rides to Florence and on to Verona. I'd cut a day from Venice. You could take a train Amsterdam to Paris and then fly to Rome or Florence. Ground transport through or around Switzerland takes a long time.

follow your dreams go to Munich since you mentioned it. ask for guidance if you do not know how to fit it in; you've done your research stick to what you have so far and if you get somewhere that does not live up improvise take a day trip somewhere else

Bruges and Ghent are less than 30 minutes apart by train. I would not want to stay in two cities so close together; changing hotels is a pain.

•Amsterdam for 3 nights
•Ghent (Belgium) for 3 nights
•Aachen for 1 night
•Via Cologne to Bacharach (Rhine) for 2 nights
•Munich for 3 nights
•Verona for 2 nights
•Venice for 3 nights

Did similar a few years back. We stopped in the Mosel valley for 3 days between Amsterdam and Munich. Very nice bike trails along the river in the Cochem vicinity. Yes, skip Innsbruck.

I too suggest breaking up the long trip from Belgium (or Amsterdam) to Munich with a stop along the Rhein. Munich is a place I think you as well as the children would really enjoy. Munich to Venice is also a fairly long train trip, so be sure to account for the travel time in your planning.

I did one trip with a leased car where we went from A'dam to Koln/Bonn, Rhine Valley, Romantic Road, Reutte/Neuschwanstein, Munich, Salzburg (day trip to Berchtesgaden), Hall in Tirol, Verona, Venice then continued across to Cinque Terra and south to Rome.