9-day Itinerary help!

Well, you can't see all that in 9 days.

I'd suggest keeping Venice - it's unique. Get a cheap Ryanair flight from Paris. You can fly for the price of taxes - 23 Euros - on some days. The flight is free. The date I checked was 3/18, but check it out for your dates. Then after a couple of days there, head to Interlaken for a couple of days and to Germany (Freiburg is a nice university town that's easy to reach from Interlaken - see some Black forest towns nearby - or maybe Mainz, another university town with some 1000-year-old castles just to the north along the Rhine, or maybe Trier, near the French border - an old Roman settlement with an interesting history) for a few days, then home.

Alternatively you could stay north of the Alps and hit Munich, Salzburg, Prague, and Vienna, perhaps, in that time; Budapest too?? Sounds like too much to me.

Hey, Caitlyn. Great places you're thinking about!

I'd recommend:
- Munich, (optional) Prien am Chimsee, Salzbug, Vienna, Budapest. (or Prague, but Buda is closer).
- Munich, Salzburg, Slovenia, Venice, all on the same train line with is nice.

- Munich, Innsbruck, Venice checking out lots of Switzerland while you're there. OR reverse to Budapest/Prague, Vienna, Salzburg, Innsbruck, Venice

With these routes, there's no back tracking (why spend more time on the train than you have too?), and I've actually done all three of these trips, backpacking, and it was great!

Rick's train map is great for figuring things out! http://www.ricksteves.com/rail/timecostmap.htm

Thank you guys for your feedback. I think I've decided the following:

Paris-Bern (and surrounding area)-Munich-Prague-Budapest-Vienna-Salzburg (if I have time) - Back to Paris.

Five (or six) cities in 10 days. I think that's doable. Thank you for your help, and any more comments would be appreciated =)