Advice on itinerary: 6 countries in 4 days

What countries have you already seen -- there might be a tighter kno?

is this a joke? You won't enjoy anything. You will spend all of your time checking into hotels and traveling on the train.

Tennisfan,
I am a shameless tennis groupie who spends way too much money, time and effort attending tournaments around the world. If I had the logisitical capability to attend six tournaments over a timeframe of four days, I would not do so (even if I was assured that I would get a one on one meeting with my favorite players at each tourney). The enjoyment is in experiencing the event, the people and the setting of the tournament! I suspect you are prepared for folks like me who think you are crazy to have a "been there, done that" checklist mentality.
But............
Have you considered focusing your trip upon attending a clay court tournament, of which there are many during the spring, on this opportunity to visit Europe? This might be a way to combine your enjoyment of travel and tennis.

Not sure what your goal is here. If you want to "see" so many countries in such a short time - then travel to a border where 3 countries meet and ride a bike around the intersecting point. A bit like the four corners area in the USA where you can stand on 4 states simultaneously.

First I want to say that I would never do the itinerary I am about to give, nor do I think your itinerary above sounds fun or a good use of time/money. Having said that here is a different itinerary that technically you could do...

Day 1: Fly into Amsterdam, take mid day train to Brussels (2hours), then train to Luxembourg that evening (3hrs).
Day 2: Train Luxembourg to Strasbourg (2 hrs) then evening train to Zurich (2h40).
Day 3: Early train and Bus to Liechtenstein (4h30) then continue up to Innsbruck (3hrs).
Day 4: Train to Munich for flight home.
(by my count this INSANE itinerary will cut through Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria and Germany= 7 countries in 4 days.

You could do other combinations of short day trains and night trains to come up with different options. But here is the real question.... Will you really "clock up" these places when you will hardly leave the European train stations? It is not as if you will have time for sights. Also, why do you want to "clock up" the largest number of places to visit in a day? Is it to tell people who don't travel what a crazy itinerary you accomplished (for I fear they will not understand/care how fast and exhausting it was). Or it is to baffle seasoned travelers with a lightening fast itinerary where you flew past lovely places while spending lots of money to see very little?

I ask these questions because I want you to consider using those days wisely and going to one place you could explore and enjoy, such as Prague, Krakow or Istanbul. These are lovely places you really must spend more time in to even feel like you saw them.
(As someone who once trained from Bacharach, Germany all the way to London in one day, 5am-12:30am. I can attest that a lot of training is more exhausting than days of walking and sightseeing.)
I hope this helps! GOOD LUCK, you are gonna need it!

RailEurope runs no trains. Zero.

You haven't replied where you have already made a flying visit to.

Consider the Baltics. In one long day you could touch parts of Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, and Estonia.

That leaves 3 whole days for lots more countries.

Consider the former parts of Jugoslavia.

Consider the small countries in and around Italy.

You could hit 3 countries by just going around Lake Constance - Germany, Switzerland and Austria. You could do that in 1 day. Lichtenstien is very close also - actually I bet you could do them all in 1 day:) Look at it on a map.

WHY?

Go online and looks at the pictures and say you did it. You will be less tired but the experience will be about the same. Stepping foot into a country doesn't mean you have been there. I have been to the airport in Kansas City but that doesn't mean I have been to Kansas City. Pick a place, Zurich is great and so is Vienna, and spend your time there and EXPERIENCE that city. What you are proposing is "experiencing" is the inside of a bus, train, plane or hotel--not that country. You will have NO time to experience the country.

I often do whirlwind trips but even I think this lacks any logical reason other than bragging rights. If you do this, no matter what anyone ask you about the countries you have visited you will be unable to answer, because you will have experienced nothing.

I hope you rethink this and try and spend a little quality time somewhere.

Thanks all for the replies. I appreciate the perspective and will likely scale back my itinerary a bit. Originally I was thinking of doing two countries, and then started looking at a map and couldn't believe how close some of the countries were and started thinking "well if I'm in Vienna, why not take a quick jaunt to Slovakia" and then it kind of snowballed from there. It's not about "bragging" as one poster indicated, though I don't begrudge the comment as I can see how it can be like that. For me, part of this is the "journey" for a trip like this. Most of the travel I've done is much more methodical - a week-plus in a country. The last time I binge traveled even remotely like this was during a spring break trip in college when a few buddies and I jumped in a car and started driving. We still talk about hitting 8 states in a few days a few decades later, and for that trip specifically, it was about the journey as opposed to spending five days at some trite spring break destination.

A few have asked where I've been. In Europe I've spent a good amount of time in England, Ireland, Italy, France, Turkey and Netherlands. While I haven't discovered all that each of these countries have to offer, I do feel like I saw a big part of them, and I really like going to new places before I start duplicating locations (that is until we want to take our kids to some of these places, then the fun is to experience it through their eyes).

A few countries that I my wife and I know we want to go to together (likely with the kids at some point) are Portugal, Spain, Monaco, Czech Republic, Norway, Sweden and Finland.

So that is why I was looking at the before-mentioned countries in my first post as they are likely locations that I wouldn't get to, and I certainly understand that I really wouldn't be "experiencing" them that much, though part of the journey in this specific trip would be similar to what I did in college.

Marbleskies, interesting idea on combining this with a clay court tourney. I hadn't thought of that. I've been fortunate to attend each of the Grand Slams which was an incredible experience (all unique in their own way) and I've attended quite a few U.S. tourneys but nothing in Europe. Definitely worth a look.

Anyway, I really appreciate the thoughts and certainly welcome additional feedback, be it mocking me or otherwise :)

The best of luck to you. I need a nap.

Benelux sounds like a good idea - take three countries and brag about the beer and chocolate.

Unsure of your travel dates, but the Monte Carlo tourney is a favorite due to being well attended competitive mens event with the Med as a backdrop. The following weeks the tour travels to Spain and Rome as tuneups for the French Open.

Hi TennisFan,

If you're thinking of visiting the aforementioned countries with your wife and finding new territory to explore by yourself, you might get a good deal visiting the Balkans. There's a bit of everything, as far as experience goes.
The one thing I would suggest, regardless of the destination, would be sticking to the bigger cities, since it seems like you won't have enough time to waste on trying to find your way to more obscure destinations. This way, you'll be sure to catch your trains/flights on time and still see something of the city.
Hope this helps!

There is no such thing as a Rail Europe train.

Rail Europe is an overpriced ticket resell company. You will actually be on Swiss Federal Railways (SBB), Austrian Federal Railways (OeBB) and others. If you do go ahead with this plan, you should buy your tickets from the websites of the national rail services, rather than Rail Europe (unless you enjoy getting royally ripped off).

I'm not going to mince words - I think your plan is ridiculous. Do you realize that Vaduz to Vienna is over 7 hours? There is nothing to see in Bratislava, trust me. Why even bother with Budapest? I propose that you pick one place and do it well. Seriously.

Thanks all for your replies. You talked some good sense into me!

I'm going to refocus the itinerary and will target two stops only. One locale Wednesday/Thursday, and one locale Friday/Saturday.

Thanks for saving me from myself!

How is it possible that you have attended each of the grand slam tourneys but nothing in Europe?

If you are looking for tournaments on clay,MADD the Swiss Open to the list.

Sasha, sorry, I meant I have attended the four Slams, a number of smaller tournaments in the U.S., but no smaller tourneys in Europe...just the French Open and Wimbledon (both of which were amazing!).

The original itinerary sounds like great fun to me. I can't believe how judgmental some of the responses here are. I know many people whose dream vacation is to be drunk on a beach for 7 days--I can't imagine anything more boring, but I wouldn't jump into a thread to says so. The OP question is "Is this possible logistically? Is there a better itinerary if my sole intention is to chock up as many countries as possible in 4 days (arriving Wednesday, departing Sunday)?" It wasn't "Would other people value this?"

You can actually see three countries with one hotel base. Stay in Maastricht Netherlands (near SE corner). Spend 1/2 day or so visiting. There 's a huge underground mine with a guided tour and some history. Also, a nice, small historic neighborhood to stroll through and some cafes and excellent beer. Next day, rent a bike and pedal into Belgium. Enjoy the countryside; stop at a cafe and compare the beer. Then, take the public bus (45 minutes) to Aachen Germany and see the famous church and Charlemagne stuff. Have a nice German meal or cherry pie and sip a Jaegermeister or Riesling or Beer. This way, you experience 3 countries and stay anchored in the same Inn.