After much research....4 week final itinerary!

Personally I would drop two night in Venice and add those nights to Rome. But that is just me as I find Venice interesting and Rome fascinating.

Wade, This version of your Itinerary looks well organized. A few comments..... > Travel to Baden-Baden - the trip is about 4-hours, so you'll have to leave Paris reasonably early if you're going to have any "spa time". Which Hotel are you using in Baden-Baden? > Berchtesgaden to Venice - although that's a bit of a long trip by rail, I'd probaby travel during the day rather than by overnight train. A departure at 09:15 will get you to Venice by 16:55 (time 7H:40M, 2 changes). The trip will probably involve Bus from Berchtesgaden to Salzburg, and then train to Venice. Note that your destination station will be Venezia Santa Lucia. > Venice - I tend to agree with Frank. I'd probably reduce the time in Venice by one day, and add that to Rome. I can't offer any suggestions for an apartment, as I stay in Hotels or Hostels. Apartments may require a minimum stay. When will you be taking this trip?

We've done both hotels and apartments in Venice. Last month we did an apartment for 3 nights. We went to homeaway.com. We paid 250E a night for a 3 bedroom with terrace, right on a canal. FYI, Advert said it had washer and dryer. Washer was a machine, dryer was clothes pins and a rack. You'll just have to e-mail a bunch of places until you find one that will rent for a few nights. Sometimes it works out, as you fill in a gap between the weekly renters.

If the only reason you want to go to Baden-Baden is to visit a spa, and your next stop is Munich, there are much easier options available. From Paris, you could take a TGV to Mannheim, and from there, hop on a short regional Bahn ride to Bad Dürkheim (also known for its wine). Mannheim is a major rail hub, so you could probably reach Munich much more easily as well. Bad Homburg near Frankfurt is probably also easier to reach from Paris, but I don't know too much about this town. I also don't think you're giving Munich enough time.

If Baden Baden isn't all the important, I would look into taking a night train from Paris to Munich. It will save some valuable time during the day and then you can add a day to spend time in Munich. We loved Munich and it deserves at least a full day of time in the city. Our Dachau daytrip took the whole day. Berchtesgaden is also very close to Salzburg, about 30 minutes, so you could look into either staying in either Salzburg or Berchtesgaden to save yourself a hotel change. I would also take a day from Venice and add it to Rome. We spent 4 full days in Rome and could have used several more.

I, on the other hand, much preferred Venice to Rome. I think two full and two half days for Rome is just fine. It's very much a subjective issue, but Venice is certainly more relaxing than Rome.

While it's certainly possible to linger in Berchtesgaden, We did both the Konigsee and Eagles nest easily in a day. I assume the salt mine can be done in a 1/2 day. Going from Salzburg to there only takes 30 minutes. So Day 15 & 16 could include travel to B., all three activities, AND the train to Venice - thereby saving a day. I haven't been to Rome yet, but when I do go, I'm spending a week. We were in Venice last summer for two days and in all honesty, it was the least interesting place we saw in our 5-week, 10-country odyssey. Skipping Vienna (logistically a bit out of the way) would be a perfect way to add Hallstatt and a day or two elsewhere. You have two nights in Munich, but almost no time in Munich! Why go if you are not going to stay in town? N. Castle is a lengthy day trip away. Lots of people see it that way, but I wouldn't.

Great advice from all...thankyou. One thing I think I may correct is to take everyones advice and add a day to Rome. We have been there once before (only a day though) and we really love Roman history and the area. So I think I should allow one more day there for sure. Randy, some great info about the Berchtesgaden area. We dont want to be museumed out, and we would really enjoy seeing different things this area has to offer. That being said, I dont know how much is doable in a day....and I like your idea to save a day! I know we dont have much actual time in Munich, but I guess thats just something we had to make a choice on....more time in Munich or more time in the Saltzurg/Berchtasgaden area. As far as Baden Baden goes, its just really a vacation day on our vacation....a little downtime in the middle of our trip. So....perhaps we steal a day from Venice, and add it to Rome. And if we can be more efficient with time in Berchtesgaden, maybe add a little more time to Munich...