December itinerary for Austria, Switzerland, and Italy

First, there is no city, town or village in Switzerland that is not easy to get to by train.

But, in this case, with only two nights to spend in the city, town or village, I would suggest Luzern as your base. It is a nice lakeside location and a good place for day trips on the lake, or up a mountain.
Other places further into the mountains give a better mountain experience, but with only two days you do not want to spend to much time getting to and from their. Luzern is convenient for trains from Austria or onward to Italy. See: www.luzern.com/en

Re "would it be cheaper to buy a eurail pass or buy individual tickets city-city" - you need to price up the individual tickets on the relevant railway company website: http://www.oebb.at/ www.sbb.ch and http://www.trenitalia.com/

You are planning long train stretches. If you go west from Innsbruck to Switzerland you will spend several hours to get there, and even more time getting from Switzerland to Florence (I recently did Zurich to Florence by train, and it took almost a whole day). I suggest Verona for day 5 and 6, this would minimize your travel time. - Or any city on the Innsbruck to Florence itinerary like Bolzano or Trento.

Re: point-to-point tickets, I just bought Innsbruck-to-Vienna tickets for TWO people for €48 for December 29. Same tickets bought for December 10 could be bought for €48 to €126 depending on time of day based on whether the economy tickets are sold out. Tickets purchased at the station day-of-travel are €126 for a group of two, €133 if bought as two separate tickets.

Rail passes probably not economical in Austria or Italy. Maybe Switzerland, but run the numbers.

I second the idea for Bolzano or environs. You will save travel time. Bolzano has museums and lifts to higher elevations. It has a cute Christmas market, Tirolean food, Italian food, a beautiful roof on its main church. It is a direct train ride from Innsbruck. I was there in early December 2005. It snowed lightly. I took a funicular which is really close to the center up to Oberbozen and had a nice walk in the snowy mountains (hills?). I have not been to Verona - only through it catching the train to Bolzano, but since it is also on the same direct path, it seems a reasonable option, too.

Alternatively, you could insert Salzburg between Vienna and Innsbruck. Do one day S and one day B?

Wish I were there. Keeping an open mind for a good air fare! Enjoy. Debbie

I'm going to give this a try. As you will see below, there is a pattern. One day of exploring and one day of long travel. Essentially, 40% of your trip will be travel days. On these travel days you need to take much more into account than just the length of the train ride. Your time will also including checking out of hotels, getting to train stations, orienting yourself and finding your new hotel.

For me, this itinerary is the exact opposite of the way I like to travel. I do not scratch the surface. I like to spend a week or more in one place and make interesting day trips. I like to unpack my suitcase, put away my clothes and feel like I am living somewhere for a while. I like to find a nice corner restaurant that I go to more than once. I like to be somewhere long enough in case there is a bad weather day.

If I were you, I would stay in Austria. I would split my time between Vienna and Salzburg. The Christmas Markets will be happening and it is a magical time here. Save the rest for another time. Plenty to keep you busy for 10 days. Who know, you might even remember the place.

So here is how your current itinerary would go:

Day 1 - Vienna. Can I assume that you are arriving internationally? If so, expect to be exhausted and don't plan to accomplish much that day. Maybe walk around the center of town. Spend night in Vienna.

Day 2 - Full day in Vienna. Spend night in Vienna.

Day 3 - Vienna/Innsbruck. Wake up, have breakfast and check out of your hotel. Head to train station and catch the 11:30 am train which arrives I Innsbruck at 4:50 pm. Check into your hotel, have dinner and call it a night.

Day 4 - Full day in Innsbruck. Explore the town or the mountains. Not really time for both. Spend night in Innsbruck.

Day 5 - Innsbruck/Luzern. Have breakfast and head to the train station. Catch the 10:54 am train which arrives at 3:49 pm in Luzern. Find hotel, check in, have dinner.

Day 6 - Full day Luzern. Spend night in Luzern.

Day 7 - Luzern/Florence. Take the 9:40 train which arrives at 3:55 pm. Find hotel, check in have dinner.

Day 8 - Full day in Florence.

Day 9 - Florence/Rome. Check out, go to train station. Take the 10:38 arrive at 12:10. Find hotel, check in. Explore in Afternoon.

Day 10 - Rome. See what you can in the morning an head out.

Here is how I would do it:

Day 1 - 5: Vienna
Day 6: Vienna to Salzburg, train ride if 2 hours 20 minutes.
Day 7 - 9: Salzburg and surrounding area
Day 10: Train back to Vienna, go to airport to fly home.

Emily is so right! Pick one country and two cities and make the most of your ten days. Almost every site has shortened hours. You will save money, too, by not changing locations all the time. The train fares add up and are not really a value when all you get for your investment is a day of sightseeing. Rome and Florence or Vienna and Salzburg make sense.

I hope you post again with your decision. Although I prefer to spend three nights in a place (five or more if it's a major city), I know the 1-1.5 day approach satisfies people, too. Emily's siggestion looks good.

Thanks for all of the input. After looking at your responses, we’ve decided to take Switzerland off the itinerary. We’d both love to travel there but after realizing how much time we would spend on the trains instead of exploring the towns it just didn’t make sense. I see that some of you have recommended that we spend our entire trip in Austria, but we have already bought plane tickets that have us arriving in Vienna and departing from Rome.

Also, we have 10 days of full travel time. So to alter my original itinerary it would be:
Day 0: Arrive in Vienna at night
Day 11: Depart from Rome in the morning

We like the idea of stopping in towns on the way from Innsbruck to Florence but haven’t had time yet to research the towns. I see that Bolzano was mentioned twice so I assume that must be a good option. I’ll be able to do more research later on, but which town/towns would y’all recommend to stop in on the way from Innsbruck to Florence? Also, should we pick just one town to go in the place of Switzerland or go to two towns since the train rides will be shorter?

Also remember that it gets dark early in Dec. Most of Europe is farther north than the U.S. (NYC is approx the same latitude as Rome)