Europe 2015 itinerary - v6.0 - comments, suggestions?

If this is what everyone wants to do, then go for it. It is feasible and well thought out. But I do have one caution.

Go back through the itinerary and write it in terms of days, not nights. For "3 nights" write "2 days," etc. 2 days in Rome, holy cow! You are not spending much time in these marvelous places that you are spending a lot of time and money to reach!

You have 7 travel days. Some are really all-day affairs, others not. But if "the inside of a train" were a country it would be the one you are seeing the most of this trip. My guess is that if you could bear to part with one destination and use the time to slow down, you would have a better trip.

I know, you've probably considered all of this. Have a great trip, I'm sure you will do what is best for you.

I agree, slow down a little. Remember, you lose a lot of time moving to a new place (packing, checking out, getting to the station, then getting to the new hotel and dropping luggage), so a 2-3 hour train ride eats up half a day. You can mitigate that by taking evening trains and having picnic suppers as you ride. What about laundry? My guess is that teen-age boys aren't going to want to wash their stuff by hand at night every other day or so. You'll have to spend a few hours in a laundromat (do not leave your clothes unattended), probably at least twice - or spend a lot of money on sending it out. You're going to spend time shopping too. Don't underestimate how long it takes to buy food for a picnic lunch or go into a drugstore to restock. While it can be certainly be fun, it also takes a lot longer, everything is labeled in a foreign language, and packaging may be unfamiliar.

How much time you ahve in Rome and Paris depends on the timing of your flights. Don't underestimate the affects of a long-haul flight. The first couple of days often aren't "effective."

For your day trip from Munich to Salzburg, you'll need to buy a toll sticker for Austria (not a problem, current cost €8.50, just know you need to) and I believe Austria requires that drivers have an international driving permit.

Sammy,

heres my take.

If this is your first trip and its your 6th rev, then i would say you are itching to burn fast, bright and short. As my mom use to say, "you will learn". You wont know until you do a trip to find out if or not you screwed up (for yourself). There is no right or wrong way to travel and i bet you will find others on here that will say your 6th rev is too slow for them. But what is good for one or others may not work for you. Again, you wont know until you get a trip(s) under your belt and figure out how you like to do things. Also, there is no reason you cant mix it up either. Spend part of it running around alot and some of the trip just chillin. Again, you wont know until do you.

If you feel that this is your one and only chance to travel and want to "make the most of it" then go ahead an think that way. To me, if you want something bad enough, you will find a way to do it or make it happen. Same for this trip you have planned.

What i do is to PLAN chillin times into my schedule. I know it may sound dumb, but its the way im wired and so far it works for me. I dont have it in me to burn fast, bright for a long time anymore and life/experience has taught me to slow down and "smell the roses". Again, what works for me may not work for you.

When it comes to looking at Days or Nights and planning as such, i say again, do what works for you. As long as you understand that 3 nights equals 2 days and so forth. I dont know about you, but im awake during the day and do my things during the day and planning things during the day, so for me, i look at days. At night im sleeping (hopefully). What also i do is to print out a calendar and mark it up to where i want to go and so forth.

as far as where you want to go/visit, i have to say that i havent been to any of the places you want to go except Munich.

At Munich I allocated 3 full Days and that included a side trip to Dachau. The 2 days in munich was for the things i wanted to do/see so what i may like may not suit you and i could have spent 3 or 4 full days in Munich too. The Dachau trip took almost all day and even if it didnt, my mind was wasted by the end of the tour. Afterwards i spent time reflecting on that and just chilled. Same for Auschwitz-Birkenau.

I plan/wanted to do Italy and Greece next year along with other places. Rome and Venice along with Athens was in my initial plan. However now im dropping Venice and sticking to Rome and things south of Rome and also dumping Athens. My current plan is 3 full DAYS in Rome and with day side trips to Pompeii and Herculaneum and maybe some more. I know that 3 full days in Rome is still short for what i would like to do/see, but for now, its whats i have planned - my rev #2.

However your trip ends up and what rev you decide to go with good luck and happy trails.

Ray's advice is sound! I am in the camp that this trip would be too slow for me. We are leaving today on our 5th "big" trip and my husband and I generally prefer 2 night stays for most places. In Rome we were chomping at the bit our 3rd day. The only places we stay 4+ nights are Switzerland in the Berner Oberland, and London (oops we are spending 4 nights in Berlin this trip). We have found after traveling together that we both prefer smaller towns and a faster pace. I agree with Ray that you won't really know your travel style until you take your first trip.

This is indeed a pretty fast pace with lots of moving around.
When I plan a trip like this, I always start by thinking about what I specifically want to see in each place. You only have two full days in Rome...maybe you are only going to see a few things and leave the rest until later?
Take time and, for each place you wish to visit, make a list of what you plan to do while there...that will give you a much better idea of how much time you need to spend in each.
If it were me, I would spend more time in Rome and Paris and reduce the time in Salzburg and Munich or cut one of those out altogether.

I'll disagree with most and say I don't think you are going too fast. However, I am wondering where you are going off the well beaten Rick Steves path.

As others have said, it's your trip and your pace. My two cents for your consideration is that we traveled with our girls to Europe twice while they were teenagers. It got to be a chore to drag them out of bed in the morning. Once up, they would go hard, but we rarely got started as early as I would have liked (i.e., before noon). If your teenagers are in that "need to sleep late" phase, you may want to account for that in your planning. I simply had to slow down to their morning pace, so my husband and I would go out for coffee and a little exploration while they finished doing what their bodies told them to. Then stayed out later than my poor body told me it wanted to ;) But it's everyone's vacation, and screaming at them to be marching by 8:00 was not going to make anyone happy.

On the bright side, arriving at Versailles at 3 pm as the tour buses were pulling out meant we had much more elbow room on the tour and a lovely dinner in the Versailles old town. Evenings at the Louvre were much less crowded than days; seeing the lights of the city from the top of the Arc de Triomphe shortly before they closed at 11:00 was lovely. If you need to do similar time shifting, just consider whether this changes your calculation about days/nights in each place. We chose to stay in each location a week or more and do more day trips, rather than relocate quite so often. We also chose homes or apartments so we could spread out, do laundry, or even leave them home once in a while if someone was sick or extra tired. But that doesn't mean it's the only right way to travel with teens. Just more input for your planning.

My husband and I will be arriving about a week behind you in Rome with my grand daughter and her girl friend who are graduating from high school in June. We have 3 weeks and a very ambitious plan but we have done pretty much the same trip with 2 other 16 yr old grand kids in 2011.
Itinerary -"Grand Tour"
Rome - 3 nights
Sorrento - 3 nights
night train to Milan - plus 1 night (where we pick up the girl friend)
Venice - 2 nights
Ljubljana/Lake Bled - 2 nights
Hallstatt - 2 nights
Zurich - 1 night
night train to the Rhine - Bacharach - plus 1 night
Paris - 3 nights
It's a demanding schedule but it keeps the kids (and us) on our toes and we love it. We try to catch up on rest/sleep on the trains. We have all traveled a lot but this is the girls first trip to Europe - her brother has told her all the stories so she knows what to expect - Up early, wash your own clothes, carry your bag, wear a moneybelt, keep a journal, and have a ball. She/we can't wait!!!
Barb

Page 2 - Grand Tour
I forgot to add that we have all of our hotel reservations and have checked out train schedules. We can't buy the train tickets yet but will be ready when they go on sale about 90+- days ahead for the REALLY good prices. I am an eccentric planner but love doing it - I am retired. I'll be spending time now looking at the daily options - much looser on this but it is nice to have reservations ahead to some places as well as open times, etc.
Barb