Germany,Switzerland, Amsterdam itinerary input please!

I like your plan, but I would add a day to Berner Oberland and subtract a day from Amsterdam/Haarlem. If you can add days, add them to Berner Oberland.

I don't think you achieve much by moving from the Berner Oberland to Lucerne.

I also think two intra-european flights in addition to your transatlantic flights is too much flying rigor for the total time you have. 2 transatlantic flights are of course indispensable. 1 intra-european flight would be better, 0 flights better yet. For this reason I would probably choose to fly not into Berlin but into Switzerland, then home out of A'dam... and do ground travel in between... see the Germany that lies in between instead of Berlin... some good alternatives...

Middle Rhine Valley (Bacharach, medieval castles, WW II museum, old-world wine towns, river cruises... romantic castle-hotels?) The MRV is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Or...

Heidelberg and the Neckar River Valley towns...
https://www.orte-bw.de/grafik/uploads/1842_2010_1040.JPG

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0e/Hirschhorn_altstadt_wv_ds_09_2007.jpg/800px-Hirschhorn_altstadt_wv_ds_09_2007.jpg

Russ, thanks for your input and links! Let me clarify though, our tour ends in Berlin after 2 weeks in Germany and we will be flying to Switzerland as it seems faster than the train, perhaps I am wrong? I have skipped Switzerland on my prior 3 visits as it never is “on the beaten path” but this time I want to make it work! Also, our direct flight home is from Amsterdam and again it seems faster to fly from Zurich than to take the train, again, maybe I am wrong. Those are my reasons for flying, however, I will take a look at the train schedules, thank you!

Carol, I was wondering if that was too many nights in Haarlem? We want to go to Delft, and of course Amsterdam ( where I have been before) and are thinking of a day trip elsewhere, but not sure. We have 2 1/2 days in B.O. for hiking, is that not enough? We like to hike but aren’t avid hikers. Thanks for your input!

"...our tour ends in Berlin after 2 weeks in Germany..."

Aha - a tour that ends in Berlin. And I'm guessing this is a Rick Steves tour that has already taken you to the Rhine Valley (wouldn't have suggested that had I known.) Then I suppose there's no ideal way to include both Switzerland and A'dam, and that flying twice more will be more efficient.

I would want to go to both Berner Oberland AND Lucern. Lucern is beautiful and has a very interesting old town. Berner Oberland is stunning like no place I've ever been to.

My son and his wife went to the Hague and liked it very much.