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Help With Route Change Please

My wife and and I will be backpacking Europe this June and July for our honeymoon. Our route is pretty much set, but we came across a problem. On one leg, we're going from Venice-Budapest-Munich-Paris. We've been looking into how to travel from Venice-Budapest, but it's really been a hassle. We do not want to take a train trip that long and figured we would just fly. Every flight we look into is 6+ hours because there are stops, we cannot find anything direct. Ryanair does not have a flight on the day we want to go. These dates are set, so we cannot move around our days. As much as we wanted to see Budapest on this trip, this seems like a lot of effort and hassle to plan, and would take a lot of time out of our sightseeing time. We know we will be back and do not have a problem saving it for a different trip, one more Eastern-European based.

Therefore, we now have three days for a new location. Does anyone have any suggestions for a destination either between Venice-Munich or Munich-Paris that would be nice for three days? We're both 26, enjoy history, food, beer, and just exploring the city, immersing ourselves in the culture. A smaller city or town might be nice, as everything up to this point would be big cities. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thank you SO MUCH in advance!

Posted by
11613 posts

James E. will be by shortly to convince you to keep Budapest.

Very close to Venezia, Padova or Verona. Trento or Val Gardena? Innsbruck? What cities does your train connect through?

Posted by
7118 posts

Bolzano Italy is about half way between Venice and Munich on the train so easy for a 3-day stopover. It's not a particularly small town (about 100k population) but definitely not a large city. It's in a beautiful area and has some nice hiking in the area and a few tourist sites that might be of interest. A good place to park yourselves for a few days to relax and recharge.

By the way, and I'm sure James will disagree, I think leaving Budapest for another trip is a good idea. I don't blame you for not wanting any marathon travel days between places. And I personally think Budapest needs more than 3 days anyway. I spent 6 days there and want to go back for more.

Posted by
3398 posts

The idea of the Dolomites (Bolzano) between Venice and Munich is an excellent one. You have a lot of cities on your itinerary and it might be nice to spend a few days in what are some of the most spectacular mountains of the Alps. Plus the mix of Italian and German culture there makes for some amazing food! Instead of staying in Bolzano I would suggest staying somewhere in the Val Gardena which is up in the mountains, not adjacent to them. You won't be disappointed. Very romantic too!

Posted by
20945 posts

There is a direct EC train leaving Venice at 1:50 pm and getting to Munich at 8:21 pm. That is just 6 1/2 hours with some nice mountain scenery. Or you could take the night train. Sounds more romantic than it really is though, since it will be bunk beds.
Pick an intermediate spot between Munich and Paris. I'd say the Mosel and Rhine valleys for wine and cruising.

Posted by
1446 posts

I would say train to Florence, then take one of the cheap flights from Florence to Munich (with Air Dolomiti, for example).

Posted by
15768 posts

You can get to Strasbourg in about 4 hours with a change in Stuttgart. Then it's about 2.5 hours by train to Paris. You can stay in Strasbourg and day-trip to Colmar or stay in Colmar and explore the Alsatian villages by bus or car.

Posted by
8 posts

Huge thanks to everyone for your suggestions, we really appreciate it! I've never considered Bolzano before, it looks beautiful, and definitely something we'll look into.

Sam & Chiani - We've been looking a lot in that area between Munich and Paris, Strasbourg was originally on our route but we removed it to add time to other cities, but we really want to see it so that's a good option for us as well.

Diane - We're actually already going to Florence. Looking back, I should have posted our entire itinerary, sorry about that!
This is our entire route with Budapest taken out:
Rome (Day trip to Pompeii)
Florence
Cinque Terre
Venice (Day trip to Verona)
Munich (Day trip to Neuschwanstein/Hohenschwangau/Fussen)
Paris (Day trips to Versailles and Rouen)
Amsterdam (Day trip to Bruges)
Dublin (Day trip to Glendalough/Kilkenney)

Technically we can add those 3 days in anywhere, we were just focusing on somewhere between Venice-Munich and Munich-Paris because those are the longest transportation legs of our trip and we wanted to break them up. We realize we'll need a vacation from our vacation, so we're definitely looking for somewhere that we can relax and unwind.

Posted by
4046 posts

If you are thinking of Bolzano look a little bit further into the mountains at the charming town of Merano. It is a quick train connection (35 minutes and ~$3) from Bolzano up into a mountainous valley full of hiking and biking in the apple orchards and vineyards. The town itself is on a beautiful river and has a lot of tourist infrastructure as it is a spa town. It is kind of the best of both worlds with Italian and German/Austrian dishes on the menus and excellent beer and wine choices. There is a range of lodging choices from elegant spa hotels to orchard agriturismos above the town. Maybe a spa town after several large cities would be a nice 3 day break?

Posted by
19523 posts

Zoe, thank you, but if it can't be done well its best to wait. Funny, I did think there were some direct flights out of some airport in northern Italy.

Posted by
8 posts

Thank you to everyone again for your suggestions! Bolzano looks like a good fit for this trip and our timeline so I think we might go with that. Also, thank you Mona for suggesting Merano, I think it would be nice to go up for a day and spend some time at the spa, a perfect "vacation from our vacation" :) We're pretty bummed about removing Budapest, but feel it would be best to save it for another trip when we can dedicate more than 2.5 days to it and really explore the city.