Italy, austria, germany itinerary advice??? with teen boys!

3 days, 3 weeks..????

You haven't said how many nights you have.

"castles, soccer, history, small towns, waterparks, festivals anything to fill their attention deficit brains:)"

Not having been to Austria is a reason to go, not an excuse to go to Switzerland... You could easily spend 5-6 days in/near Salzburg:

• Salzburg
• Hohenwerfen Castle/Fortress and Falconry show, outside Salzburg in Werfen
• Eisriesenwelt (near Werfen) amazing ice cave
• Berchtesgaden - (just across the German border, near Salzburg: Jenner cable car lift, Koenigssee, Hitler's Eagles Nest
• Lake Chiemsee... (between Salzburg and Munich.) It's called the Bavarian Ocean, with water sports and Herrenchiemsee Palace (on an island in the lake.)

Lodging availability is rapidly increasing in price and decreasing in availability due to pent- up COVID demand. I'd suggest you research where you can find lodging in your price range, and go from there. Posters have been reporting for the past two months that they are finding areas fully booked. The crowds are already there. I just returned and attest to that.
This Forum works best once you have supplied more details. Good luck.

Stay 3 nights in Venice. Be aware that you will have a VERY hard time finding hotels that sleep 4 on real beds in Europe. We have 2 teens over 6’, I know the struggle. I can recommend this apartment in Venice. Not in the hoards of crowds, has ac (rare, but very much needed in summer), requires a minimum 3 night stay: https://abnb.me/StaM1KtO1zb

The Dolomites are gorgeous (we’re headed there in June), but will require taking the train to Bolzano, then a bus, probably to Ortesei or Santa Cristina. Lodging will again be a challenge (and expensive).

We spent 5 nights in Salzburg with our teens and they LOVED it. The Red Bull museum, castles, Hallstatt salt mines, Berchtesgaden, Werfen fortress and ice caves. So much to do in that area. The mountains near Werfen are stunning. I would skip Fussen and spend lots of time near Salzburg. Consider renting a car for a few days to make it easier to explore. Salzburg is 2 hrs from Munich by train, so easy to get to for a couple days before flying home.

We stayed in the country in a ski lodge during the summer near Salzburg. We thought we would go into the city, but never did, since there was so much to do - the castle with the falconry demo, looking at graveyards (with teens), etc. For our children (22, 22, 26 at the time), the farm was great since they really enjoyed the animals. Look for agriturismo on booking.com

You might consider a concentration camp - Mauthausen near Linz is well-preserved. Teens are more than able to understand the issues. It's part of travel education to encounter history, good and bad.

The Dolomites are a bit out of the way if you go from Venice to Salzburg.

I would do Croatia instead of the Dolomites.

Recommend staying in Garmisch, which is near Fussen. Take the cog train up to the top of the Zugspitze (tallest mountain in Germany).

Switzerland is great, but more expensive than any of the surrounding countries. If you go there consider Lucerne and Interlaken.

When you go to Salzburg, also visit nearby Berchtesgaden, Germany and see The Eagle's Nest.

Forget beaches, there are no nice beaches in that part of Europe.

Did you want to see more of Italy, if so, do Florence and Rome.

Thanks for the amazing responses! These are great ideas and just what my kids would love. I just needed some tweaking.

I forgot to say we have 2 weeks, more if we need it! So, 2-3 nights per place. Or more if we like an area!
I will check all these out. It looks amazing!

Staying NEAR Salzburg...

BERCHTESGADEN (Germany) can be a good choice. You receive a guest card from your hosts - it provides free local bus transportation to the Koenigssee and other places in the immediate area as well as other freebies and discounts - and as of this year, free use of the trains to SALZBURG via Freilassing.

https://www.berchtesgaden.de/en/general-information/guest-card-local-tax

https://www.berchtesgaden.de/cdn/uploads/karte-bgl.jpg

HALLLEIN, GOLLING, and other towns in the TENNENGAU region...

This area lies immediately outside Salzburg. (Hallein btw has a salt mine tour - see Rick's book.) A stay in this region will also result in a guest card with discounts, freebies, and free use of the trains between Golling and Salzburg's main station.

https://www.tennengau.com/en/experience/tennengau-plus-card/

See map below; green line is the Salzburg > Golling train line, a very scenic route that follows the Salzach River (and which continues beyond Golling to WERFEN.)

https://www.stmartin.info/assets/images/Aktivit%c3%a4ten/Bus-und%20Zuglinien-gross.jpg

We found a nice vtiew-apartment (pre-Covid) at the Cafe Maier in Golling - it included breakfast in the bakery-cafe downstairs.

The comment about Dolomites being out of the way, so go to Croatia, is puzzling. Croatia is well off the path from Italy to Austria, while Bolzano, gateway to the Dolomites, is right on the main train line from Italy to Austria (Innsbruck).

If you want to include the Dolomites you take a bus from Bolzano to Ortesei or rent a car at Bolzano. But as you were warned above it may be hard to find good lodging at this point.

Starting at the beginning—-Venice is a good place to start if you want to experience Italy. And you can go to the beach there. The Venice Lido doesn’t get any love here, but it is a typical Italian beach with cot and umbrellas. You could even book a hotel there and stay out of the crowds of the city. The Alilaguna boat will take you straight there from the airport. Then you can take a vaporetto to Venice for the days sightseeing. Just a thought.

You can read more about the Lido here.

https://europeforvisitors.com/venice/lido/

To go to Austria from Venice most trains will pass through Verona. Spend a night or 2 here for more time in Italy if you want. The Roman coliseum in Verona is in much better condition that the one inRome which is just ruins. They still use the Verona arena for opera and concerts, and you can take a tour in the daytime.

The train north from Verona will take you to Salzburg via Innsbruck. Can’t help with that but for Germany I suggest you include Garmisch. Lots of adventure on offer there. You can swim in the Olympic pool, go paragliding on Wank, ride lifts to viewpoints and hikes.

https://zugspitze.de/en/Our-mountain-worlds/Highlights/AlpspiX

The gorge hikes at Garmisch are fun and exciting.

The corridor that you have chosen, Venice to Munich, is really easy by high speed rail. And there is almost no time penalty for going to Salzburg on this routing. The trains you would take will route through Innsbruck. From Innsbruck the high speed trains are 1h45m to Salzburg, 2 hours to Munich. The faster trains from Salzburg to Munich are about an hour and a half. So the destinations you propose are not just doable, but downright easy.

Similarly, the Dolomites are not just convenient to this routing, but you are literally right next to this range on your right hand side as you go north. The valley you are in rises up into the Dolomites. No problem at all there.

At the moment the corridor you have chosen is one of my European travel fascinations. I really like this route because it's incredibly time efficient for rail travel, and between Venice and Munich you see a wide array of fantastic sites and diverse cultures. You get the beautiful Alps, gorgeous Lake country, Italian cultural capitals, the wonderful Bavarian imperial seat, handy to Fairytale castles, Salzburg, so many charming villages. Day trip up over a pass into Switzerland if you want to. The routing that you've picked has so much bang for so little time spent on the train!

Also, the Alps in particular I think are an area that welcomes and caters too family travel. There are all kinds of fun things for kids of all ages to do.

Another hit for our teens was a sommerrodelbahn near Hallein. Definitely do a search for them wherever you end up. This is the one we went to the views are spectacular. https://duerrnberg.at/sommer/sommerrodelbahn/

We also went paragliding over Salzburg with FlyTandem. I can’t recommend it enough. If I had done it 20+ years ago I would have chosen a different career path - so much fun! They also fly over the alps near Werfen. Another reason to spend more time around Salzburg!