Itinary suggestions

Your description of "attempting too much" is quite frankly an understatement. Your proposed Itinerary is far too busy, and you'll spend most of your very short nine days in airports and on trains. It tired me out just to read it. Keep in mind that each change of location will require at least four hours and in some cases the better part of a full day.

I'd suggest preparing a list of all the places you want to see, ranked in order of most important to least important. Post that here and the group will be better able to suggest a workable Itinerary.

Could you clarify why your outbound flight is from Berlin? You might consider returning home from Zürich instead.

Also, where are you flying from? Keep in mind that you'll usually arrive in Europe the day after you depart your home airport, so your sightseeing time is already one day less.

You really should start planning your itinerary by getting a good map of the region. Distances are greater than many realize, and it's much more efficient to travel in straight lines than going in circles.

Looks like what the producers of the Amazing Race would plan for a couple episodes.

So, first question is this attempting to much?

Do you really need the forum to answer that question for you? I think you already know the answer.
Your time with my family is mostly going to be riding in some sort of conveyance

If you have a child that is college age you are young enough to have plenty of opportunity to go to Europe again

starlatay, oh my.
Way, way, way too many stops for a short trip, think I.
Way, way, way too much time and energy in planes and trains, in airports and train stations, getting to and from airports and train stations, and checking in and out of hotels or apartments.
I fear the motto of your trip might be “never again!”
With just 8 nights, could you winnow it down to 1 country and 2 stops? Then you could start planning the next trip in a different country. I hope you all will have many “trips of a lifetime” in the future, maybe even a little longer.
Or maybe you and your husband could take separate trips, each accompanied by 1 kid, dividing these stops into 2 itineraries.
Good luck, please do let us know your final itinerary and how it goes!

Definately way too much.
Rule 1: No one -night stops, minimum 2 nights, 3 preferred
Rule 2: Each change of location will waste ½ day checking out, travelling, checking in.

Koblenz and Cologne are only 1 hour apart by train, no point in changing locations.

The Switzerland section makes no sense to me. Why fly in to and out of a country just to spend part of a day in one city?
1) Most people go to Switzerland for mountains, not cities (Bern is nice though).
2) Why spend the night before in Geneva, and the night after in Zürich? Both have flights to Venice and transport to Stuttgart. Two cities which all you will see of is the inside of a hotel. And this means you need to drag your luggage with you to Bern?
Either have minimum 2-3 nights in the Alps, or skip Switzerland.
BTW Zürich to Stuttgart is 3 hours by train, and costs €39.90. Bern to Stuttgart 4 hours. Quicker and more comfortable than flying

"Day 8 train from Stuttgart to Heidelberg to meet friends then back to Berlin to catch return flight home next day"
Stuttgart to Heidelberg is 40 minutes by train, why not stay in Heidelberg instead?
But, Bern to Heidelberg is only 3h40 by train, cut out Zürich and Stuttgart (of which you have no time to see).

Heidelberg to Berlin is 5½ hours by train - Most of the day travelling, minimal time with your friends. Why go all that way to catch a flight, when you can get a flight from Frankfurt am Main which is nearer?

How old is "your child", I guess an adult if they are studying abroard. I would ask them for their opinion as they are "on the ground".
Sorry - my honest opinion

My 2 cents - your son is already in Europe, he can visit his choice of city easily. Let husband and daughter choose theirs for this trip.

You are popping around a lot. I, myself, don't mind one night stays if travel time is short and the destination is worth visiting. For your itinerary, it seems you will spend most of your time traveling. Koblenz and Cologne are close. Cologne's cathedral is definitely worth visiting, but I wasn't a big fan of the rest of the city. Sadly, most of the city was destroyed by WWII and rebuilt in not the greatest of style. I like Koblenz and its in a great location on the Moselle and Rhine. Within a half hour of Koblenz and on the Moselle is a charming little wine village, Winningen. I think you are missing the nicest parts of Switzerland. I wasn't a huge fan of Geneva. It's expensive. It's really not that Geneva is "bad" its that other places in Switzerland are so much nicer. Bern is an interesting day trip, but Luzern and the Berner Oberland are, I believe, the highlights of Switzerland. Luzern is a charming town on a river with beautiful bridges, a lovely large lake and right in the middle of mountains. Luzern is just an hour from Zurich and would be a much nicer place to spend the night than Zurich (and probably cheaper)

Stop, take some time from traveling and actually enjoy where you are going. The German Rhineland area is great and you just skipped over a lot of it. With 9 days, just do that area. Don't miss Trier, which is a bit off the Rhineland. Rudeshiem is great for a short Rhine cruise.

Heidelberg is great, as are Strassbourg, France and if time the Triberg, Baden Baden in the Black Forest.

geovagriffith makes a great suggestion. You could base in Koblenz, visit the Rhine, Moselle and Cologne. Then move south a bit and pick up Heidelberg and the Black Forest.

Oh my.

Yes, the folks above me are right, I'm sorry to say. We all really want the 4 of you to enjoy your stay, and go home dreaming of returning even if you perhaps aren't able to. But it is true that if canned some of those flights you'd have a good piggy bank of whatever money you use - don't know where you're coming from, not even a country or half of the world - that might come in handy at some future date.

We can get you quintessential Europe and keep everybody happy - although we don't have a lot of time to do it. Just don't let it be the inside of airport gates. They look the same worldwide.

Don't run off because of these comments so far - after all you asked and got an answer. We will do everything we can to help.

Starlatay,

With 8 nights, most people on this site would gravitate towards something like a 4/4 split, so what you've described above is making their brains melt. Obviously, way too much in way too short of a time frame. Sounds like the two known factors are 1) you arrive into Frankfurt, and 2) you return via Berlin. There's a million ways to skin this feline itinerary, of course, but here are two ideas that we've enjoyed, and you will be able to say that you saw a lot, but didn't spend all your time packing and unpacking!

North By North West
2 nights in Cologne (have your son meet you there)
3 nights in Amsterdam (via train)
3 nights in Berlin (via air)

Go South Young Starlatay
2 nights in Heidelberg (have your son meet you in Frankfurt)
2 nights in Freiberg
2 nights in Lucerne
2 nights in Berlin

You could easily drive the southern route, returning the car at the Zurich airport before flying to Berlin. Sure, they'll be a "severe" drop-off charge of $400-$500, but based on your initial itinerary, you'll be money ahead in this regard!

Safe travels.

Thanks to all for the input - obviously this was way to much to attempt. I appreciate all the great input and will repost when I narrow down our selections.

When you've narrowed down your list of destinations, you might post the list here. The well travelled group on the forum can offer a lot of suggestions on the best and fastest way to get from one place to another.

Let's hope 3rd time is a charm. Thanks to the excellent input I am now on my 3rd version of my itinerary and am looking for input. Made some significant changes, basing out of Munich and Salzburg with day trips from there.
We will be flying in and out of Frankfurt mid March. Flying from the USA. We will have 8 days / 8 nights. We plan on traveling using trains and public transportation. It will be my husband, me and our two young adult kids.

Day 1 - Fly in and after a few hours head to Munich (have considered staying the night in Frankfurt due to yet lag but plan to stay up till local bedtime and figure we might as well use some of those evening hours relaxing on a train.
Day 2 - visit Dachau, spend night in Munich
Day 3 - to Neuschwanstein Castle, return to sleep in Munich
Day 4 - spend day in Munich seeing the city sites, travel that evening to Salzburg
Day 5 - Salzburg seeing the sites, specifically "Sound of Music" sites (don't tell the guys this is the plan)
Day 6 - additional day spent in Salzbug
Day 7 - currently no plans
Day 8 - from where we are day 7 to Stuttgart early in the day to meet family friends and tour the Porsche then into Frankfurt that evening to catch early flight home the next day.

What do I need to do in Salzburg or nearby on Day 6?

Since we do not have plans on day 7 - should I extend my stay in Munich by a night?

I have also considered going from Munich to Gamisch on to Mittenwald. Or potentially Munich to Bamberg. I have read much about the Romantic road but traveling by train I don't feel like that is a viable options. What else must do in / Near to Munich do I need to consider?

We are pretty much an on the go family when we travel. We enjoy hiking and the outdoors but do not plan on any extended hikes not being sure of the weather.

Thank you in advance for any advice / input.

Since you are planning on going to Neuschwanstein, I would strongly suggest visiting Hohenschwangau which is basically across the street. This castle was actually lived in by King Ludwig and family and its furnished. An excellent tour gives context on the family and "Mad" King Ludwig for the Neuschwanstein tour. I recommend doing Hohenschwangau first.