Making the most of 10 day trip, Switzerland, Italy, Germany

3 countries in 10 days - no way. It takes so much time to change cities, much less countries. You will spend more time traveling than enJOYing the towns. With Europe, less is more. For 10 days - Stay in Switzerland - see the Alps & Lucerne. Italy needs 2 weeks to see the highlights of Venice Florence Rome - that's another trip. It's not to be rushed. You could maybe do the Alps and Dolomites & Northern Italy if you want - which is stunning. But don't rush it. People always underestimate how long it takes to check out of hotels, take a train to another place, check back into another hotel - it steals lots of time from the trip.

Sure if you only want to spend a couple days in each country. Most people are jet lagged the day you get there and travel to other places takes at least a half a day depending on how far you’re traveling. With 10 days, it might make more sense to stay in maybe two places in Switzerland depending on what you really want to see.

You can do it in one day by a car ride from Stuttgart to Milan. By driving via Bregenz you can add Austria and Liechtenstein as well in this day. So, 5 countries in 1 day.

But I guess you have stereotypes of the countries in your head we do not know. So, it would help me and maybe others as well to know what you want to see and / or experience. Also interests and dislikes help.

Just an example: "Germany" is a headline over dozens of regions and hundreds of cultural aspects. In 10 days it would rarely be possible to get an impression of all main German regions. Our 5 biggest cities do not prefer the same beer, the same bread and the same main dish. And a simple bread roll has 4 different names.

In general: less travel time is more experience time. So, the perceived quality of your journey can be better by reducing the number of destinations.

And before you get the car trip idea into closer consideration: one-way car rentals esp. cross-border are very expensive and complicated because each country has its own traffic regulation incl. requirements for driving permission, tires, environmental zones, vignettes etc. Of course possible and fun but needs preparation.

Mark I laughed out loud at your 5 countries in 1 day option.

It is not my intention to make fun of what is surely a serious question. I just wanted to show that European countries are partly very close to each other and somehow just labels. Switzerland has four official languages: German, French, Italian, Romansh. These cultural zones which are independent from country borders lead automatically to the question what Christy and family want to see or experience.

Not regarding to original questions but I think it would be possible to enhance the one day car trip to 9 countries to bring it to an extreme in one day. This would be Amsterdam to Milan and would add The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and France to the list. Very intensive but likely doable on a long daylight-hours summer day. But I do not recommend to do this.

For Christy: trains are a good mean of transport.
Switzerland: https://www.sbb.ch/
Germany: https://int.bahn.de/en

It is obviously doable, but if I were to attempt to do it, I would limit myself to the parts of Italy and Germany that border Switzerland. When are you going and what are your specific interests?

A basic draft: Fly into Zurich. Then 2-3 days around lake Constance or the south of the Black Forest (Ger, 2-3 hours train ride from Zurich ), 3-4 days in the high alps, for example around Berner Oberland, 2-3 days around Milano (City or one of the lakes like Maggiore or Como), and you are almost done (maybe fly out of Italy if a split flight is doable.)

Trains will be much faster than a car in Switzerland, if google is correct - about 3-4 hours max for the country changes.

Okay, so how about fly into Milan, the. Head to Como are for a couple days, then make way to lauterbrunnen region, fly out of Zurich? Plan is currently fly into Europe 6/2 or 6/3 and then out 6/10-6/11. we are more mountain, nature, foodies then big city and shopping.

Sounds like a great plan! You will not lack for thing to see and do, and you will not lose very much travel time getting from one place to another. Go for it!

That looks definitely reasonable from my checks. You will be jet lagged at the beginning, so be careful not to plan too much. Lago Maggiore might be a bit more convenient on the way from Milano to Lauterbrunnen than Lago di Como. Possibly try asking in the Italy section for the best choice.