Revised itinerary - suggestions appreciated

I assume you have visited Munich before as no time is allocated there.
Why not include Annecy and Budapest as stand alone stays as you say you have the luxury of time?
This brings you up to 30 nights ...

Arrive Amsterdam - 4 nights
Amsterdam (via Paris) to Bayeux - 3 nights
Bayeux to Paris - 3 nights in Paris
Paris to Lyon - 3 nights
Lyon to Annecy - 3 nights
Annecy (via Zurich) to Innsbruck- 3 nights
Innsbruck to Budapest - 3 nights
Budapest to Vienna - 4 nights
Vienna to Salzburg - 4 nights
Salzburg to Munich - no stay here ??
Depart Munich

Hi Sue,

I think your itinerary sounds fine, but you have a few long travel days. Here's a few suggestions:
Fly to Amsterdam - 4 nights
day trips to Haarlem, Delft or Utrecht
train to Paris - 3 nights (book tickets several months ahead via www.thalys.com to save $)
train to Bayeux - 3 nights (buy tickets locally)
train to Caen (20 min., buy locally), fly to Lyon - 5 nights (Hop! air has flights for around $80, usually several daily. See www.skyscanner.com for options)
fly from Lyon to Munich, train to Fuessen, spend 3 nights (Lufthansa has direct flights from Lyon to Munich, buying a round-trip ticket can be cheaper than one-way, even if you don't plan on using the return flight)
train to Vienna - 5 nights (buy tickets locally or ahead online to save $, see www.bahn.com and/or www.oebb.at)
day trips to Melk and possibly Bratislava
train to Hallstatt - 2 nights (buy tickets locally, as above)
train or bus to Salzburg - 4 nights
day trip to Berchtesgaden
train to Munich, spend 1 night before flying home (unless flight is later in the day)

If you choose to fly from Lyon, as Rich suggests above, why not head to Vienna (or Budapest) and then work your way back to Munich for your flight home.

Thanks for the suggestions. We're not staying in Munich for a couple of reasons: 1) we've been to Munich twice and 2) our travel dates would put us in Munich the very end of September or early October, which is Oktoberfest time. Have already checked for rooms and they are much higher than when we stayed there before.

The reason we were planning on taking the train from Zurich to Innsbruck is that I read somewhere that the scenery on this route is beautiful. Anyone know if that's true?

Thanks again for your help

Well - we've spent the morning online, reading about different places to go that we haven't been and it's looking like we're changing our itinerary YET AGAIN!!!! Does anybody else do this??? I think that's what happens when you're retired and have too much time on your hands.

Anyway - after really thinking about our itinerary above, we are now thinking about not including Austria at all in our trip next year. We've been to Innsbruck for two nights on a previous trip and this past December we went to Salzburg for the Christmas markets. So we really had to ask ourselves, do we want to start repeating yet? The answer is no.

So - now we're looking at flying in to Paris and out of Zurich and just spend our month in France and Switzerland. In September of this year we went to Nice and surrounding villages; Avignon and Beaune. Stayed five nights in each place, so we don't want to repeat those areas. We never made it to Lyon, so we're leaving that in (for now)

It's looking like: flying in to Paris - we will repeat Paris because we loved it.

Paris 3-4 nights
train to Bayeux - 3 nights
train to Lyon - 3-4 nights
train to Annecy - 2-3 nights
Then we'll go to Switzerland. Still researching where we want to be. Luzern, Murren?? Best places to be "in the alps". Will then fly out of Zurich.

Wonder how many times we'll change our minds? Will book flights in January. Once that's done - we'll stick with it.

Comments are welcomed.

Thanks again

Hello Sue. In your most recent travel plan, I think your destinations and travel routes are good. Remember, in the Berner Oberland in Switzerland (Murren) hotels start shutting down in October. Hotels there re open for the "Winter" season which begins approximately December 1. Do you know about the day time flights from the U.S.A. to Paris ? I know of one. It departs from New York City JFK airport in the morning, and arrives at the CDG airport of France in the evening of that day. Hotels are located near the CDG airport. You said you will fly from Zurich to Florida. The departure flight time at the Zurich airport is likely to be at an early time in the morning. The airlines ask travelers to arrive at the airport at a time that is two hours before the scheduled flight departure time. At the Zurich airport, does your airline have a machine at which you can obtain your airline boarding pass ? If you obtain your airline boarding pass from a machine, you would not be required to wait behind other people going to the airline's ticketing counter for checking in for a flight. If a traveler does not have check - in baggage, that makes the airport experience easier and less time consuming.
At Normandy in France, you might like being there more than 3 nights. If it were my trip, I would go from Bayeux to Caen, be there 3 or 4 nights. A car can be rented at Caen, for driving to the east to the apple orchards and a few small towns in Normandy.

Ron - thanks for the info. Knowing us - we'll probably stick with our original itinerary.
For Normandy - are you suggesting we stay in Caen rather than Bayeux? If so, for what reasons?

Sue : I am suggesting having overnight accomodations at Bayeux , and having overnight accomodations at Caen.
I will not read any part of this discussion thread again. (I do not access the internet every day).

For Switzerland consider stays at ...
--Lausanne - with visits to Geneva, Bern, Montreux
--Zermatt - for the Matterhorn
--Murren/Lauterbrunnen Valley - for the Berner Oberland (Jungfrau)
--Luzern - with visits to Pilatus, Zurich