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Worth backtracking to get to Austrian Alps a week earlier in late Sep/Oct?

Posted by (Anchorage, Alaska) on

Hey Guys, so I'm booking flights to Europe this weekend from Anchorage and am stuck on whether to back track and do roundtrip to London or fly into London and out of Munich-both flights are the same price.
Dates are 8 September to 5 October 2016. Total of 27nights in Europe.

A quick itinerary for us of our stops not necessarily in the order we have to make them is LONDON (4) COTSWOLDS (3) SORRENTO (3) ROME (4+1 night enroute to Innsbruck on Night train) AUSTRIAN ALPS driving portion-staying in fussen for castles, dolomites, zillertal region, zellamsee, Hallstatt returning car in Salzburg (11 nights) then we have 1 night spare to stay near whichever airport we fly out of.

Originally I had us ending in Italy (Rome or Amalfi coast) because the weather there will still be fine in October whereas in the Austrian alps I think earliest is best. Note: In Austria we are not interested in just driving we wish to hike and do activites such as rafting, canyoning, via ferrata etc. Hence why I am worried about weather with us wanting to be outdoors most of our time in Austria. Lifts look like they will not be an issue either way.

We cannot fly out of Rome or Naples directly, we would have to fly back to London and pay for a flight naples-london ($200US/2 people)and we would also lose time flying backwards and have to stay the night in London to make our flight home. This itinerary also has a better night train timetable Innsbruck to Rome- in reverse you arrive at 4:30am with no time to sleep or have to do a train change at 7am with a 2 hour layover.
Or we could follow the itinerary in the same order as above and take a train from Salzburg to Munich and stay near the airport (we would arrive the day after Oktoberfest so don't want to pay the high prices in Munich itself).

So my question is it worth the hassle and expense to fly back to London purely to get to the alps a week earlier and thereby have a chance at better weather?

Thankyou for any help!

Posted by
980 posts

So my question is it worth the hassle and expense to fly back to London purely to get to the alps a week earlier and thereby have a chance at better weather?

The short answer is no it is not worth the hassle. Booking this far in advance there is almost no way to tell if one week will make the difference or not on good weather in Austria. It is entirely possible the later week will have better weather than the earlier week that time of year. If you are able to be flexible see what the weather looks like as you are making your way to South to Italy. If it is good then by all means stop in the Alps and enjoy, if not head strait to Italy and hope the weather improves as you head back north to Munich and your flight home.

DJ

Posted by
12040 posts

I admit I didn't read through all of your post. But let me say this. September, particularly late September, is the best time of the year to visit the Alps for hiking. This is the driest time of year (statistically, but that doesn't guarantee no rain). Daytime temperatures are usually mild, neither too hot nor too cool. Early October is usually a pretty good bet as well, but by mid-month, the clouds, cool temps and damp weather usually move in.

Posted by
2910 posts

I'd say the last week of September to even mid October would be ideal for the Austrian Alps. We love going in October. Cool to mild days (even a few warm ones) and chilly to cold nights. I remember a day or two near 80 degrees. During 5 trips in October, over 60 nights, I can count on one hand the number of days we had any rain. We have either stayed or visited during this time period in the Zillertal, Oetztal, Salzburg area, Fuessen, Zell am See, the Dolomites (Val Gardena, Alta Badia) and Hallstatt.

I'd actually be looking to put all these at the end of your trip.

Paul

Posted by
32825 posts

If you rent a car in Germany and return it over the border in Salzburg you will likely incur an expensive international drop charge which can be avoided by returning it in the country you rented it in. Freilassing is just over the border in Germany.

No. Weather is uncertain and I wouldn't waste energy just to move one week around. It isn't like turning on or turning off a switch.

Posted by
7 posts

Thankyou everyone! It was probably a dumb question to even ask but I was so stuck on the original itinerary I complicated it for myself.

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