Germany- Best routes for cars

Honestly, the best way to go about this is to go back to the drawing board. Your current plan means that you will spend as much time in cars and trains as at the actual sights. I am also confused whether you are on a tight budget (in which case neither renting a car, nor spending 4 days in Switzerland, nor (probably) using a rail pass make sense). Given that you have probably booked your flights already, I would probably skip Switzerland entirely, end the Germany part of the trip in Munich, and fly from there to Rome to use the time much more efficiently. Go by train to Cologne, spend a night there, then do Bacharach by train, continue to Mainz, rent a car there. I assume you want to go to Rothenburg ob der Tauber, not to Rothenberg; I would actually skip that in favour of less remote towns, but if you are going to rent a car anyway, you might as well go to Rothenburg (which takes some time to get to by train).

What is it that interests you in the "infamous" German road system? Scenic drives in mountainous terrain? Speeding down the Autobahn (I think that loses its appeal quickly - high speed driving is stressful and often impossible due to dense traffic or speed limits)? That would help planning a route.

Thanks for the prompt reply. I guess you are right about going back to drawing board...I might have messed up with plans as this is my first trip to Europe and already a bit confused about where to go.

Let me back up a bit further. My actual trip starts from Paris on May 29 from where I plan to go to Amsterdam via Eurail (just made reservations) the very next day and spend next night there (on 31st) before heading to Germany on the 1st, like mentioned above.
I can skip Amsterdam and go to cologne directly from Paris if that's fits better to the overall plan. I can also skip the car rental altogether since that the plan was to use car to visit small villages on the way, but I guess its better to stick with the rail pass that I already have.
Lets just say that I always wanted to visit Switzerland so want to squeeze that to the itinerary somehow.

Thanks again

smwaqar, to clarify something that might cause you some confusion while traveling. Eurail is not a railroad. It is a company that sells rail passes. The trains themselves are run by many public and private companies, depending on which country you are in. So, you will never see a sign in a rail station that says Eurail, or trains that are run by Eurail.

PS the "infamous road system" in Germany, while better maintained, is pretty much like the interstate system in the US. Same boring scenery - same following the rear end of a truck (lorry). The autobahn is only unlimited speed in a few places, if thats what you were looking for.

One night in Amsterdam after Paris makes it clear that you have not used, say, Google Maps to get some rough travel times. How do you know that this might be your only lifetime trip to Europe? Please scale back your ambitions and read our host's free travel tips (menu for this page) if you don't have time to read one of his excellent book for first time Euro travelers.

So you fly into Paris, but will not see Paris, because you are continuing to Amsterdam right away (in one day, with jet lag, you will not even have a proper first impression of the city). Next, you will not take the time to see Amsterdam, but continue to somewhere else right away. There is nothing wrong with just getting a superficial impression of your destination, but the long trips in between are a horribly inefficient use of your vacation time; and they are absolutely not necessary to see a lot of impressive sights. You could probably spend a week in Paris alone and not get bored; I find Amsterdam less attractive, but still worth some more time.

When I suggested to drop Switzerland, I actually meant: Drop a significant portion of your itinerary, and if on a budget, Switzerland is an obvious choice (everything is far more expensive than in Germany or Italy). What do you like about Switzerland? Would you be happy just seeing Basel and Zürich and flying to Rome from there? Or, alternatively, drop Germany and visit Switzerland plus an Italian town on the (long!) route by train to Rome?

If you do include Germany, Cologne and the Rhine valley are good choices coming from the Netherlands. But not the only ones. So really: Reconsider what you want to see, do research about the respective areas and the travel times in between, and try to minimize the time spent in transit.

If you don't have a reservation at the Bacharach hostel already, there is little chance of getting a bed there

All valid points. Thanks for very pertinent and insightful suggestion! I'm glad that I asked these questions, now hope that I can still replan for whatever time I am left with.

First of all, I think that I will have to strike off Amsterdam from the list and then travel directly to Bacharach from Paris instead, preferably overnight. This will also give me 2 day in Paris since my arrival is early morning on the 29th.
Here is my re-planned itinerary. Note that all of these travel are planned for train/bus. I would appreciate (again) if you can comment further - especially for places to stay in Switzerland and Italy for whatever number of days I have listed for each country below.
Arrival Date Destination Nights Notes
• 29-May-18 Paris (9 am arrival) 1 Overnight train to Bacharach on 5/30
• 31-May-18 Bacharach 2 Plan for morning arrival
• 2-Jun-18 Rothenburg Tauber 1 Plan for mid-day arrival
• 3-Jun-18 Munich 2 Plan for mid-day arrival
• 5-Jun-18 Bern/Interlaken/
Gimmelwald 3

• 8-Jun-18 Milan 2 Overnight train ride to Milan
• 10-Jun-18 Venice 2

• 12-Jun-18 Rome 2 Overnight train ride to Milan
• 13-Jun-18 Rome (9 pm) 0 Flying out to US at 8:40 PM

Arrival Date Destination Nights (Stay) Notes
29-May-18 Paris 1 Arrival in Paris at 9 AM. Overnight train ride to Bacharach on 5/30
31-May-18 Bacharach 2 Plan for morning arrival
2-Jun-18 Rothenburg ob der Tauber 1 Plan for mid-day arrival
3-Jun-18 Munich 2 Plan for mid-day arrival
5-Jun-18 Bern/Interlaken/Gimmelwald 3

8-Jun-18 Milan 2 Overnight train ride to Milan
10-Jun-18 Venice 2

12-Jun-18 Rome 2 Overnight train ride to Rome
13-Jun-18 Rome 0 Flying out to US at 8:40 PM

Re-posting the table after formatting

Hi Steven,
You are right. Called the Hostel in Bacharach and they don't have any vacancies...damn! Will have to look for alternatives...

I don’t believe you have checked train schedules, have you? Paris to Bacharach is only 4-5 hours, so a night train won’t replace a hotel for you. There is a 10-hour route, but is goes all around the country (via Kiel!) and requires 4 changes throughout the night, so no sleep there. Night trains are very rare in this era of high-speed trains. There are few routes that still take long enough to make them worthwhile.

You’re leaving in 9 days and don’t have train routes lined up or hotels booked. You still have time to sort this out, so go to Bahn.de and get familiar with how to find train routes. Figure out your price range and start looking for lodging. I would be sure to have rooms booked in at least Paris and Bacharach before departure. And best to do some looking now to understand what Switzerland lodging will cost you, even hostels.

travel directly to Bacharach from Paris instead, preferably overnight
5-Jun-18 Bern/Interlaken/Gimmelwald 3 . . . 8-Jun-18 Milan 2 Overnight train ride to Milan

smwaqar, there are no overnight trains on those routes. Overnight trains are few, and just connect big cities. Bacharach is a small town, population 1880.
Paris to Bacharach takes 4½ to 5½ hours and requires changing to a local train to reach Bacharach.
Interlaken to Milan takes 5½ hours and also requires changing trains. Starting at Gimmelwald requires another train to reach Interlaken.

Have you looked up how long each of your proposed rail trips will take? I suggest you do so on: https://www.bahn.com/en/view/index.shtml
This is the German Railways site, it will give you train times all over Europe,but only sell tickets within, to or from Germany.
You will need in some cases to use the "real" names of places not the English names, for example: Milano, Venezia, Roma.

You say you have a Eurail 5 day in a month pass. You do realise with this pass you need to reserve seats in advance on some trains? This includes Paris to the German border, and Swiss border to Milan, Milan to Venice and Venice to Rome.
For the one overnight train in your list that does exist (Venice to Rome), your pass is only valid for a seat. If you want a bed, that costs extra.
Also it is not valid on some railway companies, for example Interlaken to Gimmelwald.