My spouse and I were planning to fly out of our hometown of Jacksonville, FL on 05/30/26 for the 14 day tour of Germany, Switzerland & Austria and planning to fly home on 06/16/26. Since the tour begins in Koblenz, we would fly to Frankfurt which seems to be the least costly destination in Germany, regardless.
However, since the tour ends in Vienna and we are staying an additional night on our own there once our Rick Steve's tour group ends, we were weighing the option of flying back to the states from Vienna vs. travelling back to Frankfurt from Vienna in order to fly back home from Frankfurt. Bear in mind, we are opting for either non-stop or 1-stop flights each way, only, for the convenience factor.
We have been monitoring flight prices for both options for months using Kayak. The round trip to Frankfurt appears to be roughly $800 to $1,000 less than the multi-city option in which we would fly to Frankfurt but back to the states from Vienna and we of course would love to save the money however not at the expense of a huge headache trying to get back to Frankfurt from Vienna.
It appears as though the train ride would take 4-6 hours and cost maybe $100 to $200 or so. So the cost savings is certainly there but we have no experience with the trains or logistics in this part of Europe.
Can anyone provide any insight to help us best weight these options?