Itinerary help: France, Germany, Switzerland (& Austria?)

Travel dates?

How many nights in Europe?

What are your plans for Austria? Just Salzburg, which is quite close to Munich, or do you hope to push all the way to Vienna?

You don't mention the Alps in Switzerland. Was that an intentional omission? That is most visitors' #1 priority, but of course walking in the Alps is not necessarily great every month of the year.

If you do want to spend some time in the mountains, it's usually recommended that you spend several nights there (and I don't mean 2) to maximize your chances of having at least one day of decent weather.

You said you found the tickets to Paris; does this mean you purchased them? If not, consider flying into Paris and out of another city so you don’t have to backtrack. If you’ve already bought the tickets that will change your travel strategy but if you haven’t bought the tickets you might be able to do more in your time in Europe.

Since your plan seems to focus on Paris-Munich with Southern Germany, NE France, Switzerland and Austria, you have many great choices.

First of all you won't be able to focus much on one area if you try to cover all this in two weeks.

Paris needs at least 5 days. If you have been there, skip it for now.

Strasbourg, France is good for a couple of days. Then you must choose whether or not you want to do Friberg, Triberg and Titisea in the Black Forest or head directly to Switzerland.

If you go directly to Switzerland, one of my favorite areas is Interlakken. You can go up the Yungfrau and take a boat ride on the wonderful lake. Lucerne should be included. I would plan on 4-5 days in this area.

For Bavaria and Austria, you have the Fussen/Garmisch area that is good for 3-4 days and then the Salzburg/Berchtesgaden area for 3 days. Munich is great and you could easily do 3-4 nights there.

Hi. Traveling in summer. Tickets for open jaw are more expensive. So we are sticking with Paris in and out. I don’t know where to go. That was the question. I said Alpine slide, so yes, that would be the alps. I believe they have one in Germany too, but my kids saw a YouTube video of one in Swiss Alps.

Just looking for an itinerary that makes sense. It’s your opinion. I’ll research it. 🙂.

Geo....thank you. Since traveling by train, what order makes sense?

I’ve read that Interlskken is touristy with tacky shops. Others have written to head more into the mountains.

When you say "open jaw is more expensive"... how much more expensive? If it's less than $200 per passenger, I would still think it is worth it because you save on (1) transportation back to Paris and (2) the hotel night before your flight out of Paris.

So I would really try to play around with combinations:
- into Paris, out of Munich
- into Zürich, out of Paris
- etc.

As for a route, the "logical" order linking most of your destinations is Paris-Alsace-Luzern-Salzburg-Munich by train. Paris to Luzern will be 5.5 hours, Luzern to Salzburg will be 6.5, but there's no way around it - sorry.
But with only 14 days, you'd have to skip one of the destinations.
Skipping Alsace:
- 3 nights in Paris
- 4 nights in Luzern (or, perhaps preferably, the Bernese Oberland - but it involves more travel time)
- 2-3 nights in Salzburg
- 4-5 nights in Bavaria

Or, skipping Austria:
- 3 nights in Paris
- 3 nights in Alsace, e.g. Colmar
- 4 nights in Luzern (or, perhaps preferably, the Bernese Oberland - but it involves more travel time)
- 4 nights in Bavaria

balso has given you some good options. If your 14 nights does NOT include Paris time (as I thought you said), you could use either of his options and not skip one of those destinations. However you lose a lot of time in travel. Plus you then have to get back to Paris, which will be a longer trip. If the travel time is just part of the enjoyable family adventure, then go for it. But you may have to compromise your desired train travel times - and you are the only one who can make that determination. rome2rio.com gives you some good information for options (you just can’t use that site to book anything).

Thanks. I feel like there's gotta be a way to circle around from Paris through some cool destinations, then back to Paris. Honestly, our family is up for anything. Whatever I pick, everyone would be down!!

Good point about the Hotel and train travel before Paris. Unfortunately the open jaw is more like $600 pp. From what I've read on this site, and from a frequent traveler that we know, just getting to Europe is key, after that, flights within are cheap, so I could train travel, then fly from say Munich to Paris to catch the flight. That does add a lot of time though with security, check ins and likely a hotel stay as you mention.

Thanks for the one person who actually provided an itinerary! ;) I'll take any others!!!!

My family is planning a very similar trip for summer 2020. My husband and I are traveling with our 17 year old daughter and our 14 year old son. We also found an extremely good deal on round trip tickets to and from Paris for 24 days total in June.

We plan to start in Paris and make a bit of a loop starting the Alsace region, travel through southern Germany and Austria, and then go back into Germany making our way back to Paris. We are not planning to visit Switzerland, because I hear Switzerland is expensive and we plan to see the Alps in Germany and Austria. I am still working on our itinerary, but do have a first draft that I would be happy to share. It sounds like your trip is a little shorter than ours, but I thought that you might be interested in seeing our itinerary, and you can adjust to fit your timetable.

I also have the goal of keeping travel days to around 4 hours a trip, and we also are hoping to travel mostly by train. But our current itinerary does have some legs that are significantly longer than 4 hours by train, and the train routes between a few cities are not ideal. We are considering renting a car for at least part of the trip, and that would get certain sections of the trip to a more reasonable travel time. Again, my itinerary is a work in process and is truly a first draft. I am sure it will be changed several times before we finalize it!

Day 1: Flight to Paris, overnight flight
Day 2- 5: 3 nights in Paris
Day 5 - 8: Travel to Colmar, France, 3 nights
Day 8 - 10: Travel to Freidburg im Breisgau, Germany, 2 nights
Day 10- 13: Travel to Fussen, Germany, 3 nights
Day 13 - 16: Travel to Innsbruck, Austria, 3 nights ( I believe there is an alpine slide in Innsbruck)
Day 16 - 19: Hallstatt, Austria, 3 nights
Day 19 - 21: Rothenburg od Tauber, Germany, 2 nights
Day 21 - 23: Baden Baden, Germany, 2 nights
Day 23 - 24: Stay in or near Paris, Fly home

I know you mentioned you would like to stay in Munich, so you could easily skip Hallstatt and replace it with Munich. That would make the travel time more manageable as well. We are considering either daytripping into Munich or adjusting the itinerary a little to allow a couple nights in Munich.

Good luck with your planning, I am sure your family will have a great trip!

Four people should rent a car. You'll save $$ and come to enjoy the flexibility. Paris in/out is poorly located because it is not EU central, but it is very well located for a loop thru France, so, Paris to Trier, Mosel Valley, Rhine Valley to Alsace (3 days) and then down the Rhone River thru Provence to Arles. Optional side trip: Cote d'Azur. Then Aigues Mortes to Carcassone to Bordeaux to Chateau of the Loire, Chartres, St Malo, Mt St Michelle, Rheims. back to Paris. Short cut: cross the Massif Central to Loire from Provence. To sample the Alps, Annecy.

Train is a really awful way to travel. Its only worthwhile for a circuit of big cities. Otherwise its too time consuming. Instead of seeing the sight,s you'll be spending your time in RR hassles. 

Trains ARE NOT an awful way to travel. They are superior to cars in Europe. They are fast, easy to navigate, run from central city to central city, and allow a relaxing time while you see interesting countryside. You also do not get traffic tickets, have to find and pay for parking, have to navigate in unfamiliar European locales, have to navigate the incredibly small streets in old inner-city neighborhoods. They are also useless inside most European cities, where excellent public transit is fast and cheap.

That being said, with 4 people, cars are economically more sensible for specific parts of trips.

Note to OP: Some commentators here are extremely opinionated. Note that opinions should be taken with a grain, or shovel, of salt.

Thanks for the itinerary Tojo. You are fortunate to have the opportunity to have all that time for your trip. I’ll see if I can tailor that for our needs and shorter trip.

I like traveling by train. I like that they depart and arrive city center. If you look at travel time, the high speed TGV is often faster than driving. I don’t want to deal with GPS, parking gas, insurance etc. I generally sleep on trains as I don’t handle jet lag well and I’m tired the whole time. If my husband were driving, I’d get no rest. 😂

I’ll consider driving for areas that make sense.