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Itinerary Help- Munich to Zurich/Strasbourg

Posted by (Salt Lake City, UT) on

My wife and I are flying into Germany and out of Paris so we are deciding on our path to get to Paris. We will be in Munich for 1 to 2 days but are debating whether to:

  • spend another half day there and then train to Paris with a few hours in Strasbourg
  • leave mid-day and drive to Ludwig's castles and then drive to and stay in Zurich (or outside of) and then drive to Strasbourg with a few hours and then on to Paris
  • or spend the half day in Munich, train/bus to Zurich early for a few hours and then train to Paris.

Mostly the question is if staying in and around Munich would be better than also seeing Ludwigs castles. Also, part of the discussion is cost. Cheapest is M Z P, next is M S P, and the rental is the most...but get to see the most.

Sorry if this post is a little rambling or confusing but just wanted more input before we book everything.

Garrett

Posted by
16895 posts

I tried to make your question more legible by adding bullet points, but I'm still having a hard time to interpret it.

I don't think anyone here will recommend a car rental just to facilitate a short visit to Ludwig's palaces, especially if an expensive international drop-off fee is included. You can make a full-day visit with a bus tour roundtrip from Munich, or take a train roundtrip to Fuessen to see two of the palaces.

Also not sure why or how seriously you're considering Zurich.

The only direct train from Munich to Strasbourg departs about 6:25 a.m. weekdays and continues to Paris, which might make it tempting not to stop at all, if you can get up that early. Later train departures to either Strasbourg or Paris include a connection at either Stuttgart or Mannheim (again connecting to the same reserved TGV train).

Advance-discount tickets for trains touching Germany are sold through German Rail but for a connection within France, you'd have to switch to another online retailer (SNCF, RailEurope, or CapitaineTrain).

Posted by
110 posts

The issue is that we would only have a portion of a day to get down to Fussen to see the castles and not the full day requisite by public transport. We would avoid the international drop off fee be dropping the car in Offenburg which saves a great deal of money but it would still make it the more expensive option.

The desire to go to Zurich originated with cost because the train from Munich to Paris is 133 ea but to split it up with Zurich or Strasbourg offers savings and another place to visit. (M Z P $60 ea and M S P 105 ea--yes it is cheaper to buy the tickets separately than just going direct to Paris) Then we got big eyed at the extra stuff to see...but now rethinking. Rental cost plus gas and train ticket from Strasbourg will be about $350 by comparison.

We would be sad to scratch the palaces of the list, especially since we are not sure if we will be able to make it to see Burg Eltz while we are on the Rhine and we are hoping to see something the likes of these 3 places. But ease of travel and bottom line costs can be convincing arguments to paring down a trip.

We would be open to other like castles/palaces to see. We have from mid day Wednesday until Thursday evening to be in Paris. Zurich and Strasbourg are not necessities but we have not been and thus the intrigue.

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