Hi! My husband and I are planning a 10-12 day trip for April or May 2018. We'd like to visit the following places:
Is that a do-able itinerary for a 10-12 day trip? My husband would also like to visit Venice but not sure we'll have enough time. We live in Arizona. Would it make more sense to fly into Amsterdam first? Then Salzburg followed by Munich?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thank you.
Definitely book open jaw, flying into Amsterdam & out of Munich or Venice or vice versa. Look for "multi-city" option when checking flights. Salzburg can be done as a day trip from Munich, less than 2 hrs by train. Check bahn.de for train schedule. Remember to count nights on the ground so 2 nights gives you a full day of sightseeing. Every time you change location eats up a good half day at the least.
If you could really make it 12 days, then you could certainly include Venice. Whether it's a day-trip or an overnight stop, the smaller city of Salzburg can logically get a day or two less than the others. It would make sense to start at Venice rather than ending there, because that airport takes more effort to reach before an early morning flight, while Amsterdam airport is easy and flights probably better timed. If you don't include Venice, then you may use the time for side trips near your other destinations. In the year that you have for planning, you'll probably discover even more that you want to see.
Thank you for the tips! Any suggestions for online travel booking companies to use? On our last trip (London, Paris, Rome) I used Gate 1 Travel. They were fine but figured I'd check out other options.
Here is how I would do it.
Fly to Amsterdam, 3 nights
Fly to Venice. 3 nights
Night train from Venice to Salzburg. There are 2 night trains available. The one from Venice proper drops you in Salzburg at 4 am, so do not take that one. The other one you have to get from Padua and gets to Salzburg about 6:30 am. In fact, spending a day in Padua is well worth it. Go in the morning and store luggage at the train station. Or skip the night train and take a day train and see the Alps. Takes about 6 1/2 hours on a direct train to Munich.
Munich, 4 nights. You can take a day trip to Salzburg using a Bayern Ticket.
Fly home from Munich.
There it is. Add or subtract a night here or there as you get further into planning. Most people here don't use tours, excepting of course, those of our host, Rick Steves. You buy your own airline tickets on line. Long distance train tickets on line, hotels on line, other things locally. That is the raison d'etre for the Travel Forum, sharing knowledge and ideas.
When you say you are planning a 10-12 day trip to Europe are you talking flying out of Arizona and coming home within that time frame? Or are the 10-12 days solely in Europe.. remember the time zone day one is the airline, day two is jetlag.. then day going home is all day getting home... so.. that leave you with 7 or 9 days. Honestly, there is so much to do in the Netherlands alone.. i would say it would be more comfortable to stay in Amsterdam, that takes at least three days and you won't see everything.. take day trips and go to Bruges, more managable without wearing yourself out and save Munich/Salzburg for another trip.. to do that Alps, Salzburg is gorgeous a picture perfect fairy tale town.. and Bavaria warrants a ton of time.. going to Garmish, neushwanstein...(sp?) etc.. plus the sound of music tour.. etc... just my opinion.. the Netherlands is a lovely country with much to see to run around on trains getting to all the places to check off the list. If you still feel you need to do this, do an open jaw..
You need to plan out what YOU want to do in each location. I have been twice to Amsterdam, 2 days each time. Plenty for me. Munich two times, also 2 nights each. I plan on 2-3 days next spring. Salzburg 4 times for 18 days and I plan on another trip in a couple of years.
