7 days Paris to Salzburg

You could rent a car and drive from Paris through Alsace to Mullhouse/Basel stopping for a couple nights in a Alsace wine village. You would want to make sure to return the car in France, at a place where there is a train station to get you to Luzern/Lucerne. Then the train to Salzburg, maybe stopping for a couple nights in Innsbruck? I feel like Luzern/Lucerne is much more interesting than Zurich. Basel is also a pretty city, though not in the mountains.

No, the idea was to drive a car from Paris thru Alsace then return the car prior to leaving France, and then take a train from there on. You don't HAVE to return a car in the same country as pick up, but it is a lot more expensive not to. I suggested a car for Alsace because Alsace is much easier and enjoyable with a car.

You could also very easily do your trip via train. I just wouldn't suggest Alsace.

You could consider the following by train:

Paris to Strasbourg (2nights) TGV Train (2 hours)
Strasbourg to Bern, Switzerland (2 nights) (2.5 hours)
Bern to Luzern (2 nights) (1.0 hour)
Luzern to Innsbruck (1 night) (4.5 hour)
Innsbruck to Salzburg (2.0 Hours)

All these cities are very nice and have some interesting things for kids to see.

Thank you Jules M. I understand now. Appreciate the idea, will look into it!

Thank you @Threadwear. I will look into those cities. Appreciate the suggestions!

Depending on your comfort level with the driving, one option could be to take the train from Paris to Strasbourg or Colmar and pick up a rental car in one of those cities.

So we’ve decided on the following and all accommodations are booked:

• depart Paris 30 June on the TVG all the way to Wengen
• explore that region 30 June to 2 July (I know this isn’t enough but we don’t have a choice)
• 3 July train to Lucerne, rent a car to Füssen

Here’s my questions:
1 - re the trains: it seems like a half fare card is the best option. I am confused on what other regional pass I need ie Berner Oberland or Jungfrau. Would appreciate some clarity if able.

2 - would love ideas on best things to do. We have 2 kids ages 8 and 12 but they are pretty good hikers and we’d love to do lots of nature as these are our most rural days of our trip.

3 - from all my research we couldn’t find a better option to get to Füssen other then train Wengen to Lucerne, rent a car and drive to Füssen. There’s no trains that don’t take 10-12 hours and we don’t have that time to burn. The one way fee is not great but I don’t see another option. We’ll be dropping it in Munich.

Appreciate advice. TIA!

Where have you been doing your research?
Wengen to Füssen is 7 hours by train.
Wengen to Luzern is 3 hours. Add getting to the rental car pick up, doing the admin etc...
Then driving Luzern to Füssen is another 3 hours. So your plan is not really going to save you a lot of time.

But having a car to explore the castles of Bavaria (of which Neuschwanstein is not the most interesting...) is a good idea. But I would pick up the car in Lindau, and drop it in Freilassing. That avoids cross border drop off fees.

You now mention you will be going from Paris to Wengen in one day on June 30. That trip will take you at least 7 hours to arrive to your hotel in Wengen. That will pretty much exhaust June 30th. There are some kids activity playgrounds in the village if I recall.

You will have July 1, a full day. There are plenty of simple hikes to take from Wengen. I would suggest to cable car to Mannlichen from Wengen and take the hike to Kleine Scheidegg and train back to Wengen. In Mannlichen there are kid activities as well. On July 2, I would recommend Trummelbach falls in Lauterbrunnen in the a.m. and a trip up to Murren in the p.m. for lunch and some sightseeing. This will give you a flavor of the region in just your short time frame.

Heading into Germany from Wengen won't be super simple no matter your choice of transportation. The travel times will be the same. I do like Wengenk's suggestion of renting the car in Germany and avoiding the drop off fee. I did this once by renting in Konstantz, Germany as that was convenient for me at the time and dropped off in Germany. Driving has its pluses and minuses as you will experience.

It probably would have been better if you would have listed all the cities the concerts were in so you could have received better input on ease of transportation and the best time allotments to visit some cities. Hope all travel plans work out. Enjoy your trip.

Thank you WengenK. I swear to you that I looked at trains and could not find 7 hours to Füssen but sure as I looked this morning, there it was. I must have been doing something wrong. I’m glad I asked here as that is definitely preferable to renting a car and dealing with the additional fees etc. and I would have been annoyed to find that out after the fact lol.

A German friend had said to visit Neuschwanstein but I’m open to suggestions for other or better options. We’ll be heading from Füssen to Munich.

Thank you Threadwear. I should have posted that info, I was just caught up in the trains of it all lol. He’s playing in Paris 29 June hence our departure 30th. The next concert is in Salzburg 6 July. Vienna 8 or 9 June then we’re on to Prague for fun. The first and latter parts of the trip are fairly straightforward as they are built around his concert times. But we are skipping a concert in order to see Switzerland. I did give my family the option of staying in Northern Switzerland and Bavaria as opposed to the additional travel time down to Lauterbrunnen area but all voted it was worth the travel time. We have taken several long road trips in the states so they are good travelers and we are looking forward to being on a train where we can play games and hang out together as opposed to being in a backseat and someone stuck with driving.

Thank you for all the idea for when we’re down in Wengen. I’ll be looking these up. Any idea on the train passes? I’ve priced and the half fare card seems to be the best but I’m confused which pass I should buy for the area…Jungfrau or Berner Oberland? Or does it depend what we do specifically?

Appreciate everyone’s assistance you have been super helpful.