Itinerary Help Requested to make our trip Amazing

Is your plan not to spend much time in Munich? The day your flight arrives is a lost day because you will be tired and not fully alert.

You’re going to be moving around a lot which means packing and unpacking almost constantly. For me that would be the opposite of “amazing“. That might be the big memory of your three week trip. Are you sure you want to do as many places as you have listed? On your list for a 3 week trip, I would focus on Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. But that’s me.

Thank you! Yes, the priority for us in Germany is Dachau. Our top priorities are Salzburg, Lake Como area and Murren area, but I could be convinced otherwise. Lol. We hope to go back to Germany some day to spend more rime and include the Romantic Road and Black Forrest etc I may have bitten off too much. Already got ride of Prague, Vienna and a couple other stops. This is so hard.

I won't be the first to suggest you have too many location changes, too many miles to cover, too much backtracking.

Allow an extra day on your arrival city. As many of us have experienced post-COVID, the flight delays and cancelations often result is a lost first day. We had a 24 hour flight delay, and for the next trip a five hour flight delay, which caused missed flight connections. Best to plan on it.

Search here for comments on the Fussen castles. Many of us think it's too touristy and too much work for a mediocre experience.

Berchtesgaden is 45 minutes from Salzburg - that's a nice day trip from Salzburg.

Hallstatt is beautiful, but would be a long day trip, when you have so much travel already. You need some slow down days.

The Bernini Express goes south to Tirana, Italy, which is not far from Lake Como, and Varenna, which is a great place to stay. Perhaps conclude your trip here, as you could fly out of Milan, an hour from Varenna.

Keep the four days in Murren- you won't regret it!

Have fun planning a remarkable trip, but remember, sometimes for international travel, less is more - fewer destinations, more quality experiences.

Safe travels!

First, allow me to play psychologist. It sounds like you're worried about all the places you might miss--FOMO, Fear Of Missing Out. People have a tendency to do that on Europe trips, but not elsewhere. When you go to the store to buy food, do you pass by the $50/lb lobster or Wagyu beef and say, "Oh man, I'm going to miss out on those!"? I hope not.

There's a somewhat famous book entitled "1000 Places to Visit Before You Die". I doubt I'll even get 100 of those in. I'll probably never see Plitvice in Croatia (though my son did, and it's great). If I keep thinking about that miss, I could get depressed. Instead, I'll think about the fewer good places I can get to. I've been all over Europe, but I think my favorite time was 10 days in one place, exploring the Berner Oberland with family.

So, if you can savor half a dozen places in your 3 weeks, it WILL be amazing. Now, back to some details. You've got 4 days involving Lake Como. It is beautiful scenery of lakes and mountains. However, you're going to get that at Hallstatt and Lucerne. Also, it's a 7 hour train ride from Salzberg to Como, and that's as tiring as a plane ride over the Atlantic. Same with Lungern: beautiful, but you'll get similar at Lucerne. (Yet you can see Lungern from the train if you take the Zurich to Interlaken Ost train going through Lucerne.)

Still, you'll need to get from Salzburg to, say, Zurich. You might consider what we did once: take the overnight train and sleep on the train. Look up Nightjet, Vienna to Zurich. Salzburg is a stop on that line. True, it leaves Salzburg at 2:30 am, but we thought that was kind of an adventure, and less tiring than an all day train ride.

Fussen is out of the way, and takes all day for maybe a one hour tour of the castle. To me, not worth it when your time is at a premium.

Finally, instead of going to Bern to visit relatives, maybe they could meet you in Interlaken, for example?

Thanks, everyone. I’ve decided to skip a castle , add a day to Munich….still hate to give up Lake Como, but might. Shoe, can you tell me about the night trains? Is there one from Como area to Lautterbrunen? Are there beds? Or you just sleep in your seat? Might need to do that once, regardless of where we end up to get us there…Thanks!

There is no reason to give up on Lake Como, in my opinion!
I would skip staying in Bern completely - if you want to visit family in Bern, you could add a night to Luzern and day trip from there, the train ride is short!
I would also be inclined to skip Munich & Füssen if you intend to go back to Germany. Head straight to Salzburg when you arrive in Munich, base there for 4 nights to have time for Berchtesgaden + Hallstatt.

Then travel from Salzburg to Lake Como, breaking the journey in Pontresina for 2 nights (otherwise the train ride is too long, and the Engadine valley where Pontresina is located is really beautiful).

Night trains are not convenient or necessary for your trip.

tell me about the night trains? Is there one from Como area to Lautterbrunen

No, there are no night trains. There are some train which run into the night but not through the night.

From Como you can take a normal train north to Luzern, get on the cog railway to Interlaken and then up the hill. These are not through trains, they don't even have the same kind of track.

Or you can take a train from Como to Milan, then a train to Spiez, and another to Interlaken, and then up the hill.

Night trains/sleeper trains/nightjet: There are some, but they run between major cities, not smaller ones like Lauterbrunnen or Como.

You can find out general info about night trains here: https://www.nightjet.com/en/#/home

More specifically, if you want to go from Salzburg to Zurich overnight, this site has info and tickets and you'd want NJ 466 for a specific date: https://www.nightjet.com/en/reiseziele/oesterreich/salzburg

For a look at what a couchette looks like, https://www.seat61.com/international-trains/trains-from-Salzburg.htm shows some. (Basically a small bunk bed. Good sleepers like me slept just fine. ) In fact, just about ANYTHING you'd want to know about trains in Europe is on this site! https://www.seat61.com/

I should also add that NJ 466 is the Vienna to Zurich train that stops in Salzburg, so when you order tickets you have to put "Salzburg" into the starting city box. As I mentioned before, the only drawback is the 2:30 am departure time from Salzburg.

In fact, just about ANYTHING you'd want to know about trains in Europe is on this site! https://www.seat61.com/

I was just going to say this.

to clarify:-

when I said that there are no night trains, I was responding to the particular itinerary of Como to Lauterbrunnen.

Of course there are a few other long distance - linking major cities - ones.