Planning a Multi-Country Trip Originating in Switzerland in September

Having traveled Sept, 2021, to Switzerland, and dealing with the changing covid mandates and testing requirements, I think that four countries is just too much. You MAY have to test before entering countries, complete tracker forms, have to fight with online airlines systems, test before returning home, et al. I'm glad we went, and would do it again, especially that time of year, but it was a lot of work. And- the rules continued to change. CDC put Switzerland on the level 4 red list the night before we left- [we went after doing some at-risk research] - but stressful. We had to cancel the Lake Como segment of our trip because , at that time, Italy required quarantining if one's flights transited thru the UK. Flights were constantly canceled/changed because [we think] planes didn't have enough passengers. You must be prepared to re-route segments of your trip at the last minute if a country's new rules make it just too difficult to cross that border.

You do need an international drivers license.
In addition, rental car prices are very high, you'll need vignettes for different countries, and some rental car agencies charge more for cross border travel. The gas prices are high, and there are toll roads to consider. And- Search the Forum for some of the horror stories shared here for traffic tickets received in Italy and hounding US collection agencies.

Is there a reason you didn't consider public transportation? The rails systems work SO well in Europe.

We all want to travel again, and in spite of the above, we are planning an April trip, but one to two countries, which may be reduced to one country. Obviously , all reservations will be fully refundable with changeable air fare.

Good luck and Safe travels!

Thank you for the insightful response! Yes, the mess of covid restrictions is keeping this trip at a tentative status. The hope/wish is that with the spread of Omicron, covid19 wanes as more and more people become immune. With many countries currently at or coming down from their peak, we're hoping that come September, nearly 7 months from now, things will be more relaxed. However, we realize there's no guarantees so we're booking everything as such. All hotels currently booked are pay-at-hotel with free cancelation. As for our flight, it's not booked yet but we'll likely book with United or AA, and they both offer free flight changes. We're planning a "Plan B" trip, in case we don't feel comfortable going (if restrictions are still as they are).

That being said, I'm very organized and I keep docs/spreadsheets of all relevant info for big trips like this. I've researched all countries current restrictions, and as long as we're vaxed and boosted with covid certificates valid in EU, we'd currently be eligible to get in to each country without a test. The issue is the testing required for returning to the states... which we hope is lifted in the next few months as Omicron subsides.

As for the rental car, thanks for the info. I've found through Europcar that our rental would be around $350 for 6 days with pickup in Zurich and dropoff in Geneva. Switzerland vignette is covered since the rental originates in Switzerland. Just not sure about Austria. Though I may need to send a message to Europcar about our plans to see if that changes the price. Given the hoops to jump through, I may reconsider public transportation. The main issue was the amount of time it takes to get to our specific destinations. A car is quicker than train in most cases, which is important to us on an already packed trip. I also love driving, especially in the mountains, so it'd be a fun way to see more of the countries we're visiting. Though, I'll have to research more on those italy traffic tickets... that sounds daunting.

We learned so much from that Sept trip.

We brought with us the Abbott E-Med proctored self-tests. They were easy to use, via cell phone- a proctor observes your test [for 15 minutes] and you receive online results at once.

We found Flight Aware, a site that tracks your intended flights. Through this site we discovered that altho British Air sold us our tickets, that they had not touched down in our city for the previous 18 months. They were HOPING flights would be back on track. They weren't. As a result, we had 6 flight changes/cancelations, and BA put us on some American flights . [The 7th cancelation was in Chicago, when our BA flight was completely canceled and we spent 24 hrs in Chicago.] So I would recommend checking out your intended flights to make sure they are currently flying.

Also- it's best not to transfer through a European city. Find a flight that flies directly from the US into your first destination. That will eliminate tracking an additional country's rules.

Again, we still went, and did discover that we had nerves of steel- or were completely insane, but we were both -mainly- on the same page. We did spend hours online the week before confirming the changing rules, and fighting with the airlines' [American especially] online sites for entering covid test results .

Hopefully you both can deal with the pre-stress, because it was SO worth it to travel internationally again! Good luck.