2 Week Whirlwind Trip Help

John, take out a calendar and block out the actual amount of travel time and time in the cities you have mentioned. This is way too many cities to visit. You won't get a flavor of any of the places you are visiting. Only a blur. Was there a reason that you wanted to see so many places? You can always go back! Why don't you just concentrate on Germany since it is the centerpiece of your plan. Do reserve open jaw ticket (in one city out the other). It may seem more expensive at first but you have to get back to the original city which costs more and certainly time. Keep working on this and you will get to a more practical and leisurely journey. Just don't add anymore places within Germany.

Amsterdam doesn't fit too well with the rest of these. If you cut it, the rest falls into place a little better. One more cut and you are in business. Maybe fly into FRA and then work your way south.

My suggestion is in to Frankfurt, out of Prague. In 2 weeks, there's still plenty to see between the cities, but you'll really cut down travel time. Drop Switzerland and Vienna, too long for travelling. You could do something like, Heidelberg, Rothenberg O.d.T., Munich, Salzburg, Prague......which is still a lot for 2 weeks.

Go for it!!! I'm 39 and just last year my wife of 33 and I went backpacking as your are describing for 36 days. Five years before that I went on a similar trip for 21 days. There's no perfect schedule that suits everyone. Some people enjoy being on the go - and for me the train travel was one of my favorite parts of the trip. It was also considered our rest time, as we had the chance to sit and let our legs rejuvenate a bit. Otherwise we were beating the pavement and trails pretty hard most days. As many on here point out regularly, there are trade-offs to traveling as often as you are planning. But can you do it? Yes. Can you enjoy it? Absolutely. My only recommendation would be to try and stay in one place for 3 nights near the middle of your trip, to allow for a breather day. Happy Travels!

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE riding the European trains! Love them! However... Ams > Bach: 5 or 6 hrs & 1-4 connections Bach > B-B: 3 or 4 hrs B-B > Gimm: 5 hrs & 4-5 connections Gimm > Mun: 7-9 hrs & 5-6 connections Mun > Vienna: 4-5 hrs Vienna > Prg: 5 hrs (those figures are from the actual train schedules) NOW - add 2 hours per travel day for dp/ar each town: packing up, checking out (not always quickly! suggest doing it the night before whenever possible!), getting to the train station and onto the train, getting off of the train, figuring out how to get to the next hotel (bus/taxi), checking into the next hotel, getting settled in... Yuck. This might fit the two of you, though...only you can answer that. You'd need a mighty big gun to force me to do this - Every Other Day...

My first trip with my current beau was a whirl wind trip that involved 6 German cities in 9 nights. 2 Berlin, 1 Dresden, 1 Nuremberg, 3 Munich, 1 ROthenburg, 1 Cologne. We missed all the cool museums. What we saw was mainly in dusk lighting or in plain night. What I remember from that trip was beer and brats because really, its all we did. Yes we did castles in southern Bavaria and we did a concentration camp, but in 9 days, that was it besides beer and brats at night. All my pictures are crummy and grainy. Why? Because we were constantly on the go, in route to the next city, arriving toward the evening. Yes, we would get up early and walk the town but by noon, we were on the train, in route to the next city, only to arrive toward the evening, near dark or even totally dark. Out of my 6 trips, this is the only one of its kind. I will never travel this way again because I missed out on a lot and if I would have just chosen at most 3 places, I could have taken in so much more. Its not worth the money you spend to get there to just spend most of it on a train. Your window may give you good views, but its like it is a TV screen giving you a peek of scenery passing by. You are better off just watching travel shows from your living room.
But it is your trip, have fun, be safe.

Many good tips here. Amsterdam - Belgium and maybe skirt into parts of western Germany is a thought. Amsterdam is a truly wonderful place to have an extended stay. There are other posts here regarding Amsterdam vs Munich. The suggestion of starting in Germany is a practical suggestion too. Munich south into Austria would make for an amzing trip.
As suggested pull out a calendar and map out options it will then fall into place.. Good luck!

Badeb Baden? Why? The spa is nice but 2 nights? I think you should also see less places but spend more time in each. Get the feel of a city/area. Spend less time on trains, more in museums/on the trail/drinking beer etc...4-6 hours on a train every other day will get tiring way faster than you think it will...

To follow up on my prior reply ... when I'm traveling in Europe I find that it's OK to only spend two nights in a city/town (meaning you get one full day), but it's not a great idea to repeat this several times in a row - that leads to fatigue. For my trips I try to schedule 3 night stays in between 2 night stays, with 1 night stays held to a very bare minimum (only where your travel plans can provide that you actually get at least 24 full hours, preferably more, in the location).