first trip to switzerland

Reply - Part 1: Whether train is cheaper depends partly on how many people in your party, please reply below stating the number of people in your party.Pending your clarification of # of people in your party, here are comments on what you have proposed so far:Your driving itinerary from Vienna, to Milan, to Venice, then back to Nice--is very inefficient; a better sequence would be: Vienna - Venice - Milan - Nice.Having a car in Paris is not recommended. However, if you must have a car both before and after Paris, then it's probably best to keep the car but book a hotel that is intended for travelers with cars, which will be located on the outskirts near the major highways; you should carefully avoid booking a hotel in the tourist core of the city because parking getting to the hotel and parking will be difficult and expensive.I count 10 different locations in 5 countries in 17 full days, with most destinations between major cities. Very few travelers on this forum would attempt that kind of itinerary. This is why: Because you end up spending most of your time inside the car instead of doing what you're going there to do. Most of your time will be spent driving from destination A to B, find parking, finding your hotel, checking in, unpacking, and then the next day (or the 2nd day) packing up, checking out, going to the parking lot (in many of these cities the parking will likely be some distance from the hotel), driving out of the city and on to the next destination--and repeating all of this 10 times in 17 days.

Reply - Part 2: If you decide to reply to us, we'll try to help you sort this out. But we're volunteers here with limited time, therefore I would ask that before you reply to us you first spend some time studying this online map http://maps.google.com/ to study the geography of where your destinations are located and--most important--spend some time using the map to determine driving times between your destinations. Remember that driving times given on the Google Map are road times only and do not include any allowance for stops for gas or any other kind of stop. Most travelers on this forum who have driven in Europe, and who have compared the driving times given in the Google Map to their actual driving time, recommend multiplying the Google times by about 1.25 to get a more accurate idea of actual time.

thanks a lot for instant and positive reply .....i highly appreciate the time given by you to help me make my itinerary .....well we are a family of 4 adults and certainly we would not like to spend to much time driving around the whole europe ...could uu please guide me as to where should i go around switzerland to nearby countries which would be more convenient and relaxing ........we would not mind going to few places and having fun rather than going all around and seeing nothing......your suggestion is very important for ur trip so that i can go ahead and make my reservation for the car and hotels ......what other cheap option can i use if u dont recommend driving aroud please do advise .......your filght lands in zurich and we got to fly back from zurich as well to go home .....please do reply as per your convenience

thanks nix