Budget trip to Germany and Switzerland (maybe Austria too)

Sheena, If this is your first trip to Europe, my first suggestion would be to read Europe Through The Back Door as that provides a lot of good information, including Itinerary planning. It would help to have some idea on which cities in Germany / Switzerland / Austria you're planning to visit? You'll have to check availability and cost of flights from your area, and I would definitely recommend that you consider open-jaw flights. One possibility that might work would be inbound to Munich or Vienna and outbound from Zurich. You could possibly fly directly to Salzburg, but I suspect you'd be changing planes at Frankfurt. If you're just planning to visit southern Austria, Salzburg is an easy train ride from Munich. While there you could also visit Hallstatt (an incredibly beautiful location) and Berchtesgaden (a somewhat historic location). While in Munich, you may want to travel to Füssen to visit Neuschwanstein Castle or take a day trip to Dachau. Travel by train from Munich to Switzerland. It's impossible to suggest details on rail trips without having some idea of which cities you'll be visiting. I wouldn't bother thinking about Railpasses until you have your route somewhat sorted. Zurich is the best possibility for your flight home, as it's a large airport. Good luck with your planning!

Hi Ken! I have been to Europe twice before: once to Ireland, and once to London and Paris. I booked my Ireland trip through Sceptre Tours as a package deal with air, hotel and rental car. As for my London trip, I booked a package deal through Virgin Atlantic Vacations with air and hotel. We purchased Eurostar passes to go to Paris for a day during that trip. To be honest, I love booking package deals since they're a fantastic deal and to places that I've had on my bucket list. (I paid $650 for the Ireland package and $725 for the London package.) With Germany and Switzerland, I'm not finding any package deals to both places. From my initial searching, I was considering visiting Munich, Zurich, Salzburg, etc. I'm not sure if there's a good circular route to take via train or how to proceed. All in all, we're probably going to want to spend 6 nights in Europe and have 1 day of travel in either direction. Does that sound doable? Thanks for any info!

RS offers a Germany/Austria/Switzerland 14 day tour that we are taking next month. If that tour does not appeal to you, you should check out its itinerary elsewhere on this web site to see what he feels is important. After you get and read the RS book "Europe thru the Back Door" I would suggest you get his "Germany" and "Switzerland" guide books as they both are full of useful information that we used in planning our trip this August and September.

Charlie is spot-on above. The Rick Steves guidebooks were made for people like you searching for budget/good value trips to Europe. In addition to suggested budget accomodations and restaurants, he lays out exactly how to spend the time in any given destination, depending on how much time one has. He'll also clearly lay out suggested routes, which potential redundencies can be elimnated, and which rail options make the most sence. Off the bat, accomodations are one area in which you can truly save $$. If you are willing to forego luxury (and it sounds like you are), Rick always has "alternative" type suggestions, such as people who rent out rooms in their homes. Very often these places are clean, full of atmosphere, homey....but still pretty inexpensive compared to hotels or even B&Bs. In Switzerland, there are inexpensive hotel options in the Bernese Obeland (several hostels in Gimmelwald and Interlaken), but overall, Switzerland is VERY expensive. The Swiss enjoy a very high standard of living....and those standards come with high prices. Something to certainly keep in mind, depending on how strict/limited your budget is, of course. Net, net....get thyself Rick's Guidebooks to Germany & Switzerland-- You"ll be glad you did! Have fun planning your trip; very smart you've started so early!

Thanks for the helpful info. I will definitely see about picking up RS "Europe Through the Back Door" and the country books as well! I would love to take a Rick Steves tour, but with my job, I can only take 1 week of vacation time and we're trying to stick to a smaller budget than the tour price. Maybe someday! I think we will look into the tour itinerary and see what we can incorporate into our trip. Anyone found killer flight deals to any of the airports in the area?

Killer flight deals seem to have evaporated about 18 months ago. Expect to pay anywhere from $900 to $1200, depending on where you're going and when. Don't know what your interest in Germany is, but Berlin is a relatively cheap place to stay once you get there. Obviously you know Switzerland is much tougher on a budget.

If you are sticking to a budget and want to see Switzerland and/or Austria you're probably best off concentrating the first half of your trip out of Munich. Nuremberg is a little over an hour train ride and very cool, and I highly second the recommendations for Salzburg and a trip up to Brechtschgaden (which can be reached by private tour or train, but you need to plan for nearly a full day for transit and seeing the town for the latter). If you want to see the Eagle's Nest above Brechtesgaden (which is less interesting for the history/architecture as it is for the amazing scenery IMO) you'll definitely want to do a tour from Salzburg, we used Bob's which was recommended in a Rick Steves' Guide. I don't have any particular advice about Switzerland as I haven't been there yet, but it's relatively easily accessible from this region, so you could do it all by train. The cheapest option for rail passes really depends on exactly where you want to go. If all of Austria you need to see is Salzburg, it's included in any railpass that includes Germany. The shortest Eurail two-country pass for Germany/Switzerland might be a good deal, but you'd need to be using 5 days of train travel, which is a lot for one week and might be more expensive than just ordering point-to-point train tickets in advance. The Deutschbahn website is fantastic for getting a good idea of prices and schedules to almost anywhere, play around with it and it will help shape your trip.