Help w/ Itinerary - Prague/Germany/Switz.

Also, if it helps, we are into seeing the top sights in each area, but don't need to see every single thing. We also enjoy hiking (Switzerland) and taking in the culture, including wining and dining. Anything wine or beer related is a plus! (sounds bad, but it's true! our last trip was Italy, oh my!!) Thanks again!

Sounds good so far. Flying into Prague and out of Switzerland sounds good, EXCEPT, I don't know about fall weather. Given the time of year, you might be better off to start in Switzerland and leave from Prague. For hiking, the Berner Oberland is great. Also wonderful scenery and cheese based food. I would recommend Lauterbrunnen with its ready access to both Wengen and Muerren, although both the others are also good choices. We flew into Geneva and went through Lausanne and Lucerne prior to Lauterbrunnen. If you are only going to the BO, Bern might be the best place to enter. Maybe 3 or 4 nights. On to Munich with side trips to Rothenburg and Fuessen. Maybe about 5 days. Train to either Salzburg or Vienna for 2 to 3 nights and on to Prague for 3 to 4.

If the reason for including Switzerland is to see the Alps, you can significantly simplify your trip (and reduce the cost as well) by going to the much closer Bavarian or Tyrolian Alps instead.

Thanks so much for your help!

Thanks Jim! Oh my, so many great ideas!

To those that have responded, should all of these ideas be doable by train or other public transport? We can rent a car, but I feel that it is easier not to have to. But we're always up for new adventures!

To answer your question Jim about our interests, if you look at the first reply above, it is actually me adding more information about our interests. We are into hiking (in Switzerland), visiting quaint and scenic towns, nice dinners and beer/wine, seeing all major sites in each place (but not necessarily every single place, probably just Rick's 3 stars). We like a good mix of sightseeing (museums, churches, historical sights, etc.) and being in the outdoors or taking in the surrounding culture. Hopefully that helps!

Thanks again all!

It sounds like you have a great start to planning cuz you have to be in Munich at a certain time to be with the family and friends, so start there. I would go from West to East and give Switz 4 days. If hiking and scenery are your priority then the BO is your place. If cities are more interesting then the RS books will give you the highlights to each for you to choose. From there I would train to Munich to meet with the group. After doing the tent activity I would probably do a daytrip to the castles in Fuessen. If you like scenery and a romantic small city feel with lots of things to see and great night walking with everything lit up then Salzburg is your next stop. Eagles Nest and area are an hour away as well as several beautiful small villages with stunning scenery. I would give it at least 3 nights and 3 days arriving from Munich on an evening train that is less than a 2 hour trip. If you are Hapsburg dynasty history buffs and like a bigger city feel with lots of classical music to enjoy then Vienna is your next stop after Munich. With only 2 weeks for your trip you will probably have to choose between Salzburg and Vienna or the trip becomes to much traveling and not enough enjoying the places you choose. After that I think Prague is a must and I would plan the last of my trip there and fly out. WWII bombs never touched Prague so all of its history and architecture are still there and it will take you 3 to 4 days to really see and enjoy it. The only reason I suggest west to east is that I did all of these locations in September and the sooner you do the BO the better chance of less rain there if you are going to be hiking but this trip can be easily done Prague/Vienna/Munich/Switz or Prague/Munich/Salzburg/Switz. I would make all my reservations in Munich asap. The longer you wait on that the harder it gets to find a quality place to stay and the more expensive it gets. Then you can plan around that time. Have fun planning and have a great trip.

Wow Terry, this is sooo helpful! Thank you so much! And thank you to you all once again! I'm getting more and more excited now...and a lot less overwhelmed!

I tend to agree with Terry, and at the risk of being redundant... thoughts... do Switzerland first to capture best weather opportunity - yes. I shall think via keyboard and see how a travel flow might look...

Day 1 -- Fly into Zurich, final arrangements of some rail tickets at their very helpful train station, possible tram / walk around old center to be sure you are awake enough to survive sitting without sleeping... train to Bernese Oberland.

Days 2-3 -- Bernese Oberland. Nights in Murren or Gimmelwald.

Day 4 -- Backtrack through Zurich, scenic rail journey Zurich-Salzburg (I don't like backtracking... but this one might be worth it, and depending on rail connection, lunch in old Zurich center). Night Salzburg.

Day 5 -- Salzburg. If this is a Sunday, services in the Church for awesome pipe organ music.

Day 6 -- lunch-ish train to Munich. Night Munich.

Day 7-9 -- Munich. Beer tents... Night Munich. Side trips into countryside. Dachau. Neuschuanstein?

Day 10 -- Sleep off Oktoberfest on train to Prague. Tour Pilsner Urquell or Budvar brewery in the afternoon.

Day 11-13 -- Prague. Night Prague.

Day 14 -- Fly home from Prague. Very sad. :(

Time allocations will need to be tweaked... but there's another stab at a flow.

To recommend more on the side-trips / must-sees... what are your interests? My wife and I are mid-30's as well... and have traveled that part of Europe many times... more info and we'll try to help.

You can do this with trains. In fall 2009 we trained from Lauterbrunnen to Salzburg. Four transfers with layover times ranging from 2 to 8 minutes. All went smoothly. Trains in Austria not nearly so efficient, but will get you from Salzburg or Vienna to Prague. With a choice between Salsburg and Vienna, I'm not sure which I would suggest. Salzburg is much smaller and very charming. Vienna is a larger city with much more to see. I think I would lean toward Vienna and travel from Munich to Vienna and then on to Prague.

Thank you David! You don't know how helpful all of this has been. Have a great weekend all!

Just a couple more thoughts that Jim (I liked his flow) and David triggered. The Sunday 10 AM Mass at the large Cathedral (I think it is called Stephensdom, there are 3 o4 beautiful Cathedrals within about a 5 minute walk in the oldtown) not only had phenominal organ music but a 30-40 voice choir that was very good. We got there early and they had the whole front section roped off. Right before the mass began approx 300 local residents came to mass in traditional Austrian clothing covering 1600's through 1800's dress. They marched in(some of the men wore traditional army uniforms from different periods complete with muskets) attended mass and then had a parade outside complete with brass band after the mass. It truly was a wow experience. I dont think they do all of that every Sunday we probably got lucky to see this at festival time. I think it was the second sunday in september. We rented a car for the month we were there. In retrospect it was very exspensive and in many places a pain in the posterior. If you are driving small village Europe a car is great but if most of the time you are doing city to city trains and buses are cheaper and much more stress free. I am a police officer and am used to driving fast sometimes and usually finding hard to find places rather easily but even I got a little stressed dodging speed demons on the autobahn,not getting to enjoy the beautiful scenery cuz I was driving unfamiliar turf and getting around in big cities. Prague is a drivers nightmare. Street signs on corners are not common and they love doing lots of construction to detour you. We drove from Munich to Prague. When we went through the border into the Czech Republic we had to stop at a little place and buy a driving sticker for the windshield. The police there are very friendly but the work the freeway hard and write pay us right now exspensive tickets for no sticker and speeding. Construction detoured us off the freeway about 20 miles in with no signs onto small roads.

We got off the freeway and were the only car in sight. At the end of the ramp there were 3 different very small roads to choose from with no signs. I laughed and thought "This is gonna be fun". We chose a hardly paved not on the map road and started driving. It took us from small really cool village to the next one. None of the very nice smiling folks spoke English and I speak German but no Czech so stopping to ask was of no geographical value. Finally I saw 2 big trucks drive by and knowing that these guys know everything geographical I followed them. Lucky me, about 30 minutes and many kilometers later they led me right to the freeway and we continued on happily to Prague with some great new photos of beautiful little villages and very nice Czech folks who never had a clue of why I stopped to talk to them. This is one of my most valued experiences now but at the time was a little stressful. Since then I have become a guru of Lee from Colorado who is constantly posting very sage advice on local transportion (trains and buses) and how to get from each point very cheaply. So on my next big trip in 2011 I will do it all by train and bus following Davids advice while going from city to city but will rent a car for a day at a time to do day trips to the small villages which is half the fun of going to Europe. Again have fun planning and have a great trip.

Jim, thanks for your itinerary - do you mind if I use it as well? :)