Places to visit in S. Germany and Switzerland?

You can not go wrong with Cinque Terre, Italy. It is magic! Enjoy!

"Are there any other neat little German towns on route to Interlaken?" Not to add a third Alpine recommendation (otherwise, I would say Oberstdorf), but instead, a beautiful lake town, Lindau on the Bodensee. The view from the harbor is one of the most gorgeous in Europe. To where are you headed in Italy? Depending on where and how long you have budgeted for the trip, there may be other Swiss Alps options that would be a better fit for your overall trip.

Thanks for the help Tom!!
We're planning to leave Interlaken the morning of day 7 to take a long train ride to Cinque Terre, Italy. We thought we'd stay there 3 nights and then visit Florence for a night and Rome for 3 (total of 13 days for the trip).

Although I've been told I should consider spending 2 nights in ct and 2 in Florence instead...thinking about it.

Do you know if you can swim, snorkel and/or kayak in CT?

When are you going?

June 2014 probably; we could go in March or early April but were thinking June would be warmer. Can't get off work in May.

Kristina,
Sounds like maybe you have too much you are trying to do. Sounds like all public transit so I would tell you to do 4 places tops. Munich with a day trip to Neuschwanstien is 1. Rome is 4. If you are going to cut across to Switzerland then drop Florence. Since this is your first trip, try to enjoy places rather than "see" them. I'd back up a step and ask you what you are trying to accomplish. What do you guys like to do? Are you fit? You may be better off focusing on just Italy at the sound of it.

If you do decide to spend a few days in germany...I'm fond of Garmisch-Partenkirchen (GAP) an hour drive south of Munich (or 1.5 hr by train). From GAP it's an hour to Neuschwanstein Castle, half hour to Linderhoff castle, can do train/tram up Zugspitz peak, and day trip to Munich. I spent many weekends in GAP while living in Stuttgart for three years. Send me a private message if you would like a lodging recommendation.

"we could go in March or early April but were thinking June would be warmer." If your intinerary includes the Alps, DON'T GO in March or April, unless you want to ski. April is usually the absolute worst month to visit.

Thank you John and Brian! Based on the feedback I've been getting it sounds like I will have to rethink the itinerary a little. The challenge will be finding something that will make my husband and me happy. He's set on seeing the German countryside and I'm hoping to spend some time in Italy (or Spain, but I realize you can't do Germany and Spain in one trip). To answer your question John, we're both fit and love hiking, swimming and being outside surrounded by natural beauty. Hoping to eat every meal in Europe outside in fact, either picnicking or in restaurants with patios! I'm hoping for a good mix of small towns and big cities. I definitely want to avoid the feeling of being rushed all the time and unable to get into that "vacation" mode, which I was hoping destinations like Cinque Terre and Gimmelwald/Interlaken would help with that. I definitely don't want to approach this trip like I'm checking off a giant to-do (or must see) list. Brian, I will contact you once I give this itinerary a little more thought and make some adjustments...really appreciate it!!

Thanks Tom, we'll stick with June in that case.

After talking to the husband, we're going to try for a Spain/Germany trip after all, but focusing on only a few locations (Munich/Fussen area, Barcelona/San Sebastian area, and probably Madrid). We're hoping to keep down the transit time this way, and these two countries were our combined top picks primarily because we want to use the trip to motivate us to brush up on our Spanish and learn some basic German. (I almost minored in Spanish in college and am hoping that with the help of Rosetta Stone I could finally be fluent before the trip! And one of my husband's life goals has always been to learn to speak basic German.) Does this seem like a crazy plan, or could it work?

Your new plan is fine. Just be sure you investigate flight options between Germany and Spain before you plan the order of your cities. Use http://www.skyscanner.com/ to do this. And of course, book an open jaw flight, from Dallas to Munich and from Spain back to Dallas, to avoid backtracking. Use the "multi-city" option on Kayak or other airline websites to get these affordably.

Thanks Harold, appreciate the tip! Does anyone know where/how to look up train duration and costs online within Spain and Germany? Just for planning and budgeting purposes, I'm assuming I wouldn't book train tix in advance, just all flights.

"Does anyone know where/how to look up train duration and costs online within Spain and Germany? Just for planning and budgeting purposes, I'm assuming I wouldn't book train tix in advance" For Germany, the Deutsche Bahn website: Deutsche Bahn Whether or not to buy tickets in advanced depends on where you wanted to go. If you're staying primarily within Bavaria, the best deal would probably be to buy a regional Länder pass, which doesn't have to be purchased in advanced. If you plan to ride a long distance high speed train, then it might make sense to pre-order, so you can buy it at the lowest price.

Appreciate it Tom! I'm going to start a new topic now that I've changed up my trip so much...so thanks to everyone for the help, I GREATLY appreciate it!!

When I was planning our trip, we had a few countries in mind and I made a spreadsheet using the times between cities on Bahn.de for possibile itinerary routes. I changed it many times, but it's a good way to see how long it takes to travel from one city to another. We ended up dropping Italy because the time was too long and we only have 10 days.
I wonder why the original poster's husband does not want to go to Munich. I feel I have yet to spend enough time there! It still has the charm of being a smaller old city, while being a modern city.