Seeking tips for Germany/France travel

Don't book a package. Your trip isn't that complex. What are your travel dates? I see direct flights under $1,000 tp Frankfurt w/ Delta, KLM, and others in early May. This site helps you find cheap fares but won't book them - go to Orbitz or Expedia to purchase them after you find the flights you want. http://matrix.itasoftware.com/ Getting to Freiburg by train from FRA is easy and can be done cheaply. Getting to Paris is easy too. I can see Paris, but if your time and $ are limited, you ought to consider skipping London, as Paris eats up enough of both already. Freiburg puts you close to some interesting places in Germany (Black Forest, Lake Constance, Stuttgart,) to the Alsatian towns of Colmar and Strasbourg, and to Switzerland too. Big money-saving tip: stay NEAR but not in Freiburg when you visit your daughter - then you can travel by train or by bus into Freiburg, to Basel Switzerland, to the French border and around the Black Forest FOR FREE by train. Smaller towns like Kirchzarten - which would be ideal for your purposes - participate in the Konus program, described below. It's an amazing program that I've used on two separate trips: http://www.blackforest-tourism.com/konus I wish my daughter were studying there. What I'd do is this... rent an apartment like this one, right in town, for a few days and within walking distance of the train station, at 50€/night, would probably be just right. You could be in Freiburg in 15 minutes and maybe do a meal or two "at home" and not have to eat out the whole time - which will all save you some cash for Paris. http://www.dreisamtal.de/u/schindlerhaus

(cont.) The local tourist office can help you find an apartment or room and maybe help you with booking: Tourist-Info Dreisamtal Hauptstrasse 24 D-79199 Kirchzarten Telefon: +49 (0)7661 / 90 79 80 Telefax: +49 (0)7661 / 90 79 89
tourist-info@dreisamtal.de Check train fares Freiburg to Paris here http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en

Don't know how much time you have but if it's only 3 days I'd stick to one city. Paris or maybe Berlin.

Zurich is closer, try looking for flights into there. Stuttgart is another close option for airfares. There's a direct Stuttgart-Atlanta flight almost every day.
Paris is super easy to get to also from Freiburg. London is too far for a short time.

You state one thing: you don't travel frequently. You make no mention of time constraints, so I am not sure where the discussion of time comes in given the information on the table. You also mention wanting to save money, a natural question, not implying in any way that you are short of funds. Given the above, I would concentrate on what you really want to see first. It appears that the answer is in order: daughter, Paris, London. If you have roughly a week after seeing your daughter, you should proceed with your two top choices. I would disagree with booking on expedia, travelocity, etc. Use those kinds of sites to find the deals. Then go to the airline site directly. Given that Paris and London are top priorities, check British Air and Air France for deals. Sometimes they offer a couple of free hotel nights. British always offers very good deals on hotel when booked with the flight. Use open jaw, fly into FRA and back from London if you have time, and if not, Paris. If you want to save money, you can always use take away rather than eating in restaurants. You can get a bottle of wine, if desired, and take away food (particularly Indian in London) for much less than sitting in a restaurant. Unfortunately, breakfast is seldom included in the hotel price in Paris and London. But, you can check the hotel websites. If you can find breakfast included, you can save on lunch. This is especially true in London where the English breakfast is very heavy.