Best of GAS in 14 days, flights

For all the non-tour people:
This tour starts in Cologne and ends in Vienna.

cheriefiscus1
Where are you located? It helps answer your possible route.

Not a tour person, but had to consider similar things when flying for business or when meeting others for a trip.

The most direct would be to fly into Frankfurt and out of Vienna, using the multi-city option on booking sites.

I would definitely plan days before, if so, then you could consider Amsterdam as an arrival city (or Brussels), doing a couple nights in Belgium or Netherlands. If flying into Frankfurt, you could consider staying in Koblenz, spending some time visiting smaller towns along the Mosel, and/or a Mosel river cruise; or similar along the Rhine. I see the tour does a stop at Burg Eltz and a quick stop in Beilstein, but honestly, it sort of short changes this area. Koblenz is only about an hour from Cologne.

Post trip, I have less to offer.

We are in Northern California, fly out of San Francisco

I would absolutely plan for additional days in Vienna, following the tour. There's so much to see and do in that city which isn't feasible over the course of 1-1/2 (GAS) days. When we took this tour in 2022 (it then began in Trier), we flew KLM nonstop from SFO into Amsterdam for some days in Bruges/Ghent beforehand; returning from Vienna afterwards, which was an easy 90min 'hop' to AMS for nonstop connection back to SFO. But there are several airlines and arrival/departure cities to choose from, depending on what areas are of interest. Have a great trip!

Apologies but a quick scan of the title Best of GAS
and my inner voice answered antacids. LOL.

When we took that tour we flew directly into Frankfurt and back from Vienna via Amsterdam. Regardless, be sure to go over at least one (if not two) days early in case there are flight disruptions.

I too am on this tour next year (August/September). I have looked at flying into both Cologne and Frankfurt. Price wise it is about a 150-200 difference (at this time). The question is - is price a consideration, convenience or time? The train from Frankfurt into Cologne is about an 1 hour and 20 minutes (average I could find). I have considered both. I am still making up my mind. I will watch this thread for any and all advice.

From San Francisco you can fly direct to Amsterdam, London, Paris or Frankfort. If you’ve got the time any of those cities is fun and exciting. Amsterdam and Frankfort are easy train rides to Colognes. The older we get, the more time we add for jet lag. (And with retirement we have time options). After the tour, you can usually book from Vienna with only one stop. We have not done this tour, but did Berlin, Prague and Vienna. After Vienna we spent about a week on the train seeing more of Austria and southern Germany. We ended in Frankfort and flew home. Train travel in Austria and southern Germany was easy.

The question is - is price a consideration, convenience or time?

It depends on what you are planning. If your plan is to fly in the day before, or day of the tour start, and spend the night in Cologne, then flying directly to Cologne is handy, saves you time, and less hassle.

If you are spending a night or two elsewhere, then pick what is best for those plans.

One thought though, is that Frankfurt is easier to get to from the US than Cologne, Cologne certainly will involve another stop in Europe someplace, Frankfurt can be a direct flight.

Another possible plus to Frankfurt is, if taking the train to Cologne, you go right through the best of the Rhine valley, very scenic. If you have time, you could even get off along the way and have lunch in one of the river towns. Of course the tour probably takes the bus back up the same route, but worth seeing twice.

We were on the Best of GAS in September, 2023. We flew to Amsterdam, and took a train from the airport to Brussels. We rented a barebones, but convenient Airbnb near Brussels Nord ( North) train station. With two full days to look around, we took day-long trips by train to Ghent and Brugge. Both are marvelous small cities, and so easily accessible. Then, a two-hour train to Cologne arriving a few hours prior to the lobby meeting.

We love Amsterdam's airport for connections, and avoid Paris if possible.

I would fly direct to Frankfurt, spend a day here recuperating and doing some sightseeing, then next day, travel down the Rhein on a ship to St. Goar, then train the rest of the way to Cologne. Rick kind of short changes Frankfurt, there is much more to see here than what he writes in his book. It is a very old and very historic city.

We took this tour in 2015. We flew into Frankfurt, then took the train from the airport to St Goar. We stayed in St. Goar for 3 nights. The first day we took the KD boat line up the Rhine river to Assmanhausen / ate lunch / did some sightseeing / boat back. This stretch of the Rhine river has lots of castles and it has lots of photo ops. The next day we took the KD boat down river to Koblenz. We walked around town and ate some fabulous gelato. We stayed at the Rein Hotel and booked a lovely room with a balcony that looked over the river. We enjoyed spending the afternoon and evening watching the boat traffic on the river. It would be an easy train ride to Cologne from St. Goar to start your tour.
At the end of the tour we took the train from Vienna to Rothenburg. We had to change trains 2 or 3 times. The town of Rothenburg is magical. We loved the shops (especially the Kathe Wolfahrt Christmas Store) and we walked the entire wall. We spent 2 nights and then took the train to the Frankfurt airport / stayed at the Hilton Hotel inside the airport and flew home the next morning. It is a wonderful tour!

I took this trip last Sept. I flew into Frankfurt on Lufthansa and then took the train to Cologne. The train station is in the airport so easy to do. Lufthansa has a air/train pass that I booked directly on their website. It allowed me to purchase my airplane ticket and train ticket directly through Lufthansa. Then I just got off the plane and walked right to the train.

I went the day before my tour started. But, most on our tour all agreed that Cologne is a bit limited in things to do. I would advise to stay longer in Vienna.

We “pre-gamed” for our GAS tour in Brussels, using it as a hub for day-trips to Ghent and Bruges. We had flown from ATL to Amsterdam and then took a train to Brussels. The morning of the GAS meet-up, we took an easy two-hour train from Brussels to Cologne.

As a side-note, I am in awe of the train systems in Europe. So very easy to book, and easy on the wallet.

It appears BA, Iberia, United, Lufthansa and Swiss ( perhaps others) offer one stop service SFO-CGN. Depends which airline you choose as to which city will be the transfer point among MUC. LHR, BCN.ZRH. ( I did only a quick cursory look so there may be other choices)

Which may be best depends on your specific dates for what presumably will be a multi-city booking

Spend time on Vienna at the end of your tour. After last year’s Berlin, Prague, Vienna tour ended, I spent four additional days (five nights) in Vienna. Loved it; favorite city. Lots to do and see. Went to the opera, a concert at Annakirche and lots of museums. There’s a strudel making class at Schoenbrunn Palace. The highlight for me was the Lippizan horse performance and schooling session.

So, you get one evening and one entire, full, day in Vienna before they kick you out of the hotel.

Day 14:
Morning after breakfast the RS Tour ends. Stay in Vienna

Day 15:
Plan your own morning tour of what the RS tour missed that you wanted to see in Vienna
Mid-afternoon Train to Budapest (2.5 hours),
Intercontinental or Marriott Hotel on the River.
Dinner on the Corso near the hotel: https://www.dunacorso.hu/gfx/content/galeria/3.jpg
Nice winebar afterwards

Day 16:
Walk to Great Synagogue https://youtu.be/sPUyjl5qxDo?feature=shared
Tram https://youtu.be/DKlnRG3ZKN8?feature=shared
to Great Market Hall https://youtu.be/cI6fb6olbZI?feature=shared
Tram https://1drv.ms/v/s!Ai7Zk-szxfTJhs87tkzjPPdE7lp7lQ?e=9B0GzX
to Parliament https://youtu.be/LEQJpzKqd9I?feature=shared
Gypsy Music Dinner https://youtube.com/shorts/_3AQQqrTENk?feature=shared

Day 17
Morning Andrassy ut walk https://youtu.be/iUaNnbfT60A?feature=shared
Opera House Tour https://youtu.be/lZUR-GJLAgY?feature=shared
House of Terror Tour https://youtu.be/ZCAkkhtX6TA?feature=shared
Heroe's square https://youtu.be/WKg9Epy-1-0?feature=shared
Afternoon Buda Castle Hill tour https://youtu.be/Wn2DPG-0ryg?feature=shared
Dinner a very, very, very, OLD Hungarian luxury https://youtu.be/oXAjbxvgXfg

Day 18
Fly Home
(or this can be another whole week in Budapest)

OR,
There are non-stop flights for as little as USD60 from Budapest to Cologne. Takes a little less than 2 hours.
So fly into budapest, do a few days, then go up to Cologne to start your tour and return to Budapest at the end. This way you can price RT tickets to Budapest. Might be cheaper than an open jaw.

AND TO BE FAIR, you could do the same thing, starting and finishing in Vienna.

Thanks for all the suggestions. We decided to fly into Amsterdam, spend 4 days pre tour before taking the train to Cologne, then spend a few extra days in Vienna at the end. Any suggestions on places to stay/do/eat in Amsterdam would be appreciated!