Driving Itinerary Frankfurt --> Switzerland --> Melon --> Venice and back? For Family Road Trip

Your itinerary sounds like you’re going to be spending a lot of time in your car. You might want to check out the driving times between all your locations to see how much time you will have to experience the different places you want to visit. It looks like it’s over 4 hours to drive between Frankfurt and Lucerne. This drive might not be too enjoyable or safe if your group is jet lagged from coming off an international flight.

We did a similar road trip in reverse in 2023. Started in Munich, then the Dolomites, Venice, Stresa, Wengen, Colmar and Bacharach.

Don’t stay in Interlaken. Stay up in the mountains in Wengen or Murren. It I s stunning, whereas Interlaken is not. Check out Chalet Gerbera in Wengen. Very reasonable and views to die for. You’ll park the car in Lauterbrunnen and take trains and gondolas the whole time.

Highly recommend Lake Maggiore. We LOVED Stresa, which is on the opposite side from Ascona. It would be cheaper, since everything in Switzerland is ridiculously expensive. Highly recommend taking the ferry to the islands if you visit that end of the lake.

In Venice, you’ll park at Piazzale Roma most likely and take the vaporetto to your lodging. Watch your speed on the bridge - there are multiple cameras. That’s generally a good rule throughout Europe. Speeding will get you an expensive souvenir in the mail many months later.

Also be aware of the vignettes required for Switzerland and Austria, and the environmental zones in Germany. We’ve rented cars for over 20 years in Europe - it’s definitely a part time job learning about all the environmental restrictions, the toll systems, the rules of the road, etc. Not as simple as hop in the car and go.

I would highly recommend flying out of Munich instead of Frankfurt. Frankfurt has no charm. Modern, bustling city. If you can fly out of Munich you’ll save yourself some driving, and it’s a much more interesting city.

For that matter, why not fly into Zurich and out of Munich? One less vignette to purchase, less driving time and fuel to burn. But I have a feeling the airline tickets are already purchased.