Berlin to South Italy - train or car

Well a car is worse than useless in Prague, Budapest, Rome (yikes!!!) so if cities are your targets I'd recommend a rail pass. The RS site has down loadable train maps giving approx. costs/travel times. Talk to the RS railpass folk AFTER you have roughed out a travel plan allowing for travel time between spots. Highspeed train it where possible...requires a separate fee (small for the time saved) and you must reserve your seat in advance. Can be done online but again confer with the RS railpass folk if you are not a somewhat experienced traveler.

In Europe a car is useful for giving you flexibility to explore country locations such as the Tuscany hill towns, the Provence countryside, the Cotswolds, and other areas not well served by rail. In large European cities, cars are a useless and expensive headache (expensive to park, etc). Most European cities are well served by trains. 5 of the 6 destinations you list are large cities.

Great - will look into the trains! Does anyone know if Rick Steves has an itinerary like the one I mentioned? I didn't see anything like it, but maybe I missed something..
Thanks!
Pam

Hi Pam: Answering your last question: I don't know of any single Rick itinerary that covers the broad range of cities you mentioned. His books focus on countries or portions of countries, except for a couple such as Best of Europe. But he has itineraries posted here on this site, see my post below.

You're far better off by train.

That is an ambitious itinerary. While I'm not among the "slow down slow down" crowd of posters on this forum, you'd really be doing some power sightseeing to get all of those in. Minimum 3 full days for Berlin, Rome, Venice, and Prague. You could rush through Budapest and Vienna with two full days.

Note that Berlin-Prague is quick, easy 4 hour train ride, with trains leaving Berlin Hbf every two hours. Buy this ticket online at Deutsche Bahn's website, to save quite a bit of cash.

Prague-Budapest is 7hrs by direct day train, probably better to take the night train.

Budapest-Vienna is quick 3 hr train ride, again, about one train every two hours.

Vienna-Venice is best done overnight.

Venice-Rome-Amalfi Coast can all be done by day trains.

Pam: Have you looked at the Best Destinations part of this website? By going there and clicking all the destinations on your list, you may be able to cobble together an itinerary. Way less expensive than buying half a dozen of Rick's books (don't tell Rick I said so).For example, here's Rick's Italy itinerary.

Wow! You guys are great - just found and love this site! Thank you for all the train info and times it takes to get to places.. was just about to look all that up separately. I have looked at the various best destinations.. very interesting. I'm thinking we may have to decide to cut some cities or take more time off! Does Rick Steves have travel agents to book this type of thing or do they only take reservations for his tours? Not that I wouldn't love to go on his tours, but am going with someone who is against group bus tours, so trying to plan this on our own.. :-) Thanks again everyone! Pam

You asked about this in your last post: Rick does not operate a travel agency but he has Trip Consultants, go here Rick's Travel Consultants.And here's another link to help with trip planning Itinerary Planning 101.And here's instructions on how to search the Helpline Archives for the several thousand topics hidden away there that no one finds! How to search the Helpline archives.

Ok great- Thank you!