thoughts on transportation for itenerary

Hi andee515. I think it sounds great and you are on the right track with trains until Amsterdam, then rent a car for Germany. A car for the first part of your trip would be a hassle. If you buy train tix in advance, they will be inexpensive. One thing you might do is think about flying from Venice to Paris. You will find mixed views of night trains; night train might well cost more than flying and may be very uncomfortable. Or it might be a fun adventure. Enjoy your trip!

I would suggest going directly from Rome to Florence on a fast train (with reservations) skipping Pisa. It's not especially interesting or worth the detour.
From Venice, I'd suggest taking EasyJet from Venice to Paris, as it's faster and far more inexpensive than a train.
I've taken the rental car up the Rhine River twice starting in Amsterdam, and the cathedral in Cologne is worth the visit. But hauling 5 people to 7 cities in that region would be very difficult. Bacharach is a great place to spend the night, however. Bavaria Ben has a great website on the region, however.
Many people are now traveling slower--taking in the cities they're visiting better. When you take in so many cities, travel has a way of being one big blur.
If you need a place for a family to stay in Amsterdam, I discovered Hotel Schiphol on A4 about 2 miles from the airport has the largest and best rooms for large families. And it's surprisingly cheap. Catch their shuttle to the airport, and the train ride into Amsterdam's center city is about 15 minutes.

Your germany portion will benefit a great deal by having a car. Ck autoeurope.com for rates . They are always my first choice. To save on large drop off charges rent in germany and return your car in another german city. As gas is very expensive get smallest car poss for your family and of course for parking availability.

Thanks, I looked at airfares between Venice and Paris and it was substaintially cheaper...we will probably do that. On the train portion of our trip, would you recommend a pass or point to point. It seems like there are so many little things that can go wrong or extra charges with the pass. We will probably only do 3 or 4 day trips via train during that part of the itenerary.

Definitely point-to-point. You can buy the Italian tickets in advance for a substantial discount if you can live with nonrefundable and nonchangeable tickets. This should not be a problem as you will have definite hotel reservations so you know you must go from A to B on X day. These can be as low as 9 euro (possible, not probable). Yes, do Pisa as a day trip from Florence. This is a very cheap Regionale train.
Paris to Amsterdam is best done with a nonrefundable nonchangeable ticket on the Thalys train. In fact, the surcharge for using a rail pass on this train is more than the cost of an advance purchase ticket.

Pass holder reservation prices on the Thalys have gone down this year, but I still agree that a rail pass doesn't serve you for these few train rides.

On the contrary - Pisa was a welcome sidetrip from Florence...which in itself can be a bit dull with all of the Americans wandering around there.

Boy, I sure wish I had the time for that kind of trip...I'm jealous!

I agree with the comment about going directly to Florence from Rome. You can still do Pisa (and Lucca) as a day trip from Florence.

I am apartment hopping across Italy this fall. I'll post a trip report so you can see what the apartment experience was like... But, as for apartments, the vast majority I found with clothes washers had a combo washer/drier (all in one) unit. From my experience, these do a terrible job of drying cloths. In fact, all they seem to do is burn LOTS of electricity when in the dryer cycle. While in the Veneto a couple years back, I met a lot of people who did the wash at home and carried the wet cloths to a community laundromat to dry them. The cost of electricity in Italy is 2-3 times that of the USA. I would invest in a "quick dry" clothing wardrobe for all.

No, it makes no sense to drive in Italy if you are just visiting the large tourist centers (Rome, Florence, Venice, etc.) Renting a car only makes sense if you’re touring the countryside or staying at an argriturismo.

Might be easier to do this to start.

1. Arrive Rome.

2. Rome.

3. Rome.

4. Rome, late afternoon train to Naples. Spend the night.

5. Pompeii, late afternoon train>Florence. Make sure the kids see the Galileo Museum.

Pisa will be a hit with the kids, great if you were headed in that direction. Your call.

The rest looks good, agree fly Venice>Paris.

"Rent car to drive thru Germany; Cologne, Bacharach, Trier, Heidelberg, Rothenburg, Hohenschwangau, back op towards Amsterdam"

It's unclear how long you have for this part. Your route takes you far to the south then far to the north... I will say that even if you have adequate time, you certainly do not need to cover all that territory as that's a lot of back-seat travel for kids and there's a good bit of duplication in there. Trier and Cologne are unique. But Bacharach is an old-world town surrounded by lots of other old-world towns, so why travel all the way to Rothenburg for more of the same?
Braubach (home of Marksburg Castle) -
Linz am Rhein
Oberwesel
Cochem

And these Rhine/Mosel villages are surrounded by castles - the real ones that are 800 - 1,000 years old, including Burg Eltz and Marksburg; both offer tours. Rheinfels in St. Goar is a ruined castle but quite popular with families - kids enjoy a good crawl around the place.

Cochem's Reichsburg Castle is gorgeous, like the town itself; take the kids to the falconry exhibition there. Cochem has a nice chairlift ride as well - nice VIEW. Cochem has the Moselbad facility too - all kinds of water fun. The Wild- und Freizeitpark in nearby Klotten gets excellent marks as well.

The Hohenschwangau "castles" are actually palaces - Neuschwanstein is just a little more than a century old. And it's a very long drive for a 30-minute tour!
Remagen's WW II museum at the Luddendorf Bridge site
More options in the Rhine/Mosel region
You could easily spend a week or two with Cologne, Trier, Bacharach, the Rhine/Mosel region, and Heidelberg. I would visit these places right after Paris before moving on to A'dam. You do not need a car here - but with a larger family, a car will help you get to the somewhat scarce apartments for that number of people, which are a little more common on the outskirts of town.

You mentioned you will be travelling with a person with special needs. During my last visit, I brought my Handicapped Parking Placard, and found it to be accepted in the EU. As I have some difficulty walking, it was very helpful.
With 5 people touring Germany you may want to look into the www.bahn.de Lander Takt, which will allow you to travel together for a very low fare each day, after 9 AM, on local trains in each German State. It's not valid on high speed trains but is a great deal nonetheless.

Germany is probably the most train accessible place in the EU, you only really need a car for the Romantic Road and Rothenburg (spend 3-4 days here and take the Night Watchman's Tour) Gasthof Bayerische Hof on Ansbacher Strasse was great. Harald is a gourmet chef and Petra is a gracious hostess. Highly recommended and only a few minutes walk from the train station.

Enjoy your trip

One suggestion: consider staying in Lucca and doing Florence as a day trip. Florence is not only very crowded, but also has virtually no open spaces for the children to relax between churches and museums. Lucca is much more child friendly. A daytrip will cost you some extra on transportation (check at trenitalia.com), but that might be compensated by a cheaper hotel in Lucca.

I'm not sure why you want to drive in Germany, but it can't be for efficiency. Germany has the best rail system in Europe.

Everything you want to do in German can easily be done by train. I would go from Cologne (Köln) to Trier, then to Bacharach. From Bacharach, it's an easy trip (by regional train) to Heidelberg. From Heidelberg to Rothenburg only takes about 4 hours via Osterburken.

Instead of taking the train all the way back to Amsterdam, fly home from Munich.