Traveling with 3 teenage boys 17, 18, 18 to Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. Where do we start?

Lou and Janet, have any of the 5 of you visited Europe before?

More info needed, but right off the bat, you're covering too much distance for only 10 days.

What city do you plan to fly into? If Frankfurt, the Rhine is more convenient. If Munich, the Danube, although the river isn't particularly interesting to cruise until you get close to Austria. It also flows in the wrong direction if you want to see Switzerland.

Without more information, it is hard to answer your question. As Tom said, you are trying to cover too much distance in the time you have allotted. What cities/areas are you interested in seeing (Germany, Switzerland and Italy are entire countries)? How many stops all together? What is your budget for travel once you are in Europe? What kinds of things do you like to do? Museums? Historical sites? Shopping? Take into account the time it takes to actually see the things you want to see (how long at a museum, how many hours on a boat, how long touring a palace) as well as how long it would take to get there, AND the incidental time it takes getting from place to place (buying train tickets, waiting for the train, finding your new hotel, eating lunch, finding your way in a new place, checking into and out of hotels).

I would start by plotting the places you want to go on a map, then looking at how long it takes to get from place to place with various transportation options. Once you do that you will have a better idea of how much actual sightseeing time you will have in any location. Look at the cost for train tickets vs car rental, keeping in mind that there will be a big fee for renting a car in one country and dropping in another. The more information you are able to give us, the better suggestions we can give you.

In ten days you really do not have time to do all that. You would be spending most of your time on trains, and not seeing what you came for.

I suggest you stick to Germany. You can cruise the Rhine, stay in a castle, visit Munich and Berlin, maybe cycle along the Mosel River, see Salzburg ( in Austria but close to Munich), and mad King Ludwig's castle. That is plenty for ten days.

Save Italy for another time when you can give it the time it deserves.

Lou and Janet:

I would suggest contracting your desired area a little. And if at all possible, extend your trip another few days. Going by car would be the best way to travel with 5 people, and you need to return the car to the same country you picked up in or large drop off charges will apply.

I would suggest flying into and out of Munich. There are great tourist sights that young men would be interested in, including Deutsches Museum, Nymphenburg Palace and Dachau Work Camp. It's a great, lively city.

Then go over to Salzburg, stopping at Hitler's Eagle's Nest along the way. It's a very popular city with great music.

You could then drop down to Innsbruck and Western Tyrol to get a taste of incredible mountain vistas and the mountain life. The region's beautiful, like Switzerland, but cheaper and easy to get to.

The Brenner Pass is just south of Innsbruck, and it's controlled access autobahn/motorway all the way to Venice. The city is just incredible and well worth the effort to get there.

Coming back north, you could go a short distance NW of Innsbruck into Southern Bavaria and catch Neuschwanstein Castle on the way back into the Munich area.

The reason I suggest this region is that the only long drive would be down to Venice, and the other daily drives are incredibly scenic and maybe 100 mile days. Roads are very good, and very easy to negotiate.

Even Venice is too far. It is well worthy of two or three nights, and by the time you add driving time there nd back to Getmany, that is half their trip. Where do you fitin castles and a boat trip that they said they won't?

I am thinking even Berlin may be too far off the path for a good trip. Moving around a lot, changing hotels, etc. takes time . Better to visit fewer places for longer periods of time.

Lou & Janet,

As the others have mentioned, your plans are FAR too ambitious for the short time you have available. Keep in mind that visiting three countries in 10 days only allows about three days in each, and provides NO time for travel between locations which in some cases could be the better part of a full day. Could you clarify whether your 10 day time frame includes your two flight days? Is there any possibility you could get more time?

IMHO, you have time for a brief "sampler" of two countries, with one or two cities in each. A "day or two at the Amalfi Coast" is probably not going to be possible. Which two countries are you most interested in seeing? It would be easier to provide more specific advice if you could provide a list of cities, ranked in order of importance.

For such a short time frame, I'd suggest using high speed trains as much as possible in order to keep travel times down to a minimum. If this is your first trip to Europe, I'd highly recommend reading Europe Through The Back Door, as that provides a LOT of good information, including Itinerary planning. After that use the country or city-specific Guidebooks to plan sightseeing, hotels, transportation, etc. For travel in mid-June, I would highly recommend pre-booking all accommodations, as it will likely be busy and crowded.

There's a very well travelled group here that should be able to help you sort all the details for your trip, but more specific information on your plans and the places you want to see would be helpful.

Good luck with your planning!

Even with 10 days on the ground, it will be almost impossible to go all the places you want to go. Keep in mind during all the planning, that you are going at a very busy time of year and that you need some slosh time for the unexpected.

It all depends on what kind of a trip you want to take. Is it to see scenery? Is it to experience culture(s)? Is it to see historical sights? Following the suggestions others have given should help you with making those decisions.

On the logistical side of the equation, using the directions option on Google maps should help with a basic look at the driving distances and times. For getting around by train, the DB Bahn search (http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en) will identify the time it takes by train, the number of train changes, the stops along the way and a look at a map of the route. You can buy tickets for German trains on it, not for other countries, but it is a great source of scheduling information for almost all of Europe.

I recommend that you start with a general idea of where you want to go. You have that already. Then fill in what you want to do there. It looks like you need to work on that part. Finally, figure out how you want to get to where you want to go. Inevitably, where, what and how all influence each other and your planning will become more focused.