2 week trip

[jtn]

Hi everyone,
My boyfriend and I going to Europe this summer and we have about 2 weeks (plus a couple of days) to work with. We have our flights to and from Toronto booked, but besides that, nothing else is booked yet. This is our tentative itinerary:

Aug 25 - Arrive in Munich in am
Aug 26 - Munich
Aug 27 - Munich
Aug 28 - Munich to Salzburg - day in Salzburg
Aug 29 - Salzburg to Innsbruck - day in Innsbruck
Aug 30 - Innsbruck to Venice
Aug 31 - Venice
Sept 1 - Venice to Cinque Terre
Sept 2 - Cinque Terre
Sept 3 - Cinque Terre to Florence - afternoon in Florence
Sept 4 - Florence
Sept 5 - Florence to Pisa to Rome
Sept 6 - Rome
Sept 7 - Rome - night train to Heidelberg
Sept 8 - Heidelberg
Sept 9 - Heidelberg to Frankfurt in pm
Sept 10 - Frankfurt to Toronto

Is this way too much stuff for two weeks? Any suggestions? (also, our flights to and from Toronto may seem a little odd...but this was booked last minute and it was our cheapest option...saved us about $600 each)

Thanks for your help!

[spymoose]

Okay, it does look like you're trying to do too much.

Firstly, do you actually want to see Heidelberg or is it merely a stop to get back to Frankfurt? If you don't mind missing it, I'd drop it for more time in Rome. Second, your time in Munich looks fine but Salzburg/Innsbruck at one day each is probably not enough. Picking one and staying there two days would probably be more enoyable. Florence can also be done as a daytrip from Rome.

Now I don't know exactly how to get to Cinque Terre but I know Genoa is right near it so I used that to make sure certain train trips work, below is my suggestion so you have time to enjoy places.

25 - Munich
26 - Munich
27 - Munich
28 - Train to Salzburg/Innsbruck
29 - Salzburg/Innsbruck
30 - Train to Venice
31 - Venice
01 - Venice
02 - Train to Cinque Terre
03 - Cinque Terre
04 - Cinque Terre
05 - Train to Rome
06 - Rome
07 - Rome, daytrip to Florence
08 - Rome
09 - Rome, fly to Frankfurt
10 - Fly home

This still may be cramped but others will be able to give you more feedback based on how much time needs to be devoted to Cinque Terre as I'm not exactly sure. If you do really want to see Heidelberg you will likely not have the time to see Cinque Terre in which case adding a day to Venice and doing Heidelberg in two days would likely work best.

Either way, that's my suggestion and it should be a little more enjoyable that way as you may see a few less places but you'll actually SEE the places you do go to

[me]

Hi, JTN,

couple of suggestions:

1. take a day off of Munich, add it to Rome. Munich is a very nice city, but can't compare to Rome. There's so much more to Rome! [Rome is the most important city in the history of Western civilization]

2. visit Pisa on the trip from Cinque Terre to Florence. it's on the way. it would be a waste of time to go Florence-Pisa-Florence-Rome.

other ideas:

how well do you & your boyfriend deal with short nights? if you can deal with a few of them ok, there's a night train from Innsbruck to Venice, 01.39 - 07.36, about 6 hours.

there's also a night train from Venice to Genova, and a fast train from Genova to Cinqua Terra. Venice to Genova, 22.52 - 05.20. Genova to Cinqua Terra, 07.11 - 08.40 <to Monterosso> that's 6½ hours, Venice to Genova.

[me]

also, Mainz is a prettier, more interesting city than Frankfurt. the Gutenberg-Museum is there, too, in case that interests you.

[spymoose]

I think she has Frankfurt because she already bought the tickets (in Munich out Frankfurt)

[me]

Mainz is also very close to Frankfurt's international airport, <it takes 5 extra minutes to get there from Mainz main station as opposed to Frankfurt main station> as is Wiesbaden.

Frankfurt airport isn't actually *in* Frankfurt. it's in the area between Frankfurt and Mainz . (the Frankfurt/Mainz/Wiesbaden area is locally know collectively as Rhein-Main-Gebiet, "Frankfurt Rhein-Main Region" in English. but, the Main river actually merges with the Rhein river in Mainz)

what's more, Mainz is a smaller, friendlier, culturally/historically more interesting town. i hear that many who work in Frankfurt at the central banks actually live in Mainz for that reason.

spymoose said:

I think she has Frankfurt because she already bought the tickets (in Munich out Frankfurt)