revised 21 day trip, please advise

[dmic2]

So my last plan was way a little crowded, but i think this could work

I plan to be in Europe for 21 days total

Fly into Berlin spend 3 days and maybe one in Dresden
Prague for 3 days
Budapest for 3 days
Salzburg (aus) for a couple days
Munich 2 days then..(i would like to rent a car and drive the Romantic Road, think its a good idea?)
Rothenberg for a day or two (or surrounding area)
finally Amsterdam and Haarlem for combined 4 days or so and fly home from there.

Total: 15-16 days
that leaves 4-5 days of leeway to add or subtract places/things from.

If anyone has suggestion please feel free to offer, especially if you think there should be MORE time in a particular destination.

[herrbert]

Hi dmic2, and welcome to the boards.

As you have some days left to spend, I would advise to give Berlin one day extra.

2 days for Munich is a minimum, but OK if you stick to the city itself, if you want to see the castles (Neuschwanstein/Hohenschwanau), then you need a day extra.

The Romatic Road (or Romatische Strasse), in my opinion is overrated. There are a lot of good destinations if you can rent a car, but I would head South to see a little bit of the Alps, esp. with a car you would have a lot of freedom to see some nice little towns in the South of Germany or Austria.

Renting a car in Salzburg would be perfect to get to the Hohe Tauern region (Pinzgau, if possible (and if you like hiking) go for a daytrip, and hike Habachtal or Hollersbachtal, and see something of the mountains, maybe spending a night in one of the little towns, finding a room, is not so hard as you can just check every place, that has a little red flag saying 'Zimmer Frei' (Rooms Free), even in the high season, finding a oom should not be big problem

If you like caves, and ice, then check out www.eisriesenwelt.at
in Werfen, near Salzburg, and about 45 minutes away by train, for a daytrip, also the castle in Werfen is worth a visit. Salzburg itself you can see in 1 or 2 days, as it is not a big town.

Every segment of my brain is trying to puzzle out, why you left out Vienna? (4 days) Been there already?

[dmic2]

Appreciate the help. I left out Vienna because, there are other places i would like to see and experience more than Vienna in this trip specifically due to the fact that i don't have the time it takes (4 days or so) to actually experience it the way i would like. I left out Switzerland as well, i just figured that i would get them both the next time around.

How about renting a car? i have heard horror stories of people renting cars, and being charged a fortune. I just dont need/want to deal with any extra hassles

[herrbert]

Take a look at the websites of Hertz and Sixt, that will give you an idea of the costs involved when renting a car. Personaly I am sure it works out more expensive, unless you are traveling in a group (so you can split the costs), for a solo traveler it can be useful to rent a car, to get to places, you can't reach by public transport, but for the countries you are going, that would be hardly the case.

At least make a reservation of a small car. (the smaller the car, the cheaper), if you go to the office, at the airport, you have be happy with what they got. If it happens to be that all the small cars are rented by others, you have to take a bigger car and pay more. Also take a good look at the terms. (sometimes petrol is included for x-kilometres a day, and a lot of times it's not)

[me]

someone posted info about leasing a new car from Renault, or another French car maker, for a reasonable sum.

does anyone remember that?

- d

[madamtrashheap]

The only thing I could find was
pretravel.proboards1.com/index.cgi?board=Transportation&action=display&n=1&thread=4844&page=1 but it reminded me about checking with your airline as to any deals they may have with partner hire companies.