Winter trip to Italy, Germany, Austria
Replies: 8 - Last Post: Aug 22, 2012 2:08 PM Last Post By: neckervd
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Winter trip to Italy, Germany, Austria
Hi fellow travellers. We are a family of four (mum, dad, 18 & 16 yr old young adults) and will be visiting Europe from Australia for the very first time this coming December/ January. We also understand that this is not the best time to be visiting, but it is the only time we have available due to school, university & work commitments. We have two must visit locations to visit friends - Trieste, Italy for New Year and then Marburg, Germany around 18th January. The rest of our itinerary is where your help is required.As it stands we plan to arrive in Milan around 27th December and need to be in Trieste by 30 December. Plan to depart Trieste around 2 January and then have 16 days to make our way to Marburg in Germany. We plan to leave Marburg morning of the 21st Jan with 3 days left in Europe before flying back to Australia on 25th Jan - possibly departing from Paris (nothing booked yet, so arrival & departure locations not fixed).
We would love to try and visit Rome, Venice, Florence, Tuscany, Salzburg, Vienna, Zurich and too many other places in the 16 days between Trieste and Marburg. The challenge to our Thorn Tree friends is to assist us with a realistic itinerary that will allow us to have an enjoyable winter holiday within the somewhat restrictive parameters outlined above. In total we have four weeks to work with.
Thank you in advance for your assistance, Darren.
1
Count at least 4 days for Rome, 2 days for Florence, 4 days for remaining Toscana, 2 days for Venice and 1 day for the travel from Italy to Marburg.You may use the night trains (sleeping car) from Trieste to Rome and from Florence to Munich.
http://www.bahn.de/i/view/overseas/en/index.shtml
Vienna is outside the direct Italy - Marburg itinerary. So you may fly to Vienna, visit Vienna first and go then by train to Trieste (8 to 9 hrs).
Check the opening hours of museums and churches over Christmas and the many concerts given during this period, especially in Vienna.
2
Europeans that go on holidays during this period would most likely go skiing. Since you have to pass the Alps to go from Trieste to Marburg, why do you not take a week or ten days to go skiing.3
If you flew earlier and did Marburg first, you could catch some of the German Christmas Markets before heading south for NY. This obviously depends on your commitments.If this is not an option, hmm, what to do.
Options:-
From Trieste you have three initial options really.
1) Head right into Slovenia (e.g. Ljubljana) then Budapest, then Vienna, then Prague then Marburg.
2) Go straight north into the Austrian Alps. Head for Salzburg (Mozart's birthplace, he has a huge influence on the town, and it's very photogenic anyway), then over to Munich (the kids would probably love the Deutsches Museum for a day) whilst Neuschwanstein castle + Dachau concentration camp are both potential "edutainment" daytrips and nearby.
3) Go left - See Venice if your friends don't take you there anyway, then head down to Florence. See Florence for a bit, then head to Siena. From Siena move on to Rome, then fly from Rome to Frankfurt Main (NOT Hahn airport). From Frankfurt airport don't bother staying in the city, head straight to Marburg by taking a train to Frankfurt main station, then changing. http://www.bahn.co.uk can give you the info, book in advance for cheapest price. Alternatively hire a car, but be very careful if in the snow, you need to quadruple your braking distances.
4) The wildcard option - fly from Venice to Paris. Do that for 3 or 4 days (some great museums there), trundle up to Brussels for a day (with a side trip to Bruges too), then continue on the train to Amsterdam for more museums + canals + various other bits and pieces. From Amsterdam, head to Cologne for a day to check out the Rhine + Chocolate museum + love padlocks on the railway bridge + of course the Dom with the gold casket of the remains of the 3 wise men, then head to Marburg. After Marburg, head down to Frankfurt airport and fly home.
Lichtenstein's only worth doing if you're ticking off the amount of countries you've visited. Zurich's pretty but I'd go for the Bernese Oberland in the centre instead because like Australia, Austria and Switzerland's countryside is even better than the cities. They'll be covered in snow at that time of the year, which might excite the kids if they've never seen snow before.
From Marburg, Frankfurt would be the easiest to fly out of. If you want to finish off in Paris, you have very few days left so I'd go direct from Marburg and skip anything in between as Paris would more than occupy you for 4 days.
4
Thank you neckervd & FWoggie for your great ideas and itinerary options for our trip. I'll certainly try to put your advice to good use in building our itinerary. To Liberat your option for some skiing in Switzerland is certainly on the cards - after posting my original message we found out that our friends from Marburg will be skiing in Scuol from 6th to 12th January. We may just join them for a few days, although my wife and daughter are not likely to spend too many days on the snow, my son and I would certainly enjoy it!So many options, too little time. Thanks again for your assistance.
