First ED 8/25 - 9/4 Itinerary advice

Will be picking up my Mineral Grey/Black 335i MSport on August 27. Thanks to the great amount of information on Bimmerfest, I have the following planned so far but need suggestions.

Day 1/Aug 25 : Arrive in Frankfurt at 6:55, take the 8:54 ICE train to Paris, Reach Paris at 12:50, stay the night in Paris at Hotel Le Littre

Day 2/Aug 26 : Spend Day in Paris, take the 20:20 CNL train to Munich

Day 3/Aug 27 : Reach Munich at 7:10, take metro/subway to Welt, take delivery at 9:10 AM, have heavy breakfast / brunch and leave for Fussen, see the castles and drive through Garmisch-Partenkirchen & Brenner Pass to Innsbruck, stay the night at Innsbruck

Day 4/Aug 28 : Innsbruck to Venice via Dolomites, evening in Venice, stay overnight in Venice.

Day 5/Aug 29 : Day in Venice, in the evening leave for Florence. Stay the night in Florence

Day 6/Aug 30 : Entire day in Florence, stay the night in Florence.

Day 7/Aug 31 : Florence to Bellagio, Como via Pisa, evening at Como Lake, stay the night at Como.

Day 8 / Sep 1: Bellagio, Como to Lucerne via Grimsel pass and Furka pass, evening and stay the night in Lucerne

Day 9 / Sep 2: Take day trip to Interlaken (any maybe Berne), Jungfrau etc. return back to Lucerne in the evening, night in Lucernce.

Day 10 / Sep 3 : Leave Lucerne and drive to Frankfurt (maybe via Zurich)

Day 11 / Sep 4 : Drop of car at the Frankfurt dropoff at 8:30 AM, leave for the airport to catch the 12:20 PM flight.

Here is a Google Maps link of the route

I have already booked the air tickets, train tickets to and from Paris and the hotel in Paris. The rest of the bookings are yet to be done.

Is the above route doable ? If not please suggest alterations.

Also,
Is Innsbruck a good stopover destinations or do you have a better suggestion ?
Is it advised to stay outside Venice and Florence and user public transport to the city ?
Is Lucerne a good base in Switzerland ?

There will be two drivers, but I wont trust my brother on the windy stuff, so I will be driving through all of that

Originally Posted by achopra

Is Lucerne a good base in Switzerland ?

Congrats on the ED! Should be a worthwhile experience, I know I can't wait for mine.

In regards to Lucerne, I personally think it's a better Swiss city than Zurich as it's a smaller city and definitely more homely. It also has the gorgeous scenery of the Mt. Pilatus as well as the crystal clear lake. I know I'm stopping by there again.

Good luck.

Originally Posted by achopra

Day 3/Aug 27 : Reach Munich at 7:10, take metro/subway to Welt, take delivery at 9:10 AM, have heavy breakfast / brunch and leave for Fussen, see the castles and drive through Garmisch-Partenkirchen & Brenner Pass to Innsbruck, stay the night at Innsbruck


Day 10 / Sep 3 : Leave Lucerne and drive to Frankfurt (maybe via Zurich)

Day 11 / Sep 4 : Drop of car at the Frankfurt dropoff at 8:30 AM, leave for the airport to catch the 12:20 PM flight.

On our recent ED (June 23rd -> July 7th) we also flew in and out of Frankfurt. We also used the ICE train from Frankfurt to Munich. (good choice , very relaxing way to travel)

Getting From the Munich hauptbahnhof to the Welt, we choose to take a taxi ~ € 25 with tip. The Welt is next to the Olympia-zentrum station on the U3 line, only U1,2, U5,6, and the S-bahns are at the hauptbahnhof, so one would have to go to, Odeonsplatz via U4,5, Scheidplatz via U2, OEZ via U1, or Marienplatz via S1-8, and transfer to the U3. With luggage we decided it would be easier to take a cab.

In Frankurt we stayed at the zum Löwen in Walldorf, small family run hotel, a short walk from EH Harms. We'll use this hotel again.

Enjoy!!

Holy crap that is one busy trip. Jungfrau is a whole day trip. From Lauterbrunnen to the top is about 1.5 hours. Down is about an hour. If the weather is nice you can easily spend 3 hours up there. You almost feel obligated since it costs about $150 per person to get up there. Stop in Lucerne for lunch or something but overnight in Lauterbrunnen(good parking). Pisa is a hole except for the Tower, Cathedral and Baptistry. You can blow them all out in 1.5 hours. Only stop here if it is on your bucket list or on your way to some where else.

Yep, pretty busy. Similar to my first draft before I cut it down.

Although there are a million things to see, it's better to see less in full detail.

You might set a record for attempting to cover all of Western Europe in 11 days.

I'd tone it down, honestly.

Skip the 24 hour trip to Paris. You can either take the train from Frankfurt to Munich, or more appealing would be renting a car one-way. Going to Paris for a day is a waste.

Also, dropping down to Florence is adding a lot of travel time. Consider a stop in Lago di Garda/Sirimone.

I'm the first to say you want to spend a fair bit of time driving your car on nice roads with respectful drivers (because once it gets back to the U.S. you'll never have the chance again), but you also want to take in the sights.

Thanks for all the tips so far. I feared that the trip would be busy .....

I seems that if I drop Florence from the Iternary, I can add a day on the way to Venice at lake Garda and a day in Switzerland. From what I have heard a couple of days in Venice are more than enough ?

Another possibility is to skip Fussen and goto Berchtesgaden (like Justin) and then take the grossglockner down to Venice. What do you guys suggest ?

I would definitely keep Fussen and do the Brenner Pass over Berchtesgaden. That drive has the potential to be the highlight of the trip (as far as the driving is concerned).

Another way to save time is to cut Venice entirely. I know everybody wants to go there, and yes it's cute, but Venice is a big city, that has an airport, and it's easily accessible. Since you have the car, go to some smaller Italian towns like Parma or Bolzano or Verona.

A neat place to visit is the Swarovski crystal factory in Wattens (about 30 mins eat of Innsbruck).

This would be my recommendation:

Day 3: Pick up and drive to Innsbruck (via Fussen).
Day 4: Wattens; drive to Sirmione (stop in Bolzano and Trento; then take the road that goes along Lago di Garda (versus the motorway); stay in Sirmione
Day 5: Sirmione down to Modena, then over to Parma for lunch (lots of good restaurants in Parma); drive from there to La Spezia
Day 6: Spend the day in La Spezia and drive to Pavia (or another smaller town outside of Milan)
Day 7: Pavia to Bellagio to Como.
Day 8: Como to Interlaken
Day 9: Interlaken to Lucerne
Day 10: Lucernce via Basel and Freiburg (stop in the Black Forest) to Frankfurt
Day 11: Drop off and go home

Innsbruck is a very cool city.

Even with my reductions, I still think it's an aggressive itinerary. I have done several ED trips through all these areas, so feel free to PM me with more questions.

Very nice plan ! Way to enjoy your car in this top scenery!

Thanks for all the tips (especially FastMarkA and necromancer). I made some changes based on your input. Removed Florence to add Verona, Sirimone and a day in Venice (which according for my bro is a must). After the changes the Itinerary is as follows.

Does this look better ? Should I add a day in Lucerne by driving directly from Venice to Como? Any suggestions are welcomed. Thanks again.

Day 3/Aug 27 : Reach Munich at 7:10, take metro/subway to Welt, take delivery at 9:10 AM, have heavy breakfast / brunch and leave for Fussen, see the castles and drive through Garmisch-Partenkirchen & Brenner Pass to Innsbruck, stay the night at Innsbruck

Day 4/Aug 28 : Innsbruck to Venice via Dolomites-Cortina d’Ampezzo

Day 5/Aug 29 : Entire Day in Venice

Day 6/Aug 30: Leave for Sirimone via Verona

Day 7/Aug 31 : Sirimone to Bellagio to Como

Day 8 /Sep 1: Bellagio, Como to Lauterbrunnen via Grimsel pass and Furka pass

Day 9 /Sep 2: Take day trip Jungfrau return back to Lauterbrunnen and drive down to Lucerne for the evening

Day 10 / Sep 3 : Leave Lucerne and drive to Frankfurt via Basel, Freiburg, Black Forest (time dependent)

Day 11 / Sep 4 : Drop of car at the Frankfurt drop off at 8:30 AM, leave for the airport to catch the 12:20 PM flight.

Google Maps Link

Day 3: 163 miles, 3:46 driving. Brenner Pass will be on day 4. It's S of Innsbruck.

Day 4: 216 miles, 4:25 driving.

Day 5: You're going to need this break.

Day 6: 182 miles, 3:00 driving.

Day 7: 42.4 miles, 1:16 driving.

Day 8: 151 miles, 3:21 driving.

Day 9: 49 miles. 1:08 driving.

Day 10: 331 miles, 6:57 driving.


I broke it down to get a better picture. Driving times are only estimates. It's not as bad as I first thought, but it's going to be one of those "working vacations".

I'm doing quite a bit of driving in mine, but I also have some two night stays built in to relax. Longest runs of mine is twice at ~ 180 miles, but they are on parts of unlimited autobahn.

Originally Posted by JustinTJ

Day 3: 163 miles, 3:46 driving. Brenner Pass will be on day 4. It's S of Innsbruck.

Day 4: 216 miles, 4:25 driving.

Day 5: You're going to need this break.

Day 6: 182 miles, 3:00 driving.

Day 7: 42.4 miles, 1:16 driving.

Day 8: 151 miles, 3:21 driving.

Day 9: 49 miles. 1:08 driving.

Day 10: 331 miles, 6:57 driving.


I broke it down to get a better picture. Driving times are only estimates. It's not as bad as I first thought, but it's going to be one of those "working vacations".

I'm doing quite a bit of driving in mine, but I also have some two night stays built in to relax. Longest runs of mine is twice at ~ 180 miles, but they are on parts of unlimited autobahn.

Yeh, I think its not that bad now. Also there will be two drivers. Which means we can alternate days. Day 10 is gonna be a long, but basically all we really need to do is get back to Frankfurt. I have done many 10 hr long drives like DC to NYC and back, LA to SFO via PCH .... should be fine.

So, I made some changes to give better balance in terms of driving time and time at places

Day 1/Aug 25 : Arrive in Frankfurt at 6:55, take the 8:54 ICE train to Paris, Reach Paris at 12:50, stay the night in Paris at Hotel Le Littre

Day 2/Aug 26 : Spend Day in Paris, take the 20:20 CNL train to Munich

Day 3/Aug 27 : Reach Munich at 7:10, take metro/subway to Welt, take delivery at 9:10 AM, have heavy breakfast / brunch and leave for Fussen, see the castles and drive through Garmisch-Partenkirchen to Innsbruck, stay the night at Innsbruck (Basic Hotel : Innsbruck)

Day 4/Aug 28 : Innsbruck to Venice via Dolomites-Cortina d'Ampezzo

Day 5/Aug 29 : Entire Day in Venice

Day 6/Aug 30: Leave for Como, lunch in Verona

Day 7/Aug 31: Como to Lauterbrunnen via Grimsel pass and Furka pass

Day 8 /Sep 1: Take day trip Jungfrau return back to Lauterbrunnen and drive down to Lucerne for the evening

Day 9 /Sep 2: Morning in Lucerne, Late afternoon leave for Freiburg

Day 10 /Sep 3 : Leave Freiburg drive to Frankfurt via, Black Forest. Stay at Airport Hotel Global

Day 11 / Sep 4 : Drop of car at the Frankfurt drop off at 8:30 AM, leave for the airport to catch the 12:20 PM flight.


What say?