TennisFan

I have some airline miles and hotel points that I need to burn by next Spring. Due to family obligations, work and two already scheduled family trips, I will be on my own to use these miles/points. I am looking at seeing how many European countries I can see in a 4 day period. I realize traveling this way isn't a great way to experience a city in-depth, but my goal on this trip is to get to as many European countries as I can in four days. All of these countries in the itinerary below are locations that I haven't been to before. Is this itinerary even logistically possible? Is there a different European itinerary that would be a better option to see as much as I can in this short amount of time? I'll be looking to leave the Tuesday before Memorial day. Proposed itinerary as of now:

Wednesday (day of arrival - departing from U.S.): Zurich Switzerland
Thursday morning: Travel from Zurich to Liechtenstein via Rail Europe
Thursday afternoon/evening: Travel from Liechtenstein to Vienna, Austria via Rail Europe
Friday morning: Travel from Vienna to Bratislava, Slovakia via Rail Europe
Friday late afternoon: Travel from Bratislava, Slovakia to Budapest, Hungry via Train
Saturday morning: Budapest, Hungry to Berlin, Germany via plane
Sunday morning: Flight back to U.S.

Intense travel, but I'd get to chock up 6 countries that I will probably never get to see the rest of my life.

Is this possible logistically? Is there a better itinerary if my sole intention is to chock up as many countries as possible in 4 days (arriving Wednesday, departing Sunday)?

Thanks.

Temedar

You will not see a lot with your itineary.
Yes, there is. Use overnight trains to add a few more countries to your route.

josefk68

You could do Scotland, England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Ireland in about 24 hours...so thats five...

Fly to to France, Spain, Portugal and Morocco in the next 24 ish hours so nine...

...take two days off in Liechtenstein and...walk around it twice in two days.

You could try Luxembourg...the most depressing place in Europe except from Cumbernauld...

Just saying...(and seriously, you have probably done most of those countries before...) and I might be slightly tongue in cheek.

David-A

If you just want to see them, fly from the UK to Greece, and from Portugal to Finland. You will see a lot of countries out the window as you fly over.

If you want to set foot on the ground, book an incredibly complex itinerary of connecting flights. Oh hang on... to be honest, that is effectively what you are doing!

But you won't see them this time either? Time spent getting to/from travel, into hotels, sleeping, etc. I doubt you will see anything at all.

Firstly, 'RailEurope' is not a train company or service, it is 3rd party ticket booking website, the makes its money charging foreigners a premium for tickets. The terminology is 'by train'. How you book it is irrelevant beyond cost.

Secondly, without times in there, it is hard to advise just what level of stratospheric insanity this is.

How long do you think you would have in Bratislava? etc.

In a word, no. I see it all as far too risky unless you have good recovery plans in the event of a travel problem or missed connection. I think in many places you will arrive at night, see nothing and need to leave at dawn, to give yourself a couple of hours a most somewhere else, before getting on another train to take you to somewhere else you will arrive late into and head to the hotel.

And how much are you going to spend on surface and other travel getting between places? To stations and hotels, transit cards/day passes used for all of an hour, plus hotel rooms for nights in places you won't even have seen in an afternoon.

Take all those cost overheads and save them. With the savings and some cheep flights you will probably have enough money to pay for another trip to the places you have cut.

Almost certainly a better itinerary, one that is doable.

I don't know where you are based in the USA or which miles currency (and alliance) you have miles in that must be used up.

Nor do I know if there is a specific week you need to do this in etc, but assuming it is the current winter schedule, I'd start by looking at which airlines that you can fly transatlanticaly on using your miles have flights that are optimum for leaving where ever you are - either directly or in directly. And look at where they take you into in Europe (even if you connect onward)

Then look at optmum departures for getting you back in time for when you need to be back, and where these derpart from (even if you connect onto them) etc.

Then I would try to give yourself time in places under the following rule: If you arrive in the morning, you can't leave until the next morning, or an overnight service (but sleeping on trains soon catches up with you). If you arrive in somewhere in the evening, you can leave the next early afternoon earliest.

TennisFan

Thanks for the quick replies. Good feedback. I have clearly gotten a bit overzealous.

I'll probably scale back to two countries and spend two days at each...now just gotta figure out which ones (likely from the group above).

KLouis

Well, that's much easier: if you need to fly to Zurich and out of Berlin, it will be Switzerland and Germany or, to be precise, Zurich and parts of German Switzerland and Berlin. And you also get two days planes/airports as an extra.

ToGo

Make it easy and visit Vienna.
You can go by Train to Salzburg and Bratislava and maybe Graz if you are interested in.
All ticket can you book via ÖBB: ticket.oebb.at
when you chose an non flexible 1Class Ticket you can stay in a Lounge (in Wien, Graz, Salzburg,...) how long you want.

stut

I do enjoy country-hopping trips, but if you don't make it worthwhile in terms of things to see and do on the way, you'll leave with a certain sense of disappointment.

However, my only tips:

• Don't book trips through RailEurope. They'll charge loads extra.
• Do book the international legs online in advance if you can, from the railway company in the originating country. It'll save you money.
• You're travelling by train in Switzerland, home to some of the most stunning rail journeys in the world. I'd try and plan a route that takes in something like the Rhaetian Railway or the Bernese Oberland.
• Liechtenstein is a great country to 'collect', as it were. But there's really not much to see there unless you're a false teeth aficionado. However, the area round Bregenz and Lake Constance nearby, is lovely.
• Use the Deutsche Bahn website for planning - it's wonderful for rail schedules. You can only book on journeys in/to/from Germany, but it will give you good information.

JR14

For a trip that length, cutting down to two countries sounds right! If you take a night train between them, you should have enough time to really explore your destinations. If you research as much as you can about those cities beforehand (i.e. transit, locations of monuments) that'll help you maximize actual sightseeing time on the ground.

TennisFan

Thanks all for your feedback. You have saved me from myself!

I am now going to focus on two days in Vienna and two days in Berlin and try to maximize my time in those two locales.

Captain Schmidt

^ A wise decision.

exilencfc

That does sound like a much more sensible plan (and if you do weaken, Bratislava is only just over an hour from Vienna by train).

I do agree with Stut that country hopping is quite good fun but it really isn't a way to actually experience anywhere. I also agree with him about using DB's website for train planning.

ToGo

http://fahrplan.oebb.at/bin/query.exe/en

JamesEaston

I think the only reason to go to Vienna would be to collect Slovakia, the Czech Republic and even Hungary asince it's an all day train from Zurich to Vienna so a whole day wasted and if you don't spend the day in Vienna and try to get another country or two or three there goes the idea of "seeing anything" once again.

The original plan the OP laid out would not let them "see" anything at all except what you saw outside the windows of trains and the pictures on the wall of your hotel room when you woke up. That original plan was just country collecting not "seeing".

Others are correct about Rail Europe. Buying point to point tickets (online, in advance if you want just-google the national rail for switzerland and austria) is always going to be cheaper.

For the OP - the new plan you made also doesn't make much sense unless your main goal is "collect" and see very little. For example from Vienna as someone wrote it's only 1 hour to Bratislava and 2 hours to Brno and a short trip to some Hungarian border village as Vienna is very close to the boarders of all three countries. But you'll see almost nothing.

My suggestion, if you want to actually see something and not collect, would be to spend two days in Lucerne, very close to Zurich and see a bit of the Swiss countryside, a bit of the cities and get a tiny, tiny, tiny taste of Swiss culture. Then fly up and spend two days in Berlin which is a gigantic city with so much unbelievable history from WWII and the cold war and again, in only two days you'd get a tiny, tiny, tiny taste of Northern German culture.

Anything other than that would give you no idea whatsoever of any place you'd "see" (collect). Yeah, you could run around like a mad man collecting countries and taking your pictures in each place, but that would be it. That may not be a negative thing though based on your personal goals for this trip.

So, after all that ranting again to the OP - even going to Vienna is going to take away any chance you have of seeing anything but it will give you the chance to collect.

If all you really deep down want to do is collect, go with your original plan in your original post, you'll have great photos and stories to tell about the time you ran around Europe like a madman - no insult intended. I can imagine if this is a once in a lifetime chance for you, collecting might very well be more interesting for you than seeing.

If you want to "see" and also "feel" just a bit, stay two days in Switzerland and two in Germany.

You need to decide if you want to collect or see. Do what your gut tells you . And enjoy the hell out of it !