Our ultimate 3-week family train and flight adventure across Europe!

[u/FunFactVoyager]

​Hi everyone! We are busy planning our summer vacation and put together a 22-day itinerary for the four of us. The goal is to combine comfort, adventure, culture, and plenty of swimming time for the teens.

​I am very curious to hear what you think of this route, the transport, and the budget. Would be great to get your ideas!

​The Route & Highlights

- ​Milan (3 nights): San Siro stadium tour, day trip to Lake Como, and relaxing/swimming at the Novotel.

- ​Trieste (2 nights): Visit Miramare Castle and swim in the sea along the Barcola boulevard.

- ​Ljubljana (2 nights): Explore the castle, go alpine tobogganing, and swim in the alpine water at Lake Bled.

- ​Zagreb (2 nights): Day trip to the Plitvice Lakes and stay in a hotel with a rooftop pool.

- ​Budapest (3 nights): Visit Aquaworld water park (huge slides) and the Puskás Aréna.

- ​Timișoara (2 nights): Discover "Little Vienna", enjoy the beautiful squares, highly affordable, with pool time.

- ​Vienna & Bratislava (3 nights): Visit the Prater amusement park, swim in the Danube, and take a 1-hour train to Slovakia.

- ​Krakow (4 nights): Explore the salt mines, walk through the old town, and wrap up the trip at Park Wodny water park.

​Transportation

​Flight from Düsseldorf Airport (DUS) to Milan

​7 Interrail travel days for the journeys in between

​Return flight from Krakow back to Düsseldorf Airport (DUS)

​Budget Check (~€7,000 total)

​Rough estimate for four people, averaging about €238 per day

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[u/bookluverzz]

Flight from Düsseldorf to Milan?! Sorry, surprised that you’re flying as that’s easily doable by train, seeing as you’re doing other large distances too.

Why the decision to go to Timisoara? Seems out of the way, to be honest, in between Budapest and Vienna in the itinerary

2 nights basically makes only 1 full day to do the things you want to do.

[u/FunFactVoyager → u/bookluverzz]

We had really bad experiences with this route in the past, especially with DB in the summer. We are intending of taking a morning flight as the airport is nearby.

[u/Even_Narwhal3699]

Seems reasonable. (although i did not look to closely at the travel times, seems like timisora-> Wien is a really l ong trip, takes longer then Düsseldorf->Milano) Although some of the longer routes can make 2 nights quite short.(if you arrive late and leave early) The train connection between Ljubjana and Trieste is unfortunatly quite bad. There are 2 daily trains to Villa Opinca (from where you can tae tkhe tram to Trieste after some walking, or on e a day the train) The other Route is via Nova Gorica and also involves a local Buas as the 2 stations across the border are quite a distance away from each other. Scenic Route but slow. The alternative is taking a Flixbus from Ljubjana to Trieste which takes half the time.

[u/FunFactVoyager → u/Even_Narwhal3699]

Ljubjana is on our wishlist more than Triëst. What alternative would you recommend?

[u/Even_Narwhal3699 → u/FunFactVoyager]

There is a 1:30 min Bus between them. The train journey is also not that long at a bit over 3 hours. Just quite a bit more complicated then the direct bus. (I know the options as i am also planning to travel from Ljubana to Trieste on my next trip) By taking the Bus you could instead use that travel day for the journey from Düsseldorf to Milan.

[u/skifans]

Pace is obviously very personal. But I always think 3 nights is a heck of a lot better then 2. 2 nights gives you 1 full day in a place and means moving every other day. Most of those travel days are on the long side. I certainly wouldn't want 3 two night stays in a row. Particularly when you are then looking at day trips as well.

I think you would be much better trimming things back a bit. And I agree with what's already been said about getting the train to Milan. That also means not having to bother about airline luggage rules.

And that's even before getting involved with family. I don't know if you mean kids kids or grown up kids. But if it's the former particularly I always think it's better off just taking things a little slower. But even ignoring that I still think you would be better off trimming things a little.

[u/CamelPure1293]

You didn't plan in travel days. 2 days in one city then 2 days in the next city, but hotel checking out, travel, hotel check in takes several hours. I would drop at least two places.

[u/ThatMaize3333 → u/CamelPure1293]

Exakt, resdagarna förhindrar oftast utflykter för du måste släpa runt på ditt bagage.