European Circle Tour in 13 Days

Here is my trip's tentative plan

Fly into Brussels on Oct 17.

Booked hotel for 2 nights. Oct 18, side tiro pt Bruges via rail.

Oct 19: Fast train to Cologne. Two hour Cologne blitz tour; pick up rental car and drive to Burg Eltz.
Sepend night at St. Goar.

Oct 20: Rhine boat tour St Goar to Bacharach. Sight-see, drive to Meinz and Wurzburg. Hotel at Wurzburg

Oct 21" Tour of Wurzburg and Residence. Drive to Rothenburg spend nght in area.

Oct 22 Leisuly drive of Romantic Road to Gamisch. Zugspitze climb if time allows. Sleep in Garmish area.

Oct 23: Zugspitze if not previous day and drive to Innsbruck, blitz tour of area, and then to the Dolomites. Evening at Italy.

Oct 24: Tour Dolomites and drive to verona, tour city and sleep in area.

Oct 25: Drive to Lake Como. Is Menaggio a good base of operations? Evening in area.

Oct 26: Drive to Lucerne, tour area, stop by Basel, and sleep in either Freisburg or Colmar.

Oct 27: Black Forrest and Route Du Vin. Evening in area.

Oct 28: Drive to Frankfurt.

Oct 29: Fly back to the USA.

Any suggestions? Start and end are fixed, all else is flexible.

Hi. I've been to most of the places you are going to visit and they are all nice choices. However, I think you might be trying to pack too much into the time you've got. Some of the days like 23, 24, and 25 will be exhausting and I don't think you'll get to experience much in any of the towns you are visiting. You could easily spend multiple days in Innsbruck, Lucerne, the Dolomites, etc.

What are your interests? What are you hoping to see/do when you visit each place? Make sure you have enough time to really enjoy it. My suggestion would be to eliminate half of these stops and really spend some time enjoying the atmosphere, the cafes, the food, the wine, the museums, the hiking trails, the local people, etc.

By the sounds of things you will just be doing a lot of driving and not a lot of time seeing things. For example you say on the 23 you might climb the zugspitze, drive to innsbruck, do a quick tour and then drive into Italy - that is a huge day where you probably won't see much. As the last poster said maybe try and cut down the amount of places and instead actually see more of them. In germany I found Würzburg and garmisch really nice, I had a great time in Verona in Italy and had a busy night at the id club in Basel in switzerland.

That is quite a trip. It drives me nuts when people say that your doing to much. Everyone has their own travel style and time period. I definitely know what its like to want to see it ALL in as little time as possible.

I've been to most of the places on your itinerary. I found Brussels to be dull and adored Bruges, I spent 4 days there and felt like it wasn't enough. I've met others who loved Brussels, but despite being there twice I just can't connect with the city. Cologne can be done quickly, the Cathedral is really the best bit, but if your feeling rushed it might be a place in your trip that you could miss without missing loads.

Lucerne is a place that you might get stuck in, I found it to be a hard city to leave.

Have a great time!