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Originally Posted by Kool Kat
Planning a trip (sometime between Apr and Jul) to hit those 3 cities via rental car once we fly into Europe from Texas. What I'm trying to figure out is which city is best to fly in and out of in terms of ease, cost, convenience, congestion, time of year, driving, etc. We'll stay in each for 3 days or so. We could either use one city as home base and fly in/out or fly into one, get rental car, then drop off/fly out of a different city/country, which might be complicated. Anyone with experience that can share thoughts?
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I have been to all of those cities. Munich many times.
Twice we have flown into Munich and driven to Venice, then other destinations (Austria, Slovenia, Croatia).
Venice is not viable as an international nonstop flight destination from most U.S. cities. I would fly into MUC or ZRH, whichever gives you the best nonstop from your home hub airport. The three cities are roughly equidistant. ZRH and MUC have good international service.
Firm believer in vacationing in Europe after the European kids (an American kids!) are back in school. This usually means the third week of September, or later. Speaking for myself, I would not vacation in Europe in July. Too hot, too crowded. April is chilly. May might be OK. June is questionable in my view because of crowds and the weather can be too warm for my liking. Traffic in the Alps in September can be heavy, in July I can imagine it might be unpleasant with heavy tourist populations in every village and point of interest.
Weather is great in your target region from mid-Sept to mid-Oct. Not too hot, still in the 70s. Munich and Zurich will be chilly at night, Venice will be beautiful. It rains often in Venice but in our experience the showers are not continuous or heavy.
I would drive a loop starting and ending at either Munich or Zurich. Flying twice inside Europe with your limited time is a waste imo. Airport drama is to be avoided in any country. Traffic, rental car return, security, flight delays, blah blah. It's simply a waste of time. Driving through the Alps is fantastic.