Switzerland, Bavaria & Austria

with optional Budapest Extension

Length: 9 - 11 days  
 

Switzerland Bavaria and Austria Educational Tour | Vienna
 
Map of Switzerland, Bavaria & Austria (2012) Educational Student Tour and Trip | Explorica
 
Switzerland Bavaria and Austria Educational Tour | Swiss Festival
 
  • Day 1 Overnight Flight
  • Day 2 Guten Tag Zurich
    Meet your Tour Director
    Zurich Tour Director-Led Sightseeing Tour 
    Old Town, Quays of Zurich, Banhofstrasse
    Travel to Lucerne
    Details: Zurich Tour Director-Led Sightseeing Tour
    Get out your credit card -- you’re in the capitalism capital of the world. Zurich’s enormous banking system and well-funded residents guarantee fantastic shopping (even if it’s only window shopping!). Explore the city with your Tour Director, who will lead you away from temptation and toward Zurich’s Old Town, a medieval pedestrian zone hugging the Limmat River. On either side of the river stand the Fraumünster and Grossmünster churches, their Gothic towers and amazing stained-glass windows eternally watching over the city.
  • Day 3 Lucerne Landmarks
    Lucerne Tour Director-Led Sightseeing Tour 
    Löwendenkmal (Lion Monument), River Reuss, Kapellbrücke
    Optional  Mt. Pilatus Excursion   $75
    Traditional Swiss Dinner with Fondue
    Details: Lucerne Tour Director-Led Sightseeing Tour
    Before a backdrop of snow-capped Alpine mountains and green, cow-filled pastures, join your Tour Director on a tour of Lucerne’s famous sights. Weave your way through a maze of narrow, winding streets until you reach the River Reuss and the medieval Kapellbrücke Bridge. Stop to marvel at the bridge walls, decorated with murals that recreate the 14th-century originals destroyed in a fire. Journey the cobblestone streets in the Old Town to see the Löwendenkmal (Lion Monument), the somber sandstone wild cat gazing down into a reflecting pool. Sense sheer courage as you ponder this artfully chiseled statue created to honor the Swiss Guards who died defending the Tuileries in 1792.
  • Day 4 Lucerne--Innsbruck
    Travel to Innsbruck via Liechtenstein
    Innsbruck Tour Director-Led Sightseeing Tour 
    Golden Roof, Triumphbogen, Olympic site
    Details: Innsbruck Tour Director-Led Sightseeing Tour
    Follow your Tour Director through a backdrop of towering snow-capped mountains that transform this down-to-earth cobble stoned city into a world class ski resort. Venture through Old Town (Altstadt) and pass clusters of identical rustic white stuccoed homes trimmed in brown that blend into the environment. Come face to façade with the glittering Little Golden Roof, sheltering the balcony where Maximilian I Habsburg and his love Bianca promised to stay together forever. Look closer and count 2,657 squares of shiny copper shingles. Discover Triumphbogen, the arch commemorating many Habsburg marriage matches made in political heaven. Head for the hills on a visit to the steep ski jump on hill Bergisel, the site of the 1964 and 1976 Winter Olympic Games. Imagine what it would be like to soar over it as you bask in Alpine grandeur.
  • Day 5 Innsbruck--Munich
    Travel to Munich
    Neuschwanstein Castle visit 
    Oberammergau Excursion 
    Details: Neuschwanstein Castle visit
    This elaborate castle was built atop a rock ledge over the Pöllat Gorge in the Bavarian Alps by order of Bavaria's King Ludwig II, referred to as "Mad Ludwig," whose favorite pastime was midnight sleigh rides through the countryside. This stronghold was the crowning jewel of the king’s building spree across Bavaria and was the inspiration for Cinderella’s castle in Disney World. Begun in 1869 and left unfinished at Ludwig's death in 1886, this lavish palace is an eccentric reconstruction of a medieval castle, and it boasts major technological and architectural achievements for the time, including running water, flushing toilets, a hot water system for the kitchen, and bathrooms with warm-air heating systems.
    Details: Oberammergau Excursion
    Visit a typical Bavarian dwellings in Oberammergau, a charming Alpine village. When the black plague spread through Europe, wiping out thousands of people, the residents of Oberammergau prayed for their village to be spared. Every 10 years during the summer days, the thankful town puts on the Passion Play, celebrating the blessing they were granted as they were passed over by the Black Death.
  • Day 6 Munich Landmarks
    Munich Guided Sightseeing Tour 
    Residenz, Nymphenburg Palace, Alte Pinakothek, Deutsches Museum, BMW headquarters, Olympic site of 1972, Frauenkirche, Neues Rathaus, Marienplatz, Hofbräuhaus
    Visit Dachau 
    Bratwurst dinner
    Details: Munich Guided Sightseeing Tour
    Join a professional licensed tour guide for a whirlwind look at Munich. Founded in the 12th century by Henry the Lion, Munich now roars with the hustle and bustle of modern German life. As you pass by Marienplatz (named after the square’s gilded Virgin Mary and Child statue), mechanical knights joust and coopers dance to the folk-music chimes of the Neues Rathaus’s Glockenspiel. The twin onion-bulb towers of the Frauenkirche Cathedral frame this whimsical display, while the scents, sounds, and colors of the nearby food market attempt to draw your attention elsewhere. Resist temptation and continue on to Olympiapark, a new suburb built for the 1972 Olympic Games. Pass by several museums, such as the BMW Museum, Alte Pinakothek (home to Munich’s most precious art collections), and the Deutsches Museum of science and technology.
    Details: Visit Dachau
    A grim glimpse into the past, Dachau was the first of Nazi Germany’s camps and a model for the 3,000 work and concentration camps to come. Your Tour Director will lead you through the gas chamber (although never used) and crematorium, which have been restored as a chilling memorial to the 206,000 prisoners who were interned in the camp from 1933 to 1945. The museum examines pre-1930 anti-Semitism, the rise of the Nazi party, and photographed and documented lives of prisoners.
  • Day 7 Munich--Vienna
    Transfer via Salzburg to Vienna 
    Visit Mozart’s birthplace 
    Details: Transfer via Salzburg to Vienna
    He is the pride of Vienna, and on your way there to learn more about the prodigal composer, stop in Salzburg to visit Mozart’s birthplace. Touring no. 9 Getreidegasse, get a glimpse of the violin he mastered as a boy. And as you walk the gardens of Mirabell Palace, “Do-Re-Me” (from Sound of Music) may come to mind as you soak up the ambiance of the famous movie scene.
    Details: Visit Mozart’s birthplace
    Although he settled in Vienna, Mozart's birthplace holds an impressive collection of some of his first instruments.
  • Day 8 Vienna Landmarks
    Vienna Guided Sightseeing Tour 
    Visit Schönbrunn Palace, Parliament, Ringstraße, Hofburg, Opera House, Visit St. Stephen’s Cathedral
    Optional  Danube Cruise   $30
    Mozart Concert 
    Wienerschnitzel dinner
    Details: Vienna Guided Sightseeing Tour
    Join a professional licensed tour guide on a sightseeing adventure around Vienna, the city of brilliant musicians, Baroque art and architecture, and velvet-clad coffeehouses. Along your journey, you’ll sense the power and decadence of the city’s early ruling family, the almighty Habsburgs. Wander down the infamous Ringstraße, the series of boulevards circling the city, commissioned by Emperor Franz Josef in 1857. Pass the world-famous Opera House and the 450-foot Gothic St. Stephan’s Cathedral, Vienna’s most adored symbol. Encounter the Neoclassical Parliament, where the Austrian National and Federal Councils congregate. See where the Habsburgs' winter retreat at the Hofburg (Imperial Palace). Inside lies the Imperial Treasury, which includes religious relics like the nails from the Crucifixion and the thorns from Christ’s crown. End the adventure with a visit to Schönbrunn Palace, where the Habsburg’s ruled until 1918 and six-year-old Mozart serenaded Marie Antoinette.
    Details: Mozart Concert
    Experience the best of classical music composed by Salzburg’s child prodigy, the great Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Get lost in the uplifting, complex melodies as you imagine the musical master crafting ingenious violin and piano concertos at the unripe age of 17. With spiritual undertones to the youthful carefree finales, this live concert is a cultural treat for your ears and spirit.
  • Day 9 End Tour
  		• Or
  • Day 9 Vienna--Budapest
    Travel to Budapest
    Budapest City Walk
  • Day 10 Budapest Landmarks
    Budapest Guided Sightseeing Tour 
    Castle Hill, Royal Palace, Hungarian Parliament, Visit Matthias Church, Fisherman’s Bastion
    Details: Budapest Guided Sightseeing Tour
    Travel with a professional licensed tour guide through the meandering streets of Budapest. Wave to the 90 statues of Hungarian historical heroes that line the outside of the Neo-Gothic Hungarian Parliament. Continue through Castle Hill, the historic center of Buda, on your way to Fisherman's Bastion, a lookout tower behind the Matthias Church where residents once gazed upon the thriving fishing settlement. Head to the Royal Palace on Castle Hill, the original site of the castle built in the 13th century. Visit Matthias Church, as riotously painted as an Easter egg. Bet your traveling companions to find an unpainted inch of the church’s interior (a sure win for you). Originally named the Church of the Blessed Virgin in Buda and converted into a mosque when Ottoman armies seized Buda in 1541, the church, with its multi-colored tin roof, is one of the most photographed sights in Budapest. Descend the stairway to the right of the altar for a quick journey into the crypt and treasury.
  • Day 11 Flight home from Budapest
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    Tour Includes:
    • Round-trip airfare
    • 7 overnight stays (9 with extension) in hotels with private bathrooms
    • Full European breakfast daily
    • Dinner daily
    • Full-time services of a professional Tour Director
    • Guided sightseeing tours and city walks as per itinerary
    • Visits to select attractions as per itinerary
    • Tour Diary™
    • Note: On arrival day only dinner is provided; on departure day, only breakfast is provided
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