Bavaria!

This nine-day sweep through three Alpine countries follows one of Central Europe's most satisfying geographic arcs — from the medieval lanes of Rothenburg ob der Tauber in northern Bavaria, south through Munich and across the Austrian Tyrol, then west into Switzerland before curling back through Heidelberg. The itinerary is built around contrast: a walled German town where the Middle Ages feel genuinely intact, a cosmopolitan Bavarian capital with world-class beer halls and royal museums, an Austrian city framed by mountain peaks, and a Swiss lakeside city that has no business being as beautiful as it is. That range is the point.