I pretty much nailed it.

 

As other have said, less is more.
At least two nights in each hotel.
No more than 5 hours driving, leave cities after morning rush and arrive before afternoon rush.
When every possible stay in smaller family run gasthaus or pension.
Get off the beaten path, the advantage of having a car is going to tiny villages that airlines don't serve.
Remember it's a vacation, not a forced march.
EDs are addicting what you miss this time, you'll visit on the next one.

We leave for our third in 31 days, but who's counting. (ask in a week or so and I'll have figured in hours)

 

Here's a PM I sent in response another rennlister. If you have any specific questions let me know.

Hi,
We used Obernai as our base. staying at this hotel, http://www.cour-alsace.com/en/
It was actually our second time here, the first time was during our Q5 ED, and we were just passing thru. We liked the area enough to want to go back.

Here's a site for the wine route.
http://www.alsace-wine-route.com/en/...cle-route-map/

All the towns along the route are interesting. We thought if time was limited, Eguisheim was one of the stops to make https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eguisheim

This castle was worth the time to visit. Great views into Germany and Switzerland.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Châtea...ut-Kœnigsbourg

here's some info on the rally route. At the time I was able to find the routes for each stage and just used those as a way to find some nice mountain roads to drive. The locals are far more aggressive then I cared to be in a new car and on roads I didn't know. Plus the wife would have been sick very quickly. Still was a lot of fun.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rallye_de_France_Alsace

If you get down to Mulhouse there's a great car museum, you could spend a day there. The largest collection of Bugatti's are there.
http://citedelautomobile.com/en/home

Good luck,

Todd

 

I am doing ED again next year. I pretty much nailed it too...


One thing I am going to do different is bring some clear side markers with me and swap them out on day 1. (It takes 5 minutes).


I don't like the orange ones and the pictures in Europe with my car wont be compromised this time.

 

When planning your route after the delivery, this can be avery helpful tool.. it is meant for motorbikes, but it works as well for cars, as we both look for curves, nice roads, good scenery, etc.
http://www.bestbikingroads.com/motorcycle-roads/motorbike-rides-in-europe

In particular, if you are planning to go to the Alsace, in addition to Strasburg, which is a must, Colmar is an incredible village to visit or stay.
https://www.google.de/search?q=colmar&safe=active&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi30dTg9 oHNAhXkNJoKHd-iD9UQ_AUIBygB&biw=1920&bih=1024

The roads between Strasburg and Colmar go though a vey nice Natural Park with plenty of good roads to start learning your new car.

 

We are less than a month from picking up our Macan GTS on ED.

This is our second ED, so we learned several of the lessons described above.

This time we are spending 2 or more nights in each location.
When we get to the destination we leave the car in the parking till we leave for the next city.
Using foot and public transit takes us everywhere we want to go and alleviates the worry of parking in many small spots.
We are bringing a tow hook license plate holder.
I am bringing the power source for the power plug in the car.
It has 2 standard NA plugs and 2 USB power ports. We can plug our NA accessories in to this and charge as we go from place to place.
On this trip we are hitting Berlin, Warsaw, Auschwitz, Vienna, Munich, Zuffenhausen and Prague.

Thank you to everyone who has added info to this thread!

 

Great recommendations RESP. We plan to spend a few days in Berlin. If so, I'll post some tips your way.