Our American Family took one last summer 2026 holiday and visited five countries in four days! Some of these countries were repeat visits for our family (France and Germany) but it was fun to see a different area of each of these countries.

There were so many beautiful areas to choose from in these countries but this road trip path helped us experience a lot of sites in a short amount of time. The main takeaway from the bros this trip: Ausfarht. They love that the word for exit on the road signs in German is Ausfarht (ha!)

Saint-Louis, France:

We flew into Basel, Switzerland, but exited on the France side. It was so cool to see the sign of how you could exit the airport and either be standing in France or Switzerland! I had found Homely Basel, an airport location located only a six-minute drive from the airport which was perfect for our later in the night arrival. 

We spent the next morning into Saint-Louis, France, a small city so different than our experiences in Paris! We grabbed a croissant at a delicious cafe and then headed off our last summer euro adventure.

Feldkirch, Austria:

The highlight of our trip with spending two days in Feldkirch, Austria. I am so glad that I based the trip off of this city as it was hands-down our favorite. We were immediately smitten by the views and the 1600’s historic Austrian rental was cozy and great for our family of four. The rental served as an inn for Napoleon’s soldiers hundreds of years ago!

It was a 2.5-hour, beautiful drive from France into Austria and we are glad we had rented a car from a reliable car rental company like Sixt. They provided all of the vignettes and toll approvals we needed to navigate visiting multiple countries by car.

Our highlights in Feldkirch besides walking the paved streets were an authentic Austrian schnitzel dinner outside and spending slow afternoons in the Biergarten, enjoying a local beer. We were there over the weekend which was perfect for parking: you can park at the Scattenberg Castle on Saturdays an Sundays for free.

There is also mini-golfing there by the castle that we did not get to experience because it closes to the last guests at 4:00pm, fyi. I also recommend getting out some euro cash as more places did not accept card than I expected like small ice cream shops.

Lindau, Germany:

We had visited Germany (Berlin precisely) many years ago and had not had a warm or welcoming experience. We decided to head into Bavaria and summer lake town Lindau as it was only a 39-minute drive away from Feldkirch.

It was the perfect day trip on a summer day, with beautiful views of Lake Bonedesee. We walked the streets, ate a bretzel and found a lovely locally-owned family restaurant named Mediterraneo which had pasta – a nice break from schnitzel 😉

Liechtenstein:

We then drove 47-mins to the country of Liechenstein: one of the smallest in the world. We decided to skip the capital city of Vaduz and spend time in nature instead which we’re so glad we did! 

We enjoyed the Obereburg Schellenburg trail, which had ruins of an old caste, a small hike and beautiful views of the country. We also encountered the world’s cutest border control: a small, unmanned historic hut showing that you left one country and entered the next.

Basel, Switzerland: 

On the last day, we headed back the 2.5 hours towards Basel but spent the day in the city. We know that Switzerland was expensive but the costs blew us away – $15 for 2 waters, $105 for 4 hamburgers – that is not something we enjoyed, so we ate as little as possible 😉

We parked in the Augshen area which was ideal to be out of the busyness of the city but a walkable 15-minutes into the action. It was a warm but cloudy cloud and the river was COLD but the bros happily jumped in and floated in the river.

Our overall thoughts of this four day trip were:

Feldkirch, Austria is an absolute gem and cannot be missed. Germany is still our least favorite country that we have personally visited in Europe, but Lindau was a heck of a lot nicer and welcoming than Berlin 😉 We also loved Liechtenstein, although we would not travel just to see this small country. Switzerland has so much beauty but the prices of things make the beauty less beautiful and it was a good reminder that France is more than just Paris.

As always, we are so blessed to experience these things as a family. Our boys since we began prioritizing family travel almost one decade ago in 2017 have gained so much knowledge, insight and empathy for their ages. This trip was country #31 for me, #30 for Logan (we will be tied once he gets to Japan, too!) And #24 for Landon and Griffin at ages 14 and 11.