Dear Fodorites,
After much thinking, I have somehow finalized my trip. Our family of 5 (kids ages 9 ,6, 6) is taking a 12 day stopover in Munich area, and we are on a tight budget.
Reach on 15th May afternoon. Drive towards Berchtesgaden.
Stay for 4 nights at www.gaestehaus-stoeckl.de
I have not seen much reviews of this place but it is the least expensive I can find and it does have the kitchen (woo hoo .. in case I need to fix a quick meal for the family).
Initially I was thinking about staying 2 days here and 2 days in Hallstatt, but then I thought of all the packing and unpacking with kids .. so now Hallstatt have to be a day trip. We will see the Salt Mine, Castle, Eagle's nest, Hellbrun .. all the popular places .. whatever we can see depending upon weather.
Drive via Innsbruck, mittenwald .. towards Fussen area and stay there 3 days. I really want to stay at least once on a farm. I have heard it is very popular in Germany but unfortunately I do not know how to find them ( I have googled .. but no success). We would like to go to mountain peak, may be Luge ride ??, see castles. In Mittenwald we would like to visit the famous Violin maker. Oh! And I also heard that somewhere close to Oberammergau -- there is wood carving and vast fields of mustards that might be blooming in May (does anyone know about this?). In one DVD they also mentioned that there is a stagecoach for mail delivery in garmisch-partenkirchen area. Anyone, any ideas??
Then we want to move to meerburg, mainau area and stay there three days. We will go to Triberg to see Cuckoo Clocks .. one day.
Somewhere in between I am hoping to see streams and waterfalls. We will rent a car so we can see countryside -- may be in future we will take public transport and stay closer to more popular cities.
Any one -- any ideas .. Any budget places to stay around the area we are visiting. I would like to spend no more than $100 or $110 per day in lodging, if possible.
I am also dying to see the fields towered with mountains and hopfully cows grazing with bells .. ( I wish I could go to Switz. but it is more expensive .. .since I need to save some money for my 7 weeks long India trip also).
And then back to munich for 2 nights.
Any ideas .. suggestions .. ?
Thanks
12 days in Munich- Bavaria area in May 2009- Countryside, farm vacation
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http://www.bauernhofurlaub.de/
Google for "Urlaub auf dem Bauernhof"
Hi Logos .. The problem is that the web sites are mostly in german and I can not decipher them. For a bit of text, I can google, and translate. Also, since I am not familiar with the area, once I clock on Bodanese area, I am not sure how to sop which place is nearby lake and which is not.
I wish the website was also available in English.
Thanks
Check out "http://www.bensbauernhof.com/", it's in English. Look under accomodations, and then thetype of lodging and the places your are interested in. I am famliar with some of the lodgings Ben recommends, and they are all good. So, I assume that also applies to the rest of them.
travel0102, while I haven't stayed here, it is a vacation apartment on the Lake that will accommodate up to 5 people. It looks nice.
Their website is in German, but if you contact them in English, chances are they will reply in English.
http://www.meersburg-seepromenade.de/NEU_HOMEPAGE_2008/start.htm
>web sites are mostly in german
Yes, Urlaub auf dem Bauernhof doesn't seem to be very popular with non German speaking tourists. It may well be, that your hosts speak very limited English, if any. Try to decypher using babelfish and go buy a map of the area asap. Amazon.de ships all those maps to the US, if you can't get them locally.
a little more difficult w/3 kids, but have you considered pricelining for munich (and any other cities)? i successfully pricelined a hotel in munich (4*)in late may for ~130/night for 2 rooms (~65/night/room). the only thing is i'm not sure if they'd be able to fit 5 of you in a single room - you guys might have to split up and have 2 rooms which isnt ideal for a family with young kids (we're all old
). maybe something you consider if you get really desperate. check out http://betterbidding.com/ for suggestions on bidding stategies. good luck! 
sorry i should have been more clear before. priceline rooms are only guaranteed to accomodate 2 adults/room. i would assume they would accept 2 kids = 1 adult. pl note the prices i quoted above are AFTER taxes and fees. my winning bid was in the mid 50's range, so if you're willing to get a 3* hotel, i think you could definitely get into your goal spending range.
This place is listed on www.bensbauernhof.com. It is an apartment in Ramsau near Berchtesgaden. They have 4 apartments and one of them looks large enough for your family. Their website is in ENGLISH so you shouldn't have any problems in that regard.
http://www.vorderloiplsau.de/en/house.php
If you are still looking for a farm in or around the Füssen area - I highly recommend the Popplerhof - located in a small farming community northwest of Füssen (Heimen/Hopferau). My family and I loved this Bauernhof and the folks that operate it. Their spotless apartment should be large enough for your family and I'm sure your children would have a great time there. They may not have a vacancy in May but if you can get in there - you will be glad you did.
http://www.bensbauernhof.com/popplerhofnearfuessen.html
...Ben
Ben's Popplerhof looks great. You can also try www.landhannes.de This is in/near Schwangau.
We stayed at the Stoeckl three years ago and found it to be a fantastic place. Cissy and Klaus are friendly and helpful hosts. They speak English well and will go out of their way to help you. You'll get a large country breakfast and a nice quiet place to stay. I hope you'll have GPS because it can be a little tricky to find in the dark. I'm sure you'll have a great stay there and at a nice price. Do a search on these forums and you'll find others that agree with me.