Rob66

We will be heading to Munich in early May to pick up a car and tour Bavaria for 9 days. While we very much look forward to driving on some great roads and seeing as much as we can, I don't want to necessarily over do it any one day. I would like the Alps and driving better. She would enjoy unwinding at a great spa for a few days. We will fly back out of Frankfurt (though I am open to changing this). I have tentatively planned the following:

Munich (2 nights)
Salzburg (2)
Fussen (1)
Rothenberg (1)
Baden Baden (2)
Frankfurt (1)

My main concerns are

1.) we would like to visit Berchdesgarten and drive part of the Alpine Road over to Fussen. We don't care if that takes the whole day as we will stop for food, photo opportunities, etc. Will we be rushing that too much if we want to get to Fussen early evening? Is it better to stay in Salzburg or should we just stay in Berchdesgarten and day trip to Salzburg? or perhaps one night in Salzburg and one night elsewhere in the Alps between Berchdesgarten and Fussen?

and

2.) Is Rothenberg worth the one night detour on the way to Baden Baden? The town looks picture perfect and the Night Watchman's tour seems interesting, but if we cut out Rothenberg, we have an additional night somewhere in the Alps.

We are going to enjoy the trip regardless, but I want to leave enough time for the drives to more be scenic and relaxing....and less like commuting.

Any suggestions from folks who have done driving tours through the area would be much appreciated.

michele_d

We really enjoyed the time we spent in Rothenburg. If you stay the night you will be there after the day trippers have left. You can walk around, have a nice dinner, take the watchman tour then the next morning you can walk around a bit (the park is lovely and relaxing) before heading on to your next destination.

asps

In order to visit the Hohenschwangau castle near Füssen you should better be there early in the morning - it is the most crowded place in whole Germany. But the drive from Salzburg is very long - about three hours. This looks like a difficult day, if not impossible.

michele_d

You can purchase your tickets ahead for the castles, if you choose.

http://www.hohenschwangau.de/543.html

pja1

Hi,

While we've never been to a spa, check out Bad Reichenhall, less than 30 minutes from either Salzburg and Berchtesgaden.

http://www.bavaria.by/spa-thermal-po...enhall-bavaria

We prefer to stay in the Berchtesgaden area for our visits to Salzburg. It's less than a 30 minute drive between the two. We've stayed over a dozen nights in the Berchtesgaden area on 4 trips during the last 6 years.

While we've only driven the "German Alpine Road" from the Reit im Winkl area to Berchtesgaden, it wasn't "all that" in my opinion. Nothing really special along it you won't see (or drive) anywhere else in Bavaria. The best (most scenic) part was closer to Berchtsgaden. That's not a bad thing, as the scenery in Bavaria is gorgeous in general, just nothing out of the ordinary. Simply my opinion.

IF you go with Bad Reichenhall instead of Baden Baden, you could possibly spend more time "in the Alps", meaning Berchtesgaden area, Mittenwald/Garmisch area, even the Innsbruck area, etc.

Paul

Rob66

Thanks everyone for the info. Neuschwanstein tickets have been reserved for the 9:20 am tour (in English). The hotel is only about 15 min away, so we will plan to get there very early....hopefully ahead of the tour busses.

Bad Reichenhall looks nice. This could be a great option and would certainly cut out some miles.