Jiyen1213

Hi, I am a college student and I am trying to plan a 4-day trip during the Easter Weekend to Munich, Salzburg, and Vienna. I just want to hit the highlights, but also see as much as I can. Couple things I want to do are see the Bavarian Castles (what would you recommend?) and spend at least 1 1/2 days in Vienna if possible.

I would welcome any tips of things to see in any of these locales and also the best way to book rail transportation. I am an American currently in the UK.

Thanks!

SAnParis

I would leave out the Vienna piece or a quarter of your time will be spent traveling. You can easily daytrip to Salzburg from Munich. Just stay in Munich. Probably a few of the castles as well. My castle geography is not clicking in today but I believe Neuschwanstein would also be doable as a daytrip. Try roadstoruins.com.

tcreath

You have 4 days and want to see the castles of Mad Ludwig II (I assume), Munich, Salzburg and Vienna? I don't want to be a downer, but I think that its nearly impossible, even if you want to just hit the highlights. You could spend 4 days each in Munich, Vienna and Salzburg and not see everything.

Is this 4 days and nights, or 4 days 3 nights? You could spend a couple of nights in Munich, train to Salzburg for a day, and then train from Salzburg onto Vienna for the day and a half you want to be there. I would probably skip the castles this time around unless you prefer to skip Munich or Salzburg.

Good luck,
Tracy

dec528

I would also consider skipping vienna, and doing Munich and Salzburg. I have done Salzburg in a day trip from Munich and yes more time would be great, but a day is doable. That will leave you 2 days in Munich plus another day trip to castles, etc. Vienna you will need a bit more time plus more than a day. Have fun!

Travelnick

Having lived in Munich and Vienna I think you are crazy to do 3 these cities in 4 days, drop on by the castles and have at least 1.5 days in Vienna. You may as well not get off the train. It takes a couple of hours by train to Salzburg from Munich and around 3 to go on to Vienna. Neuschwanstein as the most famous of Ludwig's castles is near Fussen, also around 3 hours from Munich by train with no direct train onto Salzburg - so you will backtrack. Take 4 days and see either one or two cities not all three. But if you really want: Munich - Marienplatz centre to look around 30 minutes Viktualienmarkt for colourful food market (5 minute walk -for 15 minutes), Deutsche Museum for one of the world's best science museums (1 hour), Dachau if you want to see concentration camps (I never did) (75 minutes to get there and back, 1 hour inside), Nymphenburg for one of the palaces (45 minutes to get there and back + 1 hour inside)- or stay central and see Residenz, run around Englischergarten for one of Europe's largest city parks, drink lots of Weissbier at night. Go to Fussen for Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau - sorry struggle to do that in less than full day. Next day, Morning train to Salzburg from Munich- run from train to old centre in 15 minutes, Run around centre for 2 hours, get on train to Vienna for 4pm arrival. Run around see a couple of churches before night falls. Next day - Schonbrunn Palace for 1 hour, Naschmarkt for much grittier feeling market (and watch wallet); Prater for ferris wheel ride if you are inclined to see overrated, dated funfairs, Museumquartier for choice of excellent art galleries. Head on back to Munich in 5 hours to go to airport.

BabsB

Travelnick, I am pooped out just reading that itinerary! Barb

neejas

If you have 4 days, I would stick with Bavaria and Salzburg. Munich can be a good hub area to see everything in the area. We had a car rental and it took 3 hours to drive from Salzburg to Vienna and its about a 2 hour drive from Salzburg to Munich. You need to allow more time to see Vienna. I just posted my pictures of our trip to that area last month. http://www.freewebs.com/bubbalawoffice/
I'm sure the weather will be pretty great during Easter. We had lots of snow from the first day of arriving to leaving.

AisleSeat

You will find a lot of things closed in Bavaria and Austria on Good Friday, Holy Saturday and on Easter. Keep that in mind as you plan your trip.

I agree that you can have a wonderful 4 days based in Munich with a one-day trip to Neuschwanstein and another daytrip to Salzburg.

ira

Hi J,

With only 4 days, I suggest:

Day 1 Fly into Munich - 1 day 1 night to get acclimated.

Day 2 Train to Salzburg - 2 hr.

Day 3 Train to Fussen - 2 hr

Day 4 See Munich

Day 5 Fly home.

Intrepid1

Travel is not always for the slow but I agree that Vienna is for another trip.

Salzburg is 1.5 hours from Munich by rail and I agree you can do the highlights in the old part of the city in a day.

I would not book any rail transportation for this trip as you will not need seat reservations out of Munich to either Salzburg or to Fuessen (should you decide to do that)

I assume you are planning to fly to Munich is that true?

ritajmae

We were in Munich a couple of years ago and I highly recommend you take time to go to Dachau concentration camp. It is an important piece of history and it is truly a memorial to those who sadly lost their lives there.

It may not be a fun-wow, but I am so glad we took time to see it and pay tribute. It is "well-done", if that is a proper way to describe it.

MaureenB

I also suggest you stay in Munich and day-trip to Salzburg and Fussen. Each is a pleasant train ride of about 1.5- 2 hours, so each trip will take a whole day. Get a Bayern Pass, which is very inexpensive. About 30EU for up to 5 people round-trip, I believe. Then spend the rest of your time in Munich itself.
Or, go to Vienna and day-trip up the Danube and maybe even Budapest?
Have fun!

Jiyen1213

Thanks for all of the helpful information. I unfortunately wasn't able to get a reasonably priced ticket for Munich, but I did find a cheaper ticket for Salzburg, while also extending my trip by an extra day. Since I am flying into Austria, I figured it would be best to maybe combine Vienna and Salzburg. Are there any smaller towns in Austria that I should definitely see...I figure on spending 1.5 days in Salzburg and maybe 2+ days in Vienna, but I definitely could fit a daytrip to another place in there.

MaureenB

A fun day-trip from Vienna is to go up to Melk and Krems by train and boat. You purchase a "combi-pass" at the train station and it gives you: train fare from Vienna to Melk, paid entrance to one of the attractions at Melk (I highly recommend the monastery and its beautiful grounds on the top of the hill), then boat trip on the Danube up to Krems, and train fare back from Krems to Vienna. It is fairly inexpensive-- maybe 35EU apiece or so. It makes for a very nice day, especially if the weather is clear. You may be able to switch up the transport modes used. I listed it the way we did it last June. Have fun in austria!

SAnParis

Maureen has given you a good plan... I also like Linz & I think it is worth a stop as well.

tcreath

I loved the towns along the Wachau and highly second Maureen's suggestion. If you are active, we picked up bikes in Krems, biked to Spitz and then took the boat back to Krems. We drove from Krems to Melk to see the beautiful abbey, but training there is fairly easy as well. The towns along this stretch of the Danube are all wonderful to visit, and we visited some wonderful wineries and picked up several bottles of wine. We did this in May as part of a Germany/Austria trip and it was one of the highlights of our vacation.

Another daytrip option would be taking a train from Vienna to Bratislava. Its an interesting city, and only about an hour or hour and a half train ride from Vienna.

Tracy