Suggest you see castles in/near Salzburg.

http://www.salzburg-burgen.at/en/

Hohenwerfen has a falconry show that you'd probably enjoy. "Where Eagles Dare" with Clint Eastwood was filmed at this castle.

The "castles" south of Munich you are likely referring to - Hohenschwangau, Linderhof, and Neuschwanstein, all near Füssen, are late 19th-century palaces of sorts rather than castles. They are particularly bombarded with tourists and tour buses in August.

So what you might do is enjoy some time in the Garmisch/Mittenwald area instead, which also gets busy but will feel a little more German and less like Disneyland. There's real alpine splendor there.

I'd probably spend 3 days there and 3 in Salzburg with an outing to Hohenwerfen and possible to Berchtesgaden or Hallstatt.

If you want to see one of Ludwig's palaces without the hypertourism of Füssen, stop in Prien on the way to Salzburg. Herrenchiemsee is on an island in Chiemsee Lake:

http://www.herrenchiemsee.de/englisch/n_palace/index.htm

You can fly directly from Munich to Genova. You could pick up a rental car at the airport, head down the coast, stay overnight in a place with parking in le Cinque Terre, head off to see some Tuscan hill towns, drop off car in Pisa or Florence, take train to Venice, fly home.

We just came back from a somewhat similar itinerary all by train...here's what we did. 3 nights in Munich (recommend Eden Wolff for nice lodging or Creatif Elephant for budget lodging both by the main train station....we loved Munich from staying by the train station....you can buy an extremely cheap family pass for the S bahn and U bahn system and get anywhere in Munich and surrounding areas including Dachau for pennies)and used the Gray Lines Royal Castles Tour for our "Castle Day" right from Munich...check out "Scheisse happens" on You Tube Great tour otherwise. We then trained to Salzburg for a busy day and night w/ Sound of Music Tour & Mozart Concert in the Hohensalzburg Fortress...recommend both. From there, we trained to the unbelievably beautiful Zell Am See, Austria for two nights where we did the spa thing at the Grand Hotel, but where you could spend two days of spectacular hiking right from town wherever you stay. (Splurge and have one dinner at the Grand). We then trained to Innsbruck, where you can take a furnicular and cable car right from town to prime hiking plus hit up the Swarosky super store next to the hotel. (recommend Weisses Kreuz for lodging). We finally trained to Venice which is where we flew back from. (recommend Hotel Paganelli). On the way to Venice though, you could stop in Bolzano, Verona, or Padua for a taste of northern Italy. This itinerary would require no rental car and point to point train tickets don't cost much..major scenery changes but not that much traveling. We only used city cabs a few times, then not for many miles or money. You could actually do this whole thing cab free, depending on your lodging choices. This was the best trip we ever took, and booked the entire itinerary on europeandestinations.com with substantial savings.

Please let me know if you have any questions, and have a great trip!

Hi Lori,

I'd suggest this for the first 6 nights:

Arrive Munich airport and drive to the Berchtesgaden area to base for 3 nights. Visit Salzburg (less than 30 min. away) from here. We love staying in Ramsau bei Berchtesgaden (3 times so far) for our visits to Salzburg and the general area.

www.ramsau.de

www.worldisround.com/home/pja1/travel15.html

www.worldisround.com/home/pja1/index.html

Head over to either Mittenwald or Fuessen for the next 3 nights. Visit Neuschwanstein, Hohenschwangau, Linderhof palace, Zugspitze, Ettal, Oberammergau, etc.

We've stayed twice in both Mittenwald and Fuessen. Tough choice, but I'd probably choose Mittenwald.

Drop the car off in Garmisch (20 min. from Mittenwald/hour from Fuessen) and train to Venice.

We can suggest these places to stay:

Berchtesgaden area

www.mayringerlehen.de
www.friedwiese.de/enska/isl.htm

Mittenwald

www.schwalbennestl.de
www.edlhuber-mittenwald.de

Fuessen

www.hotel-hechten.com

Paul