pja1

Hi,

We recently returned from visiting the Advent Markets in St. Gilgen, Salzburg, Innsbruck, Hall in Tirol and Rattenberg. We had some snow on 4 of our 10 days in Austria and Bavaria. For our visits to Salzburg and St. Gilgen, we stayed in Schönau am Königssee at a wonderful B&B called the Guesthouse Friedwiese. Perfect in every way. For Innsbruck, Rattenberg and Hall in Tirol, we stayed at one of our favorite places, the Gasthof Badl in Hall in Tirol. Although we've been to these area's many times, this was our first time visitng the Advent markets, which was the main reason for our trip. Even with the cold weather, we hope to do it again sometime. They were amazing. We're from the northeast, and one night in particular, the night we visited Rattenberg, it was COLD. No, not cold, it was beyond cold! That didn't stop everyone from enjoyning a night out. We even had a great time, between the shaking and teeth chattering. I'm somewhat kidding, but we did have a great time. If interested, here's a link to some of the photo's:

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

Paul

latedaytraveler

pja, great pics - thanks - looks cold!

bettyk

Great photos, Paul. I especially enjoyed the ones in St. Gilgen. We were just there on 1st November. We were told by the owner of our hotel that every building in the entire town is lit up for Christmas. Did you see the lights on the Lake?

nz101

wow, thank you so much, they are really stunning !!!!!

ira

Thanks for sharing, Paul

pja1

Hi Betty,

No, sorry we didn't see the lights on the lake. The town is very picturesque and we're glad we got to visit. If we get to travel again (you just never know) we'd like to visit St. Gilgen again.

Paul

bettyk

I understand the three towns of Strobl, St. Wolfgang and St. Gilgen all participate in the Advent celebration and you can take a boat from one town to another to see the different decorations, markets, etc. There are also large lighting displays on the lake itself.

wanderfrau

Thanks for the report and the photos. I think I need to add Austrian Advent markets to my "to do" list.

pja1

wanderfrau... they were all wonderful. Hopefully we can do it again. We had planned on visiting the Advent Markets in Sterzing/Vipiteno and Brixen/Bressanone, just over the Italian border from our stay in Hall in Tirol, but time ran out for us. We'll just add that to the reasons to do it again.

Gary_Mc

Great to look at the pictures. My wife has already made her request to put Austria on our schedule for a a future visit.

Regards, Gary

pja1

Thanks Gary. Loved your photo's also. Next time we'll go a bit later (Dec.) when we can visit the German markets. Most were opening after we left to come back home. The ones in Austria were open a week (or at least the weekend) before Thanksgiving week.

wanderfrau

Paul - thanks for the Italian suggestions, too. They all sound interesting.

MikeMeredith

Paul - I am in the beginning stages of planning a 10 or 11 day trip to Bavaria/Austria for our family of 4 for this August. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading your various trip reports and looking at many of your trip photos. You have already been very helpful. I am just beginning to sketch out a rough itinerary for our trip and would appreciate any thoughts or suggestions you might have.

This will be our first trip to this part of the world and because we have so many other places we would like to visit, we may not return here, at least for a while. So, we want to strike a balance between doing the typical touristy things like visiting castles, museums, historical sites, etc. with just relaxing and enjoying the people, scenery and local towns. Based on your trip reports, we like to do a lot of the same things, with the exception that we also enjoy large cities (our two children are 22 and 24 years old.)

As of right now, we are planning on flying in and out of Munich. We would start our trip by staying (if available) at the Mayingerlehen in Ramsau, then travel to Alta Badia, on to Mittenwald, and finish by staying a couple of nights in Munich. I have compiled a long list of things to see and do from our bases in Ramsau and Mittenwald, but would appreciate any "must see" suggestions you might have for any of our itinerary.

I know you really like the Dolomites. I don't know as much about this area so I need to spend some more time reading about this leg of our trip. I would appreciate any suggestions you might have.

Right now I am trying to determine if these are the 4 places we want to stay, and if so, how many nights in each. Assuming we stay 2 nights in Munich, we would have 9 nights for the first 3 legs of our journey. Do you have any thoughts about where we are planning on going and how many nights we should commit to each?

Thank you,

Mike

pja1

Hi Mike,

For what you're looking for and the time you have, I'd probably skip Alta Badia and maybe visit the Dolomites as a day trip from the Innsbruck area, if you include this area. Innsbruck to the Val Gardena (Dolomites) is about 1:30 drive.

Me, I'd suggest this based on your time, interests and maybe being the only trip to Bavaria/Austria:

Arrive Munich and head to the Berchtesgaden/Salzburg area for 4 nights. It's an easy 2 to 2.5 hour drive from Munich airport to this area. You won't run out of things to see/do with 3 full days.

Berchtesgaden
Konigsee
Jennerbahn cable car - www.jennerbahn.de/de/englisch/
Salzburg
Salt Mines - www.salzwelten.at
Luge ride (Sommerrodelbahn) by Hallein, Austria. www.duerrnberg.at
Eagle's Nest
Hohenwerfen - www.salzburg-burgen.at/en/werfen/index.htm
Salkammergut area (St. Gilgen, Hallstatt, etc.)


Drive to the Innsbruck (actually we prefer Hall in Tirol) or Mittenwald for 3 nights.
Plenty to see and do based from either with 2 full days.
If based in Innsbruck/Hall in Tirol:
Val Gardena (Dolomites) Take a cable car trip here, there are many to choose from.
Nordkettenbahn (Innsbruck)
Schloss Ambras (Innsbruck)
Innsbruck's old town
Hall in Tirol's old town

If based in Mittenwald:
Mittenwald
Karwendelbahn cable car
Sommerrodelbahn/luge ride (Garmisch)
Zugsptize (Garmisch)
Ettal Monastary
Oberammergau
"Mad" King Ludwig's Linderhof Palace


Fuessen for 2 nights.
Fuessen itself
Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau castle's
Tegelberg cable car
Tegelberg luge ride
Wieskirche
Zugspitze (from nearby Ehrwald, Austria)
"Mad" King Ludwig's Linderhof palace

Drive back to Munich for your last 2 nights.

From Fuessen to Munich we like stopping at Andech's Monastary on the way. Nice outdoor beer gardens, a gorgeous church and nice country setting. "Mad" King Ludwig's Herrenchiemsee palace is another worthwhile place to visit. It's right between Munich and the Salzburg/Berchtesgaden area.

If interested, here's where (and when) we've stayed in these places:

www.mayringerlehen.de ('06, '07, '09)
www.friedwiese.de ('10)
www.badl.at ('01, '03, '05, '10)
www.schwalbennestl.de ('05, '06)
www.hotel-hechten.com ('01, '03)

Hope this helps a bit.

Paul

MikeMeredith

Paul, wow...this is much more help than I expected. It is also exactly what I needed. Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts with me. I will spend some time reviewing your suggested itinerary and let you know what we end up doing. Thank you!

Mike

pja1

You're welcome. I suggested the most time for Salzburg/Berchtesgaden, as there are so many places of interest between Berchtesgaden (and the general area), Salzburg and the Salzkammergut.

MikeMeredith

Paul, we are firming up our itinerary. We will be staying in Salzburg for two nights and then Ramsau for two nights. We will drive from Munich to Salzburg, but we will won't pass Herrenchiemsee until late in the day, around 5:00, so i dont think we will have enough time to visit itnon that day. When we leave Salzburg, we are considering either going south to the Hallein luge ride and Hohenwerfen castle or north back to Herrenchiemsee palace. In either case, we would then drive to Ramsau and enjoy the town. The next day we are looking at konigsee, the Jennerbahn cable car and then Berchtesgaden before spending a second night at Ramsau.

If you were us, when we leave Salzburg, would you go south to The luge ride and Hohenwerfen, or backtrack to Herrenchiemsee?

Mike

pja1

Hi Mike,

Question... after your second night in Ramsau, where are you heading? If you're going back to Munich, or somewhere else west of Ramsau/Berchtesgaden, you could be going right by Herrenchiemsee once again. You may be able to include it on that travel day.

One other thing... Ramsau (Ramsau bei Berchtesgaden) is not a town, but a small village, plus it's only 30 or 40 minutes from Salzburg. We like walking along the stream (which runs along the main road in Ramsau) plus the church is in an extremely picturesque location. They have a few shops and B&B's, etc. For someplace more "happening", Berchtesgaden is 10 minutes away. Easy and inexpensive to park in the underground lot there. Bad Reichenhall is nice also and 20 minutes away.

If you go to Hohenwerfen and the Hallein luge, you can get to Ramsau (and Berchtesgaden) by NOT going back via Salzburg, but by going via Oberau, Unterau and on to Berchtesgaden. It's well sign posted. It should only take about 20 minutes or so. It's a very scenic little drive by the way. There's another luge ride around here as well:

www.hochlenzer.de/anfahrt.html

I never rode this one, as it was closed both times we were there, but it's just down the road from the Obersalzburg/Eagles Nest/Kehlstein parking lot. It's looked great, as it's situated on quite a steep slope with outstanding views of berchtesgaden way below. On a snowy day in late Nov., I didn't even want to venture into the parking lot, as I remebered it was pretty steep, and in snow, not for me!

I really can't say what your family would enjoy more... Herrenchiemsee or Hohenwerfen and the luge ride. If I HAD to choose one or the other, I'd lean towards Hohenwerfen and the luge. Plus it makes more sense logistically.

One more thing (sorry to be long winded), our favorite place for dinner by Ramsau and Berchtesgaden is:

www.gebirgshaeusl.de/restaurant.html

This is located right on the main road (B305) between Ramsau and Berchtesgaden. If it's a nice evening, sit outside on the deck. Food is reasonably priced and fantastic.


Hope this helped.

Paul

MikeMeredith

Paul, yes, this is very helpful. Our entire itinerary is comprised of 2 nights in Salzburg (arriving about 5:00 pm), 2 in Ramsau, 2 in Hall in Tirol, 2 in Fussen, and then 2 in Munich.

We want to balance our trip with castle tours,, lake excursions, scenic mountain pass drives, fun luge rides, local restaurants, and quaint village visits. If this was your trip, what would you do? If this is too big of a request, I understand.

Mike

pja1

Not too big a question. I'll get back to you a little later. Just out of curiosity, do you have reservations in these locations? I don't want to get to "personal", but are two the Pension Mayringerlehen and the Gasthof Badl??