Hi - My husband & I lived in Germany (Schweinfurt) 1974-1977 and our daughter was born in Wurzburg. I've always wanted to show her where she was born & my favorite places in Germany. And finally, we're going to do it this September!! Our plan is to rent a car and we have 10 nights. I'd like your advice about our tentative itinerary. Here's a rough outline:
Arrive Frankfurt - train to Wurzburg. Pick up car. 2 nights Wurzburg. (This will give us time to recover from jetlag, & go to Schweinfurt.
Drive to to Rothenburg - quick look around - then drive on to Heidelberg. 1 night there.
Drive to Munich via Dachau. 2 nights in Munich
Drive to Berchestegaden. 2 nights in Berchestegaden with probable day trip to Salzberg.
Drive to Garmisch. One night in Garmisch (see Herrenchiemsee.)
Drive to Fussen. One night in Fussen (see Neuschwanstein.)
Drive to Zurich. one night in Zurich. Flight home.
Planning trip to Germany with daughter
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Dropping a car off in another country usually means stiff cross-border drop-off fees. Why go to Zurich if you can get a return flight from Munich or Frankfurt?
Sheesh - i forgot about the peanlty for dropping off in a different country! My daughter just wanted to see Zurich, and it's too late to change awards tickets. I wonder if It would be better to drop the car off somewhere in Gemany (Fussen?) and take trains the rest of the way?
You could drop off the car in Konstanz, I think. That's the closest German town to Zürich. Direct trains to Zürich from there.
You can drop the car in Konstanz, which is in both Germany and Switzerland, and take a train from there to Zurich - either the airport if you just want to arrive late in the day and be ready for your flight, or to the city centre, with no changes required.
I would suggest you check the drop fees and not make a plan on speculation, because Zurich is a common choice for a drop location from Germany and it might be less cost to drop there than would be the three train fares.
The answer is in the full analysis of the costs and the price you put on convenience.
As for the itinerary, you might enjoy those 2 nights in Salzburg more than in Berchtesgaden. They are only 30 minutes apart. It depends on whether you like the idea of an evening strolling Salzburg or Berchtesgaden, I guess. Salzburg has much more to see than Berchtesgaden, of course.
I would have suggested a consolidation of your one night stays in GP and Fussen into a single 2 night stay in GP if it were not for the fact that you are going to continue to Zurich after Fussen. The tradeoff is one of an extra 2 hours driving if you stayed both nights in GP and did Neuschwanstein as a day trip (55 minute drive) versus packing up and moving to be those 1 hour closer to Zurich when you start your last day of driving. Your call based on convenience of an extra hotel move versus a couple extra hours of Alpine driving.
This would be too much moving around for me. If it were my trip, I'd see what cities I could eliminate. You're going to spend a great deal of your trip on the road.
Thanks Aramis & Ingo - Konstanz sounds like a good solution. I agree that it's a busy itinerary, and would have preferred fewer stops, but this is probably my only chance to show my daughter the parts of Germany that I loved best. I thought about eliminating Heidelburg, but then again, how can you not see Heidelburg? I did think about going from Frankfurt to Heidelberg to Wurzburg to Rothenburg OT to Munich instead of Frankfurt to Wurzburg to Rothenberg OT to Heidelberg to Munich. What do think?
Good idea about about staying 2 nights in Salzburg rather than Berchestegaden as there is more to see in Salzburg. The other place I'm wondering about is Garmisch. My mother & I went to a wonderful night tour of Herrenchiemsee back in the 70's with a performance of Eine Kleine Nachtmusick (Please excuse my spelling errors!) The Hall of Mirrors was lit with candles, and it was spectacular, but not entirely sure if that is still being done. And if I'm not mistaken, Oberammergau is not far from Garmisch.
Thanks, everyone.