6 days in Bavaria
 

I was needing some advice on my 6 day vacation to munich/lucerne. We would be going at the end of July and were thinking that we would like to travel to see some castles/old cities/and very scenic places. Where would be a good place to base ourselves. We are looking for a place that in a good location for rail (or car if need be). We wouldnt mind seeing austria or parts of Switzerland. Please advise things to do and see in 6 days

Hello!

I lived in Germany for 11 years and now I am back in the United States. I have very thorough knowledge of Germany as I went to college, worked in Germany and was a was a volunteer tour guide for the USO. I am looking for people who are interested in traveling throughout Germany for a fun,cultural, sightseeing experience, not a night time bar hopping experience.
People who are interested, please can contact me and we can discuss a plan on when to go to and what to see and do in Germany.

Thank You

I assume you will fly into and out of Munich. If not, let me know.

Once you leave Munich, you can leave generally in two directions: Southwest and southeast.

For southwest ,by train, leave early in the day and head to Buchloe, change trains there and go to Fuessen to see the King Ludwig II castle Neuschwanstein . As castles go, that one is "new" (late-19th century) and really never served as a castle as such. But it has a very scenic location and many people think the interior is worth the the wait and hike up to get inside. I am not one of them. But N. is on the American tourist route.

Late in the afternoon of that day, you could return to Buchloe and take a (coninuing) train to Lindau and stay there overnight twice. While there, see that nice old island city and take a boat across Lake Constance (Bodensee) to Bregenz and the cable car up to the top of the Pfaender mountain for a great view of some of the Swiss, Austrian and Bavarian alps. You could then return to Lindau for the second night and then (back tracking through Bregenz)take a train to Luzern. Stay there and tour the countryside and mountains and Lake.

You would return by train to Munich.

For train schedules, see www.bahn.de

If you have a car, you could drive from Munich to Fuessen and on to Lindau (I can give you a nice routing). Stay there overnight, and continue then along the Bodensee to the old town of Meersburg, with its nice OLD castle. Cross from there on a car ferry to the Konstanz side, visit the garden island of Mainau and continue to Luzern or one of the small towns along Lake Luzern, visit the area and some of the mountains and then return from the eastern end of the lake to the Autobahn N-3 either the direct way (via Schwyz) or across the Klausenpass, via Altdorf. You eventually will merge with the N-13 north. You can go to Bregenz, Lindau and the autobahn to Munich, or head noirth on the N-13 to Buchs, Lichtenstein, and east on the Austrian autobahn to Bludenz, Arlberg, Landeck, on a good non-autobahn highway to Garmisch and back to Munich. For that trip, you probaby would be wise to split it into two sections with an overnight.

If you want more info. let me know. There are several interesting variations from that rough outline.

Muncih south east: By train to a town like Prien/Chiemsee (Lake) and make that your base for a few days/. from there you can visit by boat King Ludwig's palace on the Herren island. You can take the train to Salzburg (about 1 hour) and also on another day to Berchtesgaden. Busses and rail buse can take you on day trips to Reit im Winkel (a picture postcard village about 1 hour from Prien, and Aschau, where you can take a gondola lift to the topo of the Kampenwand, with great viewss of the Lake and Bavarian and Austrian alps.

By car you can visit all these places as well, except you can get there on more scenic ways. You may also move on to Salzburg, and take some day tours from there (Hallstatt, Berchtesgaden, Zell am See, Salzkammergut).

Hello! Thank you so much for all the great info!!!

I am planning to do one of the following...
Fly in and out of munich
OR
In to munich and out of zurich

any other ideas would be great! I really like the driving idea so that we can go at our own pace.

If you Fly into Munich and out of Zuerich, you have a problem with a rental car: In Europe, if you pick up a car you can drop it off in any city of the SAME country without a drop-off charge. However, dropping it off in another country incurs a stiff drop-off charge, in the neighborhood of $US 300. Thus, if you want to drive you may be better off either flying in and out off Munich or in and out of Zuerich. It then becomes a matter where you get the better flights. In the past, sometimes I got better rates on NWA/KLM into Munich, at other times into Zuerich. In both instances via Amsterdam, which didn't bother me because I like Amsterdam Schipholm as airports go.

Next month I am renting in Munich and dropping off at Zurich. The drop-off charge is $82.00 thru Autoeurope. ((b))

Correction, that was $84. Total cost picking up at a downtown location in Munich (p/u at the airport costs much more), drive for 10 days, and drop off at Zurich airport is $457.00 which includes the drop-off charge.

I also like the convenience of having a rental car so I can come/go at will. ((b))

So would it be best If I base myself in one area and make many day trips? Such as Fussen or somewhere down that way. Or would it be better to constantly go from place to place?

Thanks for all the great posts!!!

If you take the southwestern itinerary I mentioned, I would base myself in Prien, or more precisely Prien/Stock, which is on the lake and has several good hotels in different price categories. I'd stay there if I use trains or car.

For the southwestern itinerary, I would not base myself in Fuessen, especially if you decide on going by train. It is a bit out of the way. I either would stay in Garmisch-Partenkirchen or Mittenwald, which is smaller, less expensive or in Lindau. For travel with car, Reutte is less expensive and crowded than nearby Fuessen, or Mittenwald would be OK.

If I had to choose between the two basic itineraries, I would pick the southeasst (Prien). It offers you more variety and if you hit a day with so-so weather you are just a short (Bayernkarte) train ride of less than an hour from Munich or Salzburg. I wouldn't take a car to either city. Parking!

If you want to work your way from Munich to Lucern then Zurich you will have to keep moving pretty fast to do it all in 6 days, especially if you want to spend a day or two in Munich.

If it was me, I think I would skip Switzerland this trip because of time contraints and do Munich, the Bavarian Alps as little one nighters and maybe an overnight in Salzburg then home out of Munich.

In the Bavarian Alps the sights include Fussen (Neuschwanstein), Wieskirche, Oberammergau, Linderhof, Ettal Monastary, Garmish (zugspitze) Mittenwald (the violin maker's village), Bertschesgaden, Herren Chiemsee (yet another Ludwig castle, this on copying Versaille) and then Salzburg.

Probably the best way to explore this 100 mile stretch of mountains and villages is by car. If you do it by train you may find yourself back-tracking to Munich a lot in between places.