am i planning too much?????
 

three of my friends and i are going to germany and lucerne, switzerland in sept/oct. we plan to fly into munich and stay (octoberfest) from 9/26 to 9/29. then we are going by rail to salzburg. we want to see hitler's nest and anything mozart. we'll stay the night in salzburg and then catch an early train to fussen. we want to catch both castles and experience some of fussen as well. then on 10/1 we're taking a late morning train to lucerne. we plan on researching the area (beautiful pictures so far) and seeing as much as poss. there. then on the 3rd we're flying out of zurich. my main concern is that i was left in charge of planning this and i want to take in as much as possible but still have a relaxing time. is this schedual suitable for my goal. plus anyone that can give any advice of what to or not to see in munich, salzburg, fussen and lucerne would be greatly appreciated. thanks

Please be aware that there is no direct rail service from Salzburg to Fuessen; you'll have to go pretty much all the way back to Munich and change trains there.

I think you need to do a lot more reseach on the travel details here. You don;t seem to have taken into account train schedules or routes etc. Plus, this trip is packed to the brim with activities in very limited time.

You may want to look into car rental - which might be more efficient for the type of cross-country traveling you're doing. (Trains are great between major cities - but the smaller the towns - esp in different countries - the fewer/ slower/more roundabout options you have.)

Rather than packing up everything I would just do Salzburg as a daytrip, then on to Fussen the following day. I would also skip Lucerne & head on to Zurich. Or skip Fussen & then to Lucerne (it should be easy from Munich but may not be easy from other places). You could just stay in Munich & leave out the Switzerland portion altogether, which would make more sense too me. I'm thinking you'll need some recovery time after Oktoberfest. It is easy to get to a lot of places from Munich.

I agee with the others. The places you mention are not next door to one another, and I don't think you have estimated carefully travel times and train connections.

The car might solve some of the problems because you could go more directly to your destinations, assuming you don't take a wrong turn somewhere.

Yes Berchtesgaden is close geographically to Salzburg, but it is 50 minutes away by train. In fact, bus is the best connection.

From Fußen to Luzern is no short trip by train. It takes 7 hours at best, if you leave at 7:00. Otherwise you are looking at more than 7 hours with frequent changes.

There is one way you can get there with a later start in 7 hours, 9 minutes, if you don't mind 6 changes of trains.

Good luck with your planning.

Hi Z,

I also suggest staying in Munich.

If you check train schedules at www.bahn.de you will see that you can be in Salzburg in 1:30 hr, Berchtesgaden in 2:30hr, Fussen in 2 hr, Kitzbuhel in 2:15 hr, Garmisch in 1:30 hr, Prien a Chiemsee in an hour, etc, etc, etc.

((I))