Our family is contemplating a trip to Bavaria this summer(August), with continuing travel into Italy.

Ideally, we'd fly into Munich, spend 1 night, then head down into the heart of Bavaria for 5 nights. During that time, we'd like to tour around various villages, see castles and visit Salzburg. We plan to rent a car, either in Munich, or in our Bavarian "base".

Can anyone recommend a great central location to use as a base for touring Bavaria. I was looking at Fussen, or possible Reutte in Austria. Looking for a location which has a lot of charm and has great access to many highlights with minimal backtracking.

Thanks, everyone, for your feedback.

I see Salzburg and the Bavarian castle country as 2 destinations with both being worth your time.
I would land in Munich and drive straght to the Salzburg area---about a 2 hour drive. I would give both at least 2 nites each. I like Oberammergau as a good central location for the castles and the Weiskirche.

http://wikitravel.org/en/Garmisch-Partenkirchen

Munich is the heart of Bavaria - I presume you mean the Alps.

The best answer to this depends on whether your are driving or taking the train. The rail lines generally "spoke" in and out of the Alpine towns, so Munich probably makes the best base on a pure efficiency basis - depending on which towns you want to visit, of course. That doesn't seem to be the Alpine experience you are seeking, though. If you will be driving, then Garmisch - Partenkirchen is probably the best choice for 5 days. It has the size to keep you and your gang interested, and it is central to Mittenwald, Oberammergau, and Fussen (to a slightly lesser degree). It probably has the best rail connections, too, because of it's size. If you stay in Fussen or Reutte, you will probably find yourself traveling east several times to see the other places mentioned..

I'm sure you hav e looked at the map but the area you are talking about is not all that big. If you think of it as roughly West to East it is probably not a lot more than 100 miles from Fussen to Salzburg.

The highlights are Neuschwanstein, Hohenschwangau then east of there a few miles the Wiesekirche, then Oberammergau, Schlos Linderhof, Ettal Monastery, Garmish and Mittenwald. It is a little longer drive from there to Bertschesgaden and Salzburg. About half way between Munich and Salzburg is Ludwig's Versailles, Herren Chiemsee. Since it is a linear progression we stay a night or two in village along the way.

Stay a night in Fussen or Schwangau so you can get your tickets and times to tour the castles. Then tour your way to Mittenwald for a night. The next stop would be Salzburg. From there you ca do Hallstatt, Bertschesgaden and Chiemsee.

Hi,

If I was deciding between Fuessen and Reutte, it would be Fuessen, no question. We visited Reutte twice, we don't get it. It's ok, but a rather non descript village. We went twice, only because we were in the area on 2 seperate trips and were wondering if we had missed something. We didn't.

With 5 nights, I'd head straight to Salzburg area. We like staying near Berchtesgaden in the village of Ramsau bei Berchtesgaden for our visits to Salzburg and the general area. It's less than 30 minutes from Salzburg. I'd allow 3 nights of your 5 for this area. It's about a 2 hour drive from Munich. Way more than enough to see and do with the time you have.
Berchtesgaden
Konigsee
Salzburg
Eagle's Nest
Salt Mine tours
Jennerbahn cable car trip
just to name a few.

I'd then head to Fuessen (or Garmisch/Mittenwald/Oberammergau area) for 2 nights. Again, you wouldn't come close to running out of things to see and do around here.
Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau castle's
Tegelberg cable car and luge ride (about a mile or so from Neuschwanstein)
Weiskirche
Fuessen
Linderhof palace
Zugspitze trip (from Garmisch or Ehrwald, Austria)
Mittenwald
Oberammergau

If heading to Italy by train afterwards, you could drop the car in Garmisch and head to Italy from here.

For car rentals, we've used www.gemut.com for our last 3 trips. Highly recommend them.

For places to stay, we love the Pension Mayringerlehen in Ramsau bei Berchtesgaden. We stayed here in '06, '07 and '09.
www.mayringerlehen.de

In Fuessen, we liked our 2 stays ('01, '03)at the Hotel zum Hechten.
www.hotel-hechten.com

In Mittenwald we stayed twice ('05, '06) at the Pension Schwalbennestl. Not a fancy place, but nice enough and the views are terrific.
www.schwalbennestl.de

If interested, we have photo's at:
www.worldisround.com/home/pja1/index.html

Paul

I agree with Paul--he knows that area

Paul

Thanks so much for your detailed input. Right now, we plan to fly into Frankfurt, then drive directly to Rothenburg for an overnight. Next day we plan to drive to Fussen and base there for 3 nights. Finally, we hope to head to Salzburg for 2-3 nights.

We will have the car for the duration of our travels and will be dropping it off in Florence.

This itinerary is definitely subject to change, but thought it looked OK. From Salzberg, we will drive to Venice for 2 nights before continuing on to Tuscany.

What do you think?

Thanks,
Lori

What sort of drop-off fee are you incurring for the drop in Florence?

It occurs to me that you might save some money by taking the train to Venice. Direct trains from Munich (or connecting trains from Freilassing near Salzburg, where you could drop the car in Germany for no extra charge) to Venice are possible for 49€ each with adv. sale tickets. The gas alone will cost close to 80€; you aren't using a car in Venice anyway and could save 3 days of rental than pick up another when you're ready to drive across Italy. And the drop-off fees - I've seen a few around $400. Perhaps you've already concerned yourself with this issue, or perhaps not.

Hi Russ!

I've been doing comparison shopping and the car rental for 14 days ,inclusive of the dropoff fee in Florence, totals about $1,400 . Thought having the car for the whole time would give us more flexibility...but you do have some really good points.

I'll take a look at the cost of dropping the car in Freilassing or Munich, taking the train to Venice, then picking up a car when we're ready to head to Tuscany.

Planning this trip is making my head spin...but in a good way!