My husband and I are planning a trip to Bavaria, Salzberg and Venice with our two teenage boys the first two weeks in August. My planned itinerary is below. I would appreciate comments and have some specific questions.

Day 1-overnight flight from U.S. to Munich
Days 2,3,4-tour Munich
Days 5,6-Garmish area
Days 7,8-Salzberg
Days 9,10,11-Venice
Day 12 -fly back to U.S.
We plan to rent a car when we leave Munich. We'll turn the car in when we arrive in Venice.
Questions:
I want to book a tour for Neuschwanstein in the afternoon of the day that we drive from Munich. How long will the drive from Munich to Neuschwanstein take us?

How long is the drive from Garmisch to Salzberg?

What are the things that we don't want to miss in the Salzberg area?

Would it be worthwhile for us to take a tour with a guide in Venice?

Are there some good restaurant recommendations for the areas that we'll be visiting?

Thanks!

You can get driving distances at www.viamichelin.com and www.mappy.com. Caution...use as a guide only as some roads can take longer. Some here will recommend forgetting Venice on this trip since it's out of the way...about 240 miles. We just did Bavaria, Salzburg & Vienna etc. and are visiting Venice on our next trip. You would have plenty to see in Germany & Austria. How about charming Rothenburg (must stay overnight and take the Night Watchmans Tour) or Berchtesgaden, Germany ( Berchtesgaden is on the way to Salzburg & you can tour a salt mine or see Hitler's Eagles Nest http://www.kehlsteinhaus.de/seite/haus_e.htm) or Hallstatt, Austria or if you want a larger city, Vienna?

Visit the fortress in Salzburg and wonder the narrow pedestrian only streets. You won't need a car in Salzburg or Venice. We picked up our rental in Dachau (outside Munich) and dropped it off in Berchtesgaden and took the 45 min. bus to Salzburg.

You can do a search on this forum for restaurants in each city.

Can't help with Venice until next summer!! Have fun planning.

I'd take a day from Garmisch, Salzburg (or both) & add it to the Venice portion. There is no need for a guide in Venice. Wandering around (semi-lost)may well be one of the highlights of your trip.

Just be aware that you will likely incur a very expensive drop-off charge b/c you plan to pick up your car in Germany and drop it off in Italy. I've never yet found an agency that doesn't charge a fortune for drop-off in another country

Keep in mind that when you rent a car in one country (Germany) and drop off in another (Italy) the added drop-off costs are significant, using adding hundreds of dollars to the cost of the rental.

It takes roughly two hours to get from Garmisch to Salzburg. However, you will see some amazing scenery as you drive between the two, so build in extra time for stopping and checking out the scenery along the way.

It takes about two hours to get from Munich to Fussen, near the castles. You should have time to see both castles that afternoon, but keep in mind that when you buy a ticket for both castles they build in extra time between each tour so the entire tour takes several hours.

We just wonder around and find decent restaurants, and I'm not good at writing them down, so the only one I can really recommend is Stiftskeller St. Peter in Salzburg. Its a wonderful restaurant in a wonderful setting. The restaurant is extremely old (Charlemagne supposedly ate here!) and the food was really good. I highly recommend it.

Good luck!
Tracy

If you can, see the "Ludwig II" musical in Fussen. I believe they do it almost every night during the tourist season and sometimes twice.

You do not have to understand German to get the gist of it, but read up about Mad King Ludwig in advance; he was a bit of a strange bird. Look very carefully at the program. Some of the stars are from this side of the Atlantic.

And, don't forget to get the English language plot summary from the gift shop.

It is a really terrific show.

Drop off fees can vary greatly from company to company. Try checking on autoeurope.com and see what comes up. The charge for us to pick up in the Netherlands and drop off in Germany was less than $200 US.

taggie has a good point, but I think that the low drop off fee of $200 may be because Germany and Netherlands border, as I heard that sometimes that can make a difference. I always use Auto Europe, and last time I checked on a pick-up in Germany and drop-off in Italy the drop off charges added an additional $600 to the price of the rental. Needless to say we scraped our plan.

Tracy

Thank you so much for your comments about the potentially high drop off cost of picking up the car in Germany and dropping it off in Italy. I think I'll look into the cost of taking the train from Salzberg to Venice.

I'd suggest dropping the car in Freilassing or Berchtesgaden in Germany during your SalzbUrg stay and training to Venice.These two places are within minutes of SalzbUrg and, in the case of Berchtesgaden, worth a day trip visit.

Train from Salzburg to Venice:
Austrian Rail offers a special for seats on the night train leaving Salzburg at 1:38 and arriving in Venice at 8:45 for €29 per person. You may also be able to get bunks in a 4 person couchette for €59 per person on that train. You have to call Austrian Rail at (011) 49 5 1717 for tickets. I could not find a low fare for the day trains.

Train from Munich to Venice:
German Rail has a discount fare called Europa-Spezial, €29 per seat on the EuroCity train that leaves Munich at 11:30 and gets into Venice at 6:31 PM. However, the fare is only available from Munich, so you would have to go back. You order those tickets online. They can be printed at home.

I checked a little while age with the German night train service, Nachtzugreise (http://buchung.nachtzugreise.de). For the night train from Munich to Venice there were only a few discount fare accommodations still available, mostly midweek. For a four person couchette, you could pay as low as €49 per person. You could book those tickets from either Munich or Innsbruck. If you did Salzburg first, then Garmisch, the fare from Garmisch to Innsbruck is €12,20 per person.

You should also know that you can do any of those legs (Munich-Fuessen, Fuessen-Garmisch, Garmisch-Salzburg, or Salzburg-Munich) with a Bavarian Ticket for €25 for the entire family. The Bavarian Ticket is only for regional trains, but most trains on those routes are regional, so you don't lose any time.

I suggest you get firm quotes for car rental, Munich to Venice, then compare to rail fares. Remember you need to rent a car big enough for all four of you plus your luggage. Often small European cars have small trunks.

We just returned from our trip to Germany where we also made the drive from Munich to Neuschwanstein. The best thing we did was make our castle tour reservations for the next morning. We had one tour at 9 AM and the second at 11 AM. That allowed us to spend extra time on our drive to Munich visiting Linderhof, Tegelberg and Wieskirche without worrying about getting to the Castles at a certain time.

A second recommendation for Stiftskeller in Salzburg. The food was fabulous. We only took one day to visit Salzburg and wished we had planned two. Enjoy!

topping for my own planning references

Take the train to Venice via the Brenner Pass. The scenery is spectacular!

The reason that I'm thinking about seeing the castles on our way from Munich is because I'd like to go up to the top of the Zugspitz the following morning. I agree, though, it does feel a little rushed and I'm wondering about the crowds even though I would get reservations. I don't know if the views from the Zugspitz are as good later in the day. Does anyone know?

You are all so helpful. Thanks very much. What would you all do if you had one and a half days to spend in Salzburg--with teen age boys? They don't like shopping! I was thinking about the first day exploring the aldstadt and going to the fortress. I'm not sure about the next day.

Be sure to include Berchtesgaden (Eagle's nest, Dokumentation Center, salt mines, Königssee). You don't even need a car to do it. A day pass (Tageskarte) on the Watzmann express bus cost €8 per person and covers travel from the Salzburg Hbf to Berchtesgaden and back and all your bus travel (except Hintereck to Kehlsteinhaus) in Berchtesgaden.

I've been to both places, and I would spend a day in Berchtesgaden and half a day in Salzburg. The most impressive thing for me in Salzburg was the Hohensalzburg fortress.

I totally agree with Larry. We spend a week in an apartment near Berchtesgaden last year and loved every minute of it. Salzburg is lovely but quite small. We saw just about everything we wanted to see in about half a day. Berchtesgaden and the surrounding area is just gorgeous and quite worthy of at least a day.

Tracy