radiofanatic

DH and I are planning to fly into munich and tour the area - we don't want to rent a car. Can anyone recommend either some good bus tours that operate in December to take us to some castles or recommend some towns we should stay in that are on the rail line and then can be easy access to some castles? Thanks!

radiofanatic

ttt

J_Correa

I don't know about bus tours, but it is really easy to take the train from Munich to Fussen or Garmish. I think Mittenwald is really easy to reach too.

Fussen is very close to Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau castles. Garmish is more of a ski and winter sport area - I think there is bus service over to the Fussen area.

Others will probably have some advice on on getting to other castles in the area.

Bird

There are several bus tours to choose from. One of them is The Royal Castles of Neuschwanstein and Linderhof. It runs Tues - Sun in December with a stop in Oberammergau. (I'm not sure if admission to the castles is included in the price.) Let your hotel know the day before and they can usually arrange a pick-up.

My wife likes the guided tours more than I do. Tours are nice for the convenience as well as meeting other people. I prefer to learn about places on my own without being funneled into touristy shops.

An easy place to visit by train from Munich would be Bad Tolz. Nice town with good baths.

A couple of days in Salzburg would be another good possibility.

ira

Hi R,

Ditto Salzburg

Dukey

Fast train Munich-Salzburg takes 1.5 hours or so.

You can see castles on your own from both Fuessen and Oberammergau by taking local transportation.

Marsh

My husband & I bought the 14 days pass good for many sights in Bavaria. It was a good value. I had to ask for it as there was no info promoting it at the various places we visited. I got the info on a web site about the area.

radiofanatic

thanks Marsh - can you give me the website address? thanks!

Dutch

You could look at spending a night or two in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. There is bus service to Linderhof, as well as the two castles near Fussen. G-P would be a nice change of pace from the hustle and bustle of Munich in December.

radiofanatic

thanks! any recommendations for a place to stay there?

cruzan19

Will be in munich for 5 full days. We were going to rent a car one day and check out villages, but now youve intrigued me to salzberg another day.

Leburta

I was just in Munich this past December for the Christmas markets. Besides the ones in Munich, it would be nice if you can get to others outside the city as well (we love Nuremburg). Got a rental car only for the part of the trip outside of Munich. It had a talking GPS system, which was just a kick. Getting anywhere, once we knew where were starting and where were were going was so easy. If we took a wrong turn, the system re-routed us!

We took at private tour to Neuschwantstein and Lindhof with John Whetstone, an American artist who has been in Germany for many years. You can visit his website at http://www.johns-bavarian-tours.com.

Other websites that may interest you:

www.neuschwanstein.de/english/index.htm
http://tinyurl.com/2tehfr
http://tinyurl.com/2jbnkt

cruzan19

Thats great! We are leaning towards renting a car for a day/night/day...thinking of going to neuschwanstein and then up romantic road to see some small towns. Glad to hear driving was a fun experience.

rhapsody

Salzburg.

geeper

bkm

cruzan19

We ended up skipping the castle and taking a train to Mittenwald, a tiny town in the Alps. It was a lovely town and I highly reccomend visiting!

Castleblanca

Right between Munich and Salzburg, on the train line, lies the small resort town of Prien am Chiemsee. And on an island in the middle of Chiemsee is Ludwig the Second's other beautiful castle, Herrenchiemsee. This was Ludgwig's royal castle, so you just know it is fabulous. And the setting on an island is unique.

http://www.herrenchiemsee.de/englisc...lace/index.htm