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Family Germany, Bavaria, Austria Itinerary Assistance Please
There are so many parts of Germany I would like to travel to, but I think we have narrowed down our stays to the following. We will be flying into Frankfurt, 12 days in country and flying out of Munich. We are a family - DH, myself, two sons (ages 16 and 13 - the scholar and lunatic maximus).
Rothenburg (3 nights - including day of arrival into Frankfurt) - tour the surrounding areas Garmish (3 nights), tour the Ludwig castles and surrounding area Saltzburg (3 nights), Sound of Music tour and surrounding area Munich (3 nights) Dachau, Third Reich tour, etc As always, I am grateful for suggestions. Thanks so much! |
Ahhh, the not so rare "lunatic maximus". I have one myself.
Your itinerary is compact, well spaced (3 nights each - the Force is strong in this one), and has a lot of variety. I don't think you need any help or tweaking here except maybe to get tips on local sights. The boys, including DH probably will be underwhelmed by the SOM tour (Liesl and Maria are not included, I am sad to say). Luckily, the salt mine, Hohensalzburg Fortress, and other scholarly/lunatic sites abound. Maybe try for one of the "luge" runs near Garmisch, too. More? |
Sounds like a good plan.
You may want to think about spending your first night along the Rhine (maybe Rudesheim), the husband and sons may enjoy taking the boat along the Rhine to see the medieval castles! They're pretty cool. You can get off the boat and explore one or two before taking a train back to your original location. You could train from FRA airport to there (less than an hour ride depending on where you pick) and pick up a car in the town you choose before moving onto R ob T (about a 2 1/2 hr drive). Just a thought! 2 nights in R ob T should be enough. It's very cute but fairly small. http://www.google.com/search?q=rhine...w=1366&bih=530 |
We did a SOM bike tour with mariasbicycletours.com. We really enjoyed it, and it may be a good way to have the boys enjoy the tour.
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Strongly consider staying in apartments (fewos). More space, convenience of a kitchen, and cheaper. We stayed at two on our trip
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...stmas-2011.cfm Consider going to the ice caves in Werfen (near Salzburg) |
Hi!
First I will say that I am assuming you are driving for the first half of your trip. You obviously don't need or want a car in Munich or Salzburg but unless you have endless patience for obscure train and/or bus connections, you'll want a car to get from the FRA airport to Rothenburg to Garmisch. At least. A car would also be useful for seeing the Salzkammergut from Salzburg. Get a Vignette. You will want to return the car in Germany though. Rothenburg will make a great base for you for a couple of days - enjoy quiet crowd-free mornings in Rothenburg, then Wurzburg and Bamberg/Vierzeinheiligen for your day trips, then quiet evenings back in Rothenburg. There are plenty of nice looking hotels - I can recommend the Gerberhaus. Stayed there twice. Very happy. Very close to the parking right outside the wall. Garmisch also makes a really good base, if for no other reason than that if it's sunny when you wake up, you can head straight to the Zugspitze in no time. Don't want to miss that. I can highly recommend the Gasthof Fraundorfer's restaurant and entertainment but not the hotel itself. Salzburg - the guys will most likely enjoy the fortress but not perhaps the SOM tour. Idea - leave them to their own devices in Salzburg while you enjoy the SOM tour without worrying whether they are enjoying Doe, A Deer too. I would recommend the Goldenen Ente but I believe they have changed since I stayed there. Great location though. Munich - such a great city. Just some ideas - the Deutsches Museum is really interesting - probably Europe's best engineering museum. The Residenz itself is mostly dreary but the Schatzkammer, which is separate, is amazing. Asamkirche. While the Residenz is depressing, the Nymphenburg is not, and also has the Amalienburg and the royal coach and sleigh collection. Great trip. Have a great time! |
You have sliced it up pretty evenly but as far as what there is to see I would personally subtract s few here and there and add them on elsewhere.
Rothenburg 2 days (max) Instead of Garmish I would choose Mittenwald or Oberammergau they are still close by and you will get the charm of the villages. You can still go into Garmish for the cable car up the Zugspitze. Salzburg is good for 2 nights unless you are daytripping to Hallstatt or Bertschesgaden. Add extra time to Munich. Your kids will most likely enjoy the Deutsches Museum, Englisher Garten and the Nymphenburg Palace (don't miss the coach house full of Cinderella coaches) |
Great advice. Just a thought - I could shave off Saltzburg and add the Rhine to the beginning of the trip. Everyone is right, my 3 boys (DH included) won't want to do the SOM trip. Thoughts?
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a great itinerary IMO - and from Garmisch Innsbruck, Austria is just a short drive.
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I would not take from Salzburg to spend a night or two on the Rhine. I know it's personal, but I find the Rhine to be the most uninteresting part of Germany. 2 rail lines down either said and barges plying it all day. Not the romantic and mighty river of lore anymore. Google up some pictures of the Rhine (look at the ones that don't show Die Marksburg) and then the Salzkammergut, Salzburg, Zugsptize, and Koenigsee.
It is also heading "away" from your ultimate destination since the "best" part is NW of Frankfurt. The boys will find more things to do in the Alps than in walking the streets of a couple wine towns, and seeing some castles from a distance. Of course, you can visit some, like Marksburg. |
I probably wouldn't take a night from Salzburg. If you want 2 nights on the Rhine, then take one night from R ob T and a night from Garmisch or Munich... hard to say which as both are great areas, too!
But, from Salzburg, you can do some great day trips such as St. Wolfgang (kids would love the steam train to the top of the mountain!), St. Gilgen (they'd probably like the cable car ride there as well), Hallstatt which is gorgeous (they'd probably think the Bone Chapel is pretty cool!). You can pretty much do the SOM tour on your own. The tours don't show you much in Salzburg itself but you can go to St. Peter's Cemetery, Mirabell Gardens, Nonnberg Abbey, the theater where the Von Trapp family performed in the movie (Felsenreitschule can be toured), and the Horse Fountain on your own. Hellbrunn Palace (where the gazebo now is and the tree-lined road where the kids played in the trees) and Leopoldskron (the back of the family's home which sits on the lake, can only see it from across the lake, you cannot tour it) can be done with a one-day ticket of the public city busses. Sankt Gilgen (from where the opening scenes are filmed) and Mondsee (where the church is that Maria and the Captain were married in the movie) are really beautiful places that you can see during a day trip from Salzburg via a car rental. |
I agree Aramis, I have always found the Rhine to be way down on the "must see" list. A big brown river with railroad tracks running down both banks and a few stumps of ruined castles.
On the SOM tour. Ours stopped at a Sommerroddelbahm, luge rid on the way to Mondsee. It was great. The kids and Mom and Dad will love it. |
Hmmmmm - but aren't the castles great on the Rhine? Maybe one night would be enough? Oh gosh - so much to do and so little time. :-)
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I thought they were... you could tour a couple, maybe Markstrum and Burg Rheinfels.
You'd all probably enjoy a salt mine tour, also. |
Oops... make that Marksburg Castle.
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