Hello! I am starting to plan a trip and we're thinking of flying into one and leaving from another. We will be going for 8 days the last week of September. I do plan to ask several more questions when I have a more exact idea of our plan. We would like to see Rothemburg, the Rhine Valley(cruise?), Bavaria, Tirol, Salzburg and of course Munich! We do plan to rent a car. I think I'd rather fly into Frankfurt and out of Munich but would like to know if there is any reason not to do it this way. Arrving on a Sat morning and leaving Sun morning the following weekend.

Sorry, one more preliminary question. Would you say to definitely fly Lufthansa? Or would it be same service from United? I don’t have any really favorite airlines. (The only one I feel strongly about is my hatred of Alitalia. )

We did just that two weeks ago. It fit our schedule well and we had no problems and glad we did it that way. We flew into Frankfurt, went to, among other places, Leipzig, Dresden, Ceske Krumlov, Prague, Linz, Salzburg and left from Munich. Both flights across the pond were on LH.

However, we did not have a car so I presume you're going to or have already checked to see if there are any problems/issues on picking up in Frankfurt and leaving it in Munich. IMO, Munich is a much better airport than Frankfurt in a lot of ways - but that certainly is no reason not to do what you're considering (and it obviously didn't stop us).

Thanks! Oddly it doesn’t seem more expensive in terms of cars or flights to start and finish in different places. How did you find it traveling without the car? I’m hoping we can drop it off early and save some money and hassle. Maybe get rid of it for the Munich and Salzburg part. I’m going to check out the places you visited and see if we should add or change some things. What did you do in Salzburg if you don’t mind me asking? I’m not sure if we should try to do 2 nights or just 1.

dohlice - sorry, but I posted my comment before I saw your second question. Haven't flown UA on those routes so I can't make a comparison. Might suggest you go to the "Airline" board and you'll find lots of comments that should help you decide. We've had good experiences with LH. I posted a response on our latest trip under the thread "Comfort/Service Coach on Lufthansa". Hope it helps - if you're flying steerage.

I highly recommend flying with Lufthansa. We flew with them in 2002 to Paris via Frankfurt and Munich (returning home). From what I hear about UAL nowadays it doesn't seem as good as Lufthansa's service.

Our trip was unusual - at least for us. Our daughter's high school band/orchestra did a concert tour in which they played in different venues along the "Mozart Trail" for his 250th birth celebration (places associated with Bach ended up getting thrown in for good measure). Parents got a separate bus and hotel accommodations [both the kids and the parents celebrated that arrangement!] So we didn't have a car, but would have probably have had one had we been on our own. All of our previous trips to Europe have been indepedent. Having said that, it was apparent to us that getting to the various places we went would have been easy using trains, etc and there is something to be said for not having to deal with traffic (and parking, directions, etc) in the cities.

Without boring you with details (although I am trying to compile a trip report for this board), we spent a full day and 1 night in Salzburg - not enough. We had been there before, but years ago. Had an excellent guide for a walking city tour which thoroughly covered city center and lasted about 3 hours. Very easy to do and well worth while. The rest of the day we explored on our own and listened to lots of impromptu groups giving concerts in the various city platzs. One evening, attended concert of the Salzburg Chamber Quartet at the Salzburg Fortress honoring Mozart - the view was equal to the music. [One can not avoid Mozart in Salzburg this summer. Elvis couldn't generate all the PR that Wolfgang has mustered.] We didn't have time this trip to do some excusions outside the city proper which we wish we had.

Would be glad to furnish additional info if you like. Might add that Dresden and Prague are "must sees" in our opinion. Should be great trip.