Fussen-Salzburg-Hallstatt-Munich- make sense?
 

I'm down to the last details and we leave in about 2 months- omg! We'll be driving from Rothenburg and we will have five nights before we need to be in Munich to drop off our car. We want to stay somewhere in the Fussen area just 1 night to see Ludwig's castles first thing in the morning. After that, we will drive to Salzburg, stay 2 nights and do the SOM tour. I hear Hallstatt is a "Do Not Miss" so we thought we would drive there and spend an additional 2 nights. Then we'll drive back to Munich. Mappy.com shows that the drive from Hallstatt to Munich is only 2 hours and 22 minutes. So that doesn't seem too bad ;)

About our visit to Ludwig's castles, Oberammergau looks like a great little town. I'm just worried that it is too far to make an early morning arrival- any other recs?
TIA!!

If you make it a straight drive with no stops, it's only about 45 minutes from Oberammergau to Hohenschwangau. And you can reserve your tickets for the castle tours on the internet or by telephone.

The first tours of the castles start at 8:30 but it will take you at least a half hour to get to the Neuschwanstein entrance from where you park your car. Better to plan an hour.

Go to www.ticket-center-hohenschwangau.de for information and tickets. tickets come with admission times. Miss your time and you don't get in.

It probably makes sense to tour Hohenschwangau first so you will have a base of information on young Ludwig before he built Neuschwanstein.

I loved Hallstatt but there really isn't much there. I think one day/night would be more than enough unless you plan on hiking. I also try not to move around too much. From Salzburg you could easily drive to Hallstatt in about half an hour. That being said, the other lakes in the Salzkammergut, particularly the Wolfgangsee, are gorgeous and worth some time.

We stayed near Berchtesgaden, Germany, about 20 minutes from Salzburg last year and just loved it. If you have time I would highly recommend a visit to this area. Just gorgeous! From here we drove to Salzburg for a day and then to Hallstatt for a day.

Sounds like a terrific trip!

Tracy

So instead of staying 2 nights in Hallstatt, do you think it would be more worthwhile to stay 4 in the Salzburg area and just make day trips? Or possibly 2 in Oberammergau and 3 in the Salzburg area? Ahh! I am so confused.. and I know that whatever we do will just be fine...

TXgalinGA, I think its more of just a personal opinion. I don't really like packing and unpacking, checking in and out of hotels, so I usually prefer to stay put in one place if possible. Both Salzburg and Hallstatt are wonderful, but because Hallstatt is fairly close to Salzburg I personally would just pick one place to stay in and day trip to the other. You could easily do the Salzkammergut, including Hallstatt, as a daytrip from Salzburg. Another option would be to pick a place to stay between the two. Many suggest St. Gilgen, and we visited and loved the small town. It about 20 miles from Salzburg and about 25 from Hallstatt so is right about in middle. Its a lovely town right on the Wolfgangsee, a beautiful lake. From there you could take the little boat out to the town of St. Wolfgang. I don't want to confuse you any more though, so this is just a suggestion.

Honestly, you can't go wrong either way you do things. The whole region, from Fussen to Hallstatt, is just spectacular and you are going to have a wonderful time regardless of your decision on how to break it up.

Tracy

The end of your trip sounds just like the end of our trip in 2004. We stayed outside Fussen at the Schluxen Hotel. It's 10 minutes outside the city, in a meadow with cow bells, etc. The rooms are nice & clean and the restaurant serves great food. It's 10-15 minute drive to Nueschwanstein Castle; or you can even hike to it thru the woods in 45 minutes.
From there we drove to Salzburg, but again stayed outside the city in a castle. The castle was great, but for Salzburg I think you need to be as close to the historic old town as possible.
We then drove to Hallstatt and I recall it being more like 2 hrs drive rather than 45 minutes (Maybe we got lost), but the drive is lovely.
IMO, Hallstatt is jaw-droppingly beautiful and deserves a night's stay.
Stay at the highly recommended Pension Hallberg and stay in room #5 if available- the views are awesome!
Then, take the funicular up the mountain to the salt mines and take the tour- it's highly enjoyable. Before heading back down, stop at the restaurant and have a drink overlooking the lake- you won't want to leave!
Lastly, rather than make the 3 hr drive to Munich airport, we choose to spend our last night in Munich to be closer to the airport. We stayed at the affordable and recommended Hotel Uhland and spent the evening having fun around the Marienplatz before leaving the next day.
Hope this helps. Have a great trip.

The drive from Salzburg to Hallstatt should definitely not take two hours. I may have been wrong in my above post, as its been a year since we've been and my earlier thoughts of it taking half an hour are probably off, but I don't think it took more than an hour or hour and a half and that was with us stopping to take pictures along the way. Its 49 miles between the two and part of it is done on a fast-moving autostrada. Regardless, its a fairly easy drive and definitely an easy daytrip from Salzburg.

Tracy