<BR>I've never seen the alps and a friend mentioned Garmisch. I like to hike and also wanted to see a small alpine village and lake. We will arrive by train and are not planning on renting a car. Right now we've set aside 3 full days to do the following:<BR><BR>- visit Mittenwald (is there a better alternative?)<BR><BR>- take a cable car ride to the zugspitze ( Is this the best ride?) <BR><BR>- go mountain biking<BR><BR>- hike through an alpine meadow<BR><BR>- see either the Partnach Gorge or Hollental Gorge or both<BR><BR>Is this enough time to do all the above?<BR><BR>Is oberammergau worth a visit or is it a tourist trap?<BR><BR>Is public transportation easy to use?<BR><BR>Should we stay an extra day and see Neuschwanstein from Garmisch or do it in Munich which is our next stop?<BR><BR>Thanks<BR><BR>Lisa<BR>

You will love it down there, it's beautiful. I wasn't impressed with Garmish as a town but it's a good base for travel. Chimesee (sp?) is beautiful and great for watersports. The Zugspitze is grand, well worth it in my opinion. Mittenwald wasn't that impressive to me either, but we were rushing through to get to Fuessen. I would do Neuschwanstein with Garmish as it is much closer than while in Munich and plus Munich has much more to offer than Garmish. I think Oberammergau is worth the visit, the frescos are lovely. The wood carving shops are expensive but the work they do is amazing. Your plan sounds like a great time! There's also a luge by the Olympic stadium. Have fun.

To answer some of your questions, in no particular order, visit Neuschwanstein from Garmisch - doesn't make sense to backtrack to Munich. When I was there I had a car and visited Mittenwald and Oberammergau. Without a car, I'm not sure how easy it would be to do it. I don't recall seeing lots of public buses.

I live in Munich and have been to Garmisch and Mittenwald many times, and done many hikes in the area. I love Mittenwald! It's smaller than Garmisch and a really nice little quaint town. Garmisch and Mittenwald are both in valleys between mountains, not actually hanging off the side of one. Going up the Zugspitze is cool. Just make sure it's a clear day or you won't be able to see anything. There are other mountains you can go up as well. Both gorges you mentioned are really really nice. Partnachklamm is easier to get to. Hoellentalklamm requires a bit of an uphill walk to get to the start of it after taking the Zugspitzebahn a few stops. There's also a gorge in Mittenwald, the Leutaschklamm, but it pales in comparison to the other two. The trains are really easy to use and I've only walked in each town and not taken local buses. Feel free to e-mail me if you want to.

We spent 2 nights in Mittenwald this March. It's a perfect little alpine town, minimally developed when compared with Garmisch, and with superb scenery. You'll find wall frescoes like those in Oberammergau as well as several violin-making shops, including one or two where you can observe the masters at work. Because of the season, we were unable to enjoy the outdoors as much as we'd have liked, but in the high season, Mittenwald does have the Karwendelbahn, a lift to Karwendel peak, which we heard was spectacular, as well as easy hikes to two nearby lakes - the Ferchensee and the Lautersee. <BR><BR>One tip on Garmisch (originally received from others on this board!) is that you dine one night at the Fraundorfer. The traditional, tasty, and very reasonably priced food was great, but the Bavarian music, dancing, and ambience was sensational. <BR><BR>Transport between Garmisch and Mittenwald is a snap by train, with frequent departures almost around the clock (we were able to stay late that night at the Fraundorfer and still make it back to Mittenwald.)<BR><BR>Getting to Neuschwanstein (F&uuml;ssen) from Garmisch by train is entirely another matter. For the most direct route, you can train into Austria to Reutte for certain, but from there, you probably will need to change to a bus or taxi, as the only train line that actually makes it to F&uuml;ssen enters town from the north (Kaufbeuren). The only way to get from Garmisch to F&uuml;ssen by train is to head north almost all the way back to Munich (Geltendorf) then connect to a different route heading south. If you'll be in Munich anyway, it's about 2 hours to F&uuml;ssen from there.<BR><BR><BR><BR>