Hi All -
I think I have finally come up with an itinerary that works for our family trip in June. Please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions on improvements or any farmhouse, inn or B&B recommendations. Also I realize the distance between some of the stops, but we will be renting a car when we leave Munich. Thanks!
Day 1 – Munich
Day 2 – Munich
Day 3 – Munich (day trip to Dachau)
Day 4 – Depart Munich in the afternoon – for Fussen
Day 5 – Fussen (visit Garmisch, etc.)
Day 6 – Fussen – stop at Mittenwald on way to Schonau am Konigssee
Day 6 – Schonau
Day 7 – Schonau
Day 8 – Salzburg
Day 9 – Salzburg
Day 10 – Salzburg
Day 11 – Depart Salzburg, drive to Vienna
Day 12 – Vienna
Day 13 – Vienna
Day 14 – Depart Vienna

Your itinerary looks fine to me. I've been to each of the places you are planning on visiting, and all are great and worthy of time.

I absolutely loved Schonau and was glad you included it! Most people stay in Berchtesgaden but I prefer the smaller town atmosphere of Schonau.


Since you have a car, you may want to consider taking a daytrip from Salzburg to the nearby Salzkammergut, visiting St. Gilgen on the Wolfgangsee and Hallstatt, among other areas. Absolutely beautiful and different from the mountains around Schonau. Salzburg is interesting enough but you should have plenty of time to see everything and still take the daytrip.

From Salzburg to Vienna I would suggest a stop at Melk to visit the glorious abbey. Its not too far from the autobahn and absolutely gorgeous. Melks is a great time to visit and have lunch in. The other towns along the Wachau, especially Spitz and Durnstein, are also very nice and worthy of some time. You could spend 3-4 hours in this area and still have plenty of time to get to Vienna. Krems, at the end of the Wachau, is only about an hour from Vienna.

We stayed at the Pension Pertschy in Vienna and highly recommend it. The area is great for sightseeing; right off of the Graben and within close proximety to the Hofburg and St. Stephens.

http://www.pertschy.com

Good luck!
Tracy

Sorry, that should have been "Melk is a great town to visit..."

Does anyone have suggestions on a nice guesthouse in Schonau? There are so many to choose from and after awhile they all begin to look the same! Thanks

Also, any recommendations for a place to stay in Vienna, preferably under 100 euros per night. I'd like it to be in the city center, but that issue is flexible.

Couple of suggestions for day 5 and 6:

If you want to visit the castles, day 5 will be too much for cramming in Garmisch and then returning to Fuessen.

Suggest the following Day 6, Fuesen - Garmisch - Mittenwald. From Mittenwald backtrack about 4km to where Bundestrasse B-11 heads toward Wallgau -Kochel.

At the northern end of Wallgaul, look for the sign to Vorderriss (it's not a big sign, on yopur right side). Take that road. It's a toll road and a bit narrow. At Vorderriss,the end of the toll road, continue along the lake until you come to the B-307 toward Rottach, Egern.

Take it along the east side of the Tegernsee until you come to the Schliersee turnoff. Follow the road (still B-307) along that lake to Hausham, and Oberaudorf.

At Oberaudorf you have a choice: You can either take the Autobahn A-93 north for about for about 21km to the interchange with the Munich - Salzburg autobahn A-8, and then head east to Salzburg, or you can continue on the Austrian B-172 to Walchsee, Koessen and then on the German B-305 to Berchtesgaden and Salzburg.

This is a very scenic trip, and off the "American beaten path". I have driven it many times.

Now, whichever way you go, DON'T enter an Austrian autobahn without the required user's decal.You can buy it for various length of time at any Austrian or German service station at the border of the two countries. If the Austrian police catch you, it'll cost you about $150. The decal for 10 days costs about $10.

Also, be aware that picking up a car in Germany and dropping it off in Austria I(Vienna) incurs a substantial cross-bordeer drop-off charge. Finally, the Austrians are kind of sticky about (1) that you have an International Driver's Permit (you can get it at any US AAA office, you need it only for Austria, not Germany) and that your car is equipped with the offical reflective safety vest, in case the driver has to exit the car on the road. Check with the rental car office in Munich. I agree it's crazy, but the latter is a fairly new Austrian law.

I think you are probably going to have a difficult time finding a hotel in the center of Vienna for under 100 euro a night in June.

treplow made a good point that I forgot to mention; definitely check the prices on the car rentals. The rates for picking up in one country and dropping off in another is usually substantial, possibly adding hundreds of dollars to the price of the rental. And definitely get the sticker for the car. They can be found at most gas stations, and many will advertize them as you are headed towards the boarder.

Tracy

Do you suggest dropping the car off in Schonau and then either relying on trains throughout Austria or renting another car when we leave Salzburg? Also, I was looking at the website for Durnstein and it looks beautiful. Do you suggest staying overnight there? Is it possible to take the train from there into Vienna?

Kate,

Another issue to consider with the rental car. Cars picked up at German airports or train stations get a whopping 21% surtax. Other lots are OK. You can avoid the drop fee IF you can get a car with Austrian tags. You may even save by going to a different class car to get the right tags. A good place to reserve a car is with Bob Bestor at Gemulichkeit Gemut.com. Send them an email and see what they can come up with.

In Munich (and possibly Vienna) you won't want or need a car. Traffic is heavy and parking is expensive. Take public transportation (Munich has a great system that is easy and convenient) and save the car till you are ready to leave town.

I would reconsider your separate stays in both Salzburg and Schonau. Schonau is only about a 45 minute drive or less to the city of Salzburg and you can easily spend time in Salzburg on one or more days by driving or taking the bus or train. Stay in Schonau or a similar area for the entire time - you will spend a lot less money, have larger quarters and a room with free parking.

kateny17, Durnstein is a great little town and would make a nice stop over if exploring the Wachau. The Wachau is a great place to rent bikes too, if you are interested. We parked our car in Krems, rented bikes and biked down to Spitz. From there we took a very pleasant boat ride back to Krems and picked up our car.

There is a way to train between Durnstein and Vienna, but it involves a train switch in Krems. The train that runs between the Wachau villages is a small little milk-run train with only a few cars. According to the German rail site (http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en), the total journey from Durnstein to Vienna would be about 1.5 hours.

The area around Berchtesgaden, in my opinion, is much better explored by car. There is no train station in Schonau, although there is one in Berchtesgaden.

If you are trying to avoid the drop-off charges, and AisleSeat's method doesn't work, I would suggest keeping the car in Berchtesgaden and possibly Salzburg (especially if you are planning on daytripping to the Salzkammergut) and then dropping it off in Berchtesgaden (or another town in Germany) and training to Vienna (switching trains in Salzburg along the way). Personally, especially if you want to go to the Wachau, I would consider renting another car and dropping it off somewhere outside of Vienna. The train from Berchtesgaden to Durnstein is much longer than the car ride (check out viamichelin.com for routes and mileages).

Good luck!
Tracy

I also agree with Emily. When we stayed in Schonau we drove to Salzburg on three seperate occassions. The drive was under half an hour.

Tracy

Thanks for the great advice, Emily and Tracy. I was considering just staying in Schonau to cut back on the expensive hotel rates in Salzburg. Do either of you recommend a guesthouse in Schonau or Ramsau. I found two guesthouses that look nice, but they are both in Berchtesgaden. These are the links: http://www.berchtesgadener-land.info...ww.rehwinkl.de
http://www.berchtesgadener-land.info...runnerlehen.de

Also, is it possible to keep the car to use as transport between Berchtesgadeland and Salzburg (assuming we buy the sticker), and then leave it in Germany when head into Austria?

Regarding the car, the purchase of the vignette for travel will be cheap- for under 15 days, I think we paid around 15 US dollars. You can easily drive into Salzburg and park in a public parking garage inside of the mountain in a huge cavern created inside one of the mountains right in town ( Altstadt Parkgarage).
The best way to approach the car drop off would be to rent in Munich and drop off in Salzburg, if you can stand to pay the price.
I have stayed in quite a few places in this general area - can you be more specific about what you want in a hotel/B&B in the Schonau area?

Unfortunately I can't recommend any guesthouses in the area, as we stayed in an apartment. If you do a search on the Bertchesgaden website for B&B's you will get a list of available ones. From there, you can click on "more information" and access their website, if they have one. There are tons of guesthouses in Schonau alone.

Berchtesgaden is a very nice little town to visit, but if I had my choice I would rather stay in Schonau or Ramsau and drive into Berchtesgaden for groceries or to explore the town. Still, you can't go wrong in the area.

You can absolutely explore Austria with the car if you pick it up in Germany. The fees come with picking it up in Germany and actually dropping it off in Austria. We drove all around the Salzkammergut and to the Wachau as daytrips from Schonau without any problems at all. Just make sure you purchase the sticker. As you make your way towards Austria from the Berchtesgaden area, there are several gas stations right across the border that advertise the sticker (called a vignette, I believe).

Tracy

Sorry to be a pest but I did come across this website that has accomodation listings in Schonau, among other cities in the Berchtesgaden region:

http://www.berchtesgaden.com/e/citie...nau/hotels.htm

By the way, when you see "FeWo" its short for "Ferienwohnung", basically a vacation apartment.

Tracy

Tcreath,

I hate it when people hijack threads, but here goes- Can you expound on why you'd stay in Schonau instead of Berchtesgaden? You graciously replied to one of my other posts on our upcoming March trip, and I thank you for that.

Would you also stay in Schonau if it were cold & snowy? Again, sorry for the hijack, but I had to ask!
H

phieaglefan, not a problem! Honestly its just a matter of personal preference. We enjoyed Berchtesgaden but we liked the peaceful serenity of staying in Schonau. Our apartment was in a wide open valley with tremendous views all around, and it just felt so quaint! We loved walking into town to go to the bakery each morning. I think we were just looking for somewhere without a touristy feel and we found it in Schonau. The area around the Konigssee was a little more touristy than in the actual town.

Berchtesgaden was very pleasant and we greatly enjoyed wandering around the pedestrian-friendly old town. We went into Berchtesdaden quite often, but in the end we were glad we stayed in Schonau.

That being said, Berchtesgaden may be a better place to stay if it were cold and snowy. There is more to do, more restaurants to walk to, and woudl probably just be easier given the time of year. Honestly, the whole area is gorgeous though!

Tracy

Thanks so much for all the great info! In terms of a guesthouse, I did a lot of searching on the Berchtesgadenland website, but there is so much info - the entire search becomes daunting. I am looking for a friendly, clean place with great views of the mountains and surrounding countryside. I don't, however, want it to be isolated from everything else. Good food would be a plus too.

Also, I was thinking about the idea of staying in Schonau and traveling to Salzburg for day visits. If we want to stay and eat dinner in Salzburg, is it easy to drive back and forth at night? Are the roads dark?