Hi all,

My husband and I plan to travel to Germany in September - we plan to attend Oktoberfest for 2 days towards the end of our trip, leaving around 5 days to see other places in Germany. Please recommend some good destinations - thanks in advance!

Since you do not have much time and your final destination is the Oktoberfest in München, the obvious thing to do is staying in Bavaria. Rent a car for a couple of days and explore some of the following destinations:

- Historic towns on the Romantic Road, north of München: Dinkelsbühl, Nördlingen, maybe Rothenburg ob der Tauber (however touristy).

- Germany's largest (and one of the most picturesque) Old Towns in Bamberg, also famous for many microbreweries and "smoky beer".

- The most beautiful Alpine lake, the Königssee, in Berchtesgaden, surrounded by dramatic peaks.

- Germany's highest mountain, the Zugspitze, easily accessible from Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

- The romantic (some say: kitschy) castles of King Ludwig: Neuschwanstein and Linderhof.

- Gorgeous historic palaces south of München (Herrenchiemsee) or north (Würzburg).

This is more than you can do in five days - make your own choice and return with more specific questions.

Fly into Frankfurt. Rent a car. Drive about 2 hours to ROTHENBURG. Stay at REICHS KUTCHENMEISTER or other hotel within the wall. Do the Nightwatchman tour a 8 pm. Walk around the city.

Drive south on Romantic Road to GARMISCH. You can spend a few days here enjoying the Alps, Linderhof, Neuschwanstein, Zugspitz, etc. HOTEL HILLEPRANDT is our go to hotel. They have a web site.

Time allowing go to Berchesgaden. Beautiful area. Electric boat ride on the Koingsee. Then over to Munich and your Oktoberfest.

You can do this in 5 days......but you will be busy! Need about 7 days to fully enjoy. If you have to skip one area skip Garmisch and do the Berchtesgaden/Salzburg area.

traveller1959 gives a great rundown of many neat places in Bavaria and not far from Munich - you need no car to see most of those and if you use the bargain Bavarian Ticket where you and up to several people can travel all day on regional trains and city transit for 30-35 euros for 2 - for lots on German trains check www.seat61.com; www.budgeteuropetravel.com (check out their online European Planning & Rail Guide's Germany chapter for lots of other ideas); www.ricksteves.com.

Salzburg, Austria is also a short train ride from Munich and this is one of Europe's most gorgeous cities - a Baroque Wonder for sure. Bavarian Train Pass would also get you there and back on regional trains.

Thanks all! This is very helpful - we will chalk out the itinerary and post it here for your inputs.

I guess you’ll find a lot of useful information here http://www.globejourneys.com/destina...urope/germany/. They cover the most notable destinations. You can find lists of top attractions for cities like Berlin, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Dusseldorf and Munich, so you can make choice where to go. Look through the pictures and videos, it really helps. Food recommendations is my favorite section http://www.globejourneys.com/informa.../germany/food/
Hope to be of some help Have a great trip!

go to the wurstmakt in bad durkheim for the world's biggest wine festival to get you in the mood.

Thanks - these are all very helpful suggestions. Based on the comments, we have added a few more days to this trip.

Following is our tentative itinerary -

Day 1 - Fly in to Berlin

Day 2 and 3 - Berlin

Day 4 - Fly to Munich

Day 5 - Drive to Black Forest and Baden - we really wanted to squeeze this in somehow, so included this although it seems slightly rushed now.

Day 6 - Drive back to Munich

Day 7-8 - Munich/Oktoberfest

Day 9 - Fly back from Munich

All inputs are welcome

If you want to visit the Black Forest (I partly live there), do not fly into München and drive there.

Better fly into Stuttgart and rent a car there. Or fly into Zürich, rent a car, drive into the Black Forest, return it in Schaffhausen and take the train to München.

Did you get your hotel for Oktoberfest? We stayed in Àugsburg last year and Garmisch before. Murnau is a nice place also if you can't get anything in Munich for two nights. Nuremberg, love the walled city and history there.

I stayed in Garmisch once and day tripped into Octoberfest- can get off at a small stop just before the main station - Munich Hauptbahnhof and have a short walk to the fair grounds - just follow the crowds doing so.

Thanks traveller1959 for this great tip!

Flpab/PalenQ - thanks. We have booked Ibis Arnulfpark for the Oktoberfest. Most of the places are already sold out and prices are sky rocketing - so booked the first reasonable offer. But we will definitely suggest this to our friends who are yet to book.