sblack74

Hello!
I am planning a trip for my family - myself, husband, two sons, ages 18 and 20. This is a redo from summer 2020. Our original plans included arriving and spending a few days in Prague, departing from Munich. Since I have to cut a few days from those plans, I think Prague has to be cut. We are thinking of the following plans - still vague and I apologize for that. We are planning on 5/24-6/3. We could possibly do 5/23 if I find an evening flight which would give us one more day. We are using trains, not renting a car.

Munich (Walking tour, BMW, beer halls, day trips to surrounding areas)
Nuremburg (Rally Grounds, Documentation Center, Art Bunker/Beer Tour, Guided tour, possibly a side trip to Rothenburg)
Salzburg (City walk tour, SOM bike tour, Eagle's Nest, Salt Mines, Ice Caves)
Garmisch area, Zugspitze (could be a night or two or day trip from Munich)

I know that utilizing different airports for arrival and departure, but based on where want to go, I am wondering if going in and out of Munich would be a good idea. I was also looking at Frankfort. If we flew into Frankfort we could take the train to Nuremburg and then end in Munich. (Our origination airport is Orlando.)

Any thoughts on any and all of these items would very much appreciated!!! Thanks!!

Heimdall

Don’t book a flight for “Frankfort” or you might find yourself in Kentucky. It’s Frankfurt in Germany.

sblack74

Ha ha! Sorry for the typo - I was typing too fast this morning!!

J62

Your list of things you could do in each area is ok, but if you try to accomplish all of that you are

a) cramming way too much in, and more importantly
b) forcing a regimen that doesn't allow for serious "just be there and enjoy" time.

Beer tour - forget it. Good beer is everywhere. Let your senses guide you to an enjoyable beer garden where you can wile away some time,
Beer hall - ok, maybe you want to stop in the Hofbrauhaus for a Mass, pretzels, and some chicken and listen to an oopah band to say you were there along with 1000's of other tourists. See the line above for a better idea...
Salzburg - walking tour. Forget it. it's a small town, and if you're doing a SOM bike tour you'll see the town anyway.
Zugspitze - chances are good it'll be socked in, ice covered ground, and frigid cold. Consider taking a cable car up one of the smaller peaks right outside Garmish and going for a hike. Pack a picnic lunch and enjoy a nice day in the Alps like a local. You'll get good vistas of the Alps, fresh air, an not burn an entire day.
Eagles nest, salt mine tour, are a long way from Salzburg. All pretty cool, if you're in the area... And you can't get there by train. This part of the trip - Munic to GP to Salzburg a car gives you a lot more flexibility. With a car you could add on Neuschwanstein.

As for airports, Munich (MUC) is major Lufthansa hub, and easy to get into the city center by subway. (S-bahn, 2 different lines, trains run every 10 or 15min.)

Reading54

Assuming the airfare difference is negligible, you do have an advantage for flying to Munich, because then you will be able to use the Länder-Ticket (Regional pass for one single German Federal state, Länder= state, province) for the Bavarian (Bayern) state for most of your train travel.
https://www.bahn.com/en/offers/regio...al-day-tickets

For the Bayern state, it is 54 Euro for the 4 of you, (M-F after 9am, all day Sat & Sun) regional train rides within the state.

Bayern state is quite large. Go to https://www.bahn.com/en/offers/regio...et-for-bavaria , scroll down to the "Questions and Answers" section. There is a "Where is the ticket valid? (Rail Map)", click open that topic to download the rail map for the Bayern state.

sblack74

Thank you! This is very helpful!!!

sblack74

Thank you for your tips. I know I am trying to do a lot and will end up cutting some thing out. How does this look - more reasonable?

5/24 - Depart
5/25 - Arrive Munich AM / Train to Nurnberg
5/26 - Nurnberg
5/27 - AM train to Salzburg
5/28 - Salzburg
5/29 - Day Trip to Eagle's Nest/Berchtesgaden
5/30 - AM train to Munich / City Tour
5/31 - BMW / Olympic Park
6/1 - Day trip to Garmish
6/2 - Last day touring Munich
6/3 - Depart AM

J62

More reasonable, yes, but now that you've laid it out by day I think you need to start to look at actual transit times / train schedules. With all that moving around you may find that you have precious little time in any one place, and more time schlepping to and waiting in train stations, plus time on trains...

Nominal travel time MUC airport to Nurnberg is around 2 hours, but there are many different options & connections, and you can't guarantee you'll make any specific connection based on your arrival time, immigration, baggage claim, etc. There are far more options from Munich Main RR station (Hbf) throughout the day, with direct trains taking 1 hour. Since you are only planning one day in Nurnberg, you may be better to use Munich as a base and take a fast day trip to Nurnberg without all your luggage.

Garmish seems to be an outlier here. What is drawing you there? A day trip from Munich does not make sense to me. It's 90min train just to get to the Garmish train station. If you're going up the Zugspitze, then you need to get to either the cog RR station, or the cable car... Then turn around and reverse - 2 to 2 1/2 hrs total travel eadch way = 4 to 5 hrs in transit, for a day trip....If you want a cable car / mountain experience, you may be better off to go up one of the many mountains much closer to Salzburg. If you're going to Eagles nest you're already getting an Alpine peak day - what does Garmisch add, especially given the 5hrs travel as a day trip? Doesn't sound fun to me....


added info..
I was mistaken. Total travel time from Munich Hbf to the top of the Zugspitze by cog railway is 3hrs each way...Cable car may be faster, but you'd have to get there - maybe by bus, from the Garmish station.

https://zugspitze.de/en/Service-info...ntain-railways
Fahrplan%20GST%202022_23%20f%C3%BCr%20Website_V3_ENG.pdf

sblack74

J62 - Thank you for those thoughts. I need to look at the Salzburg area for something similar - I was thinking of Zugspitze and that area for a day trip. But if we could accomplish the same idea in the Salzburg area that might work better from a logistical standpoint.

Also, I was just able to add an extra day to our trip, so wondering if I should add it to Munich for the Zugspitze area or add it to Nuremburg then we can do a day trip to Rothenburg. Or are there any other ideas on where to add the extra day?

Thanks!!!

J62

I'm not quite sure what it is that you want to accomplish by going up to Zugspitze, so if you could elaborate we could help you better.

I'm not trying to dissuade you, but my own opinion is that since the summit will still be ice/snow covered, and and near or below freezing around that time, there is nothing you can do at the summit except huddle inside to stay warm and hope there is not cloud cover blocking the view. So 5 to 6 hrs round trip transit time to get there and back from Munich doesn't compute for me. I don't know any teenagers who wold like getting rousted out of bed a oh-dark-thirty for a day trip like that.... If it is views of the Alps, you will get a great view from Bertchesgaden as a side trip from Salzburg.

other ideas...
Many travelers visit Fuessen (Neuschwanstein/Hohenschwangau castles) as a day trip from Munich.
Near Salzburg, the Salzkammergut region has many small mountain towns to round out your SOM experience...(the hills are alive)
In Munich, I'm fond of the Deutches Museum - a fantastic science and technology museum. One of the best in the entire world.

There is a frequent Fodors poster who lives in Garmish (@swandav2000) - maybe she'll chime in....

sblack74

Thank you for giving me this insight. I have read in so many places that Zugspitze is a great day trip from Munich which is what has prompted me to add to our itinerary. But I actually like the idea of a side trip to Bertchesgaden instead. I am going to do some research in that area as well as the Salzkammergut region. Fuessen would be a nice area as well, I have heard that Neuschwanstein is not super authentic and more of a touristy destination, so we are most likely skipping that.

I appreciate all of your ideas and thoughts!!!!

dfourh

If it were me, I would spend one day taking the train up to Regensburg. Yes, 90 minutes is a bit of a long train ride, but it is a minimally touristy classic Medieval city, on the way back, you can add a stop in Landshut. I think you get more out of that deal than travelling all day to go up then down a wee mountain.

https://www.munich.travel/en/pois/la...20arrow%20keys.