sblack74

Hi,
I am planning a trip for myself, my husband and two teenage boys. I was in Germany when I was a teenager, but everyone else has never been. We are planning to use trains for our traveling, unless we need to rent a car. We are interested in seeing as much as we can, especially historic, WWII sites and outdoor activities. This is a very tentative plan, I am changing it every day as I keep reading and researching.

Day 1 - Arrive in Prague 11:45 am (This is my husband's birthday - even though will be will jetlagged - suggestions for an activity or great restaurant would be great!)
Day 2, 3, 4 - Prague
Day 4 - Train to Salzburg (not sure what time we will take the train)
Day 4, 5, 6, 7 - Salzburg (day trips to Eagle's Nest/Salt Mines and Prien am Chimesee area)
Day 7 - Train to Munich (not sure what time we will take the train)
Day 7, 8, 9 Munich
Day 9 - Train to Nurnberg
Day 9,10, 11 - Nurnberg and Bamberg
Day 11 - Train back to Munich
Day 12 - 10:25 am flight departure out of Munich

Thank you for any feedback and advice. The only things set in stone are our flights in and out of Prague and Munich.

Suzanne

dreamon

Sounds like a nice trip. I would spend your time in Munich at the end of your holiday, saving an extra hotel move and time to do other things. So that would be Prague - Salzburg - Nurnberg - Munich. Or Prague - Nurnberg - Salzburg - Munich. The travel time from Prague to Salzburg is quite long when you factor in hotel to hotel so I'd consider that as well. You'll likely only have two days in Salzburg with your current plan so if you 'save' a day by grouping your time Munich into a single stay, you could add that time to Salzburg.

sblack74

I didn't even think about that. I think I will adjust and go Prague - Salzburg - Nurnberg - Munich or Prague - Nurnberg - Salzburg - Munich. I will look at train times, etc. to decide that .

Thank you so much for the feedback!!!

kja

dreamon's given you a great suggestion!

I'm a little confused by your itinerary -- you can't have day 4 in Prague and in transit and in Salzburg. Same problem with days 7 and 9 and 11. Please lay out your plan according to nights.

If I'm following correctly, I would find your trip too rushed, particularly for Prague, but maybe I'm misreading and of course your interests could differ from mine.

fourfortravel

For the Prague restaurant I suggest "Deer." We were in Prague for our daughter's basketball tournament against ISP and it happened to fall over a milestone birthday weekend for me. We were staying at the associated hotel (Iron Gates, another suggestion if you are seeking a hotel) and on the first night had dinner in their restaurant. The following night celebratory dinner was supposed to be at a different restaurant but we loved Deer so much that we canceled the other reservation and ate their both nights. The restaurant is small, so reservations are highly recommended; and the cuisine is what I might describe as contemporary Czech. The photo is of my dessert:

"Forest," of spruce needle ice cream and chocolate "mushrooms," topped with a fine candy wisp and dusted with ground spruce needles. Exquisite, and entirely delicious.

sblack74

Sorry for the confusion...here it is with some edits:

June 3 – Arrive Prague, 11:45 am
June 4 – Prague
June 5 - Prague
June 6 – Nurnberg
June 7 – Nurnberg
June 8 – Salzburg
June 9 - Salzburg
June 10 – Salzburg
June 11 – Munich
June 12 – Munich
June 13 - Munich
June 14 – Depart Munich 10:35 AM

This is still a work in progress! Thank you!

sblack74

Thanks for the restaurant suggestion. That dessert looks awesome! Their menu and website look great too!

dreamon

sblack74, are they the places you will be sleeping each night? I find it easiest to work on that basis because it is clear to me where I need to book accommodation and how many full days I have in each place. Maybe I'm just a bit disorganised but I find that it takes the bulk of the day to move to the next stop, even if it's only a 3 or 4 hour journey, by the time I get up and out and arrive at my next hotel/apartment in time for checkin. I prefer your revised sequence. Good luck with your planning.

sblack74

Dreamon - yes, those are the place we will be staying each night. I am going to try to plan the trains so that we can maximize time in both cities. Travel days are always hectic and we have never been on a vacation using public transit, so hopefully I will have it well planned out by June so it is not to difficult or stressful. I think this revise sequence is much better, thank you for that tip. Now I just need to determine what we want to do in each area to make sure I have the number of days correct, then make some hotel/apartment reservations!

dreamon

One of the many things I love about travelling in Europe is using public transport instead of a car. If you haven't already referenced them seat61, getbybus and rome2rio are all useful sites to point you towards the most appropriate transport provider to buy tickets (and whether or not you need to buy in advance).

Sassafrass

I suggest you take your layout one step further and include travel days with travel times to allow you to more specifically plan your time in each place. Consider the time it takes to go from hotel to train or bus station, time on the train and time to get to the next hotel. It adds up.
Example:
June 3, Arrive Prague at 11:45, get to hotel, etc. jet lagged afternoon.
June 4, Prague
June 5, Prague
June 6, Travel to Nurnberg, 3-5 hours, plus to/from hotels, at least 1/2 day of travel, 1/2 day in Nurnberg.
June 7, Nurnberg
June 8, Travel to Salzburg, travel time at least 1/2 day, 1/2 day in Salzburg.
June 9 & 10, Salzburg
etc.

You have:
Prague, 3 nts. 2 days. Arrival does not really count
Nurnberg, 2 nts. 1 & 1/3 (plus evening) days
Salzburg, 3 nts. 2 & 1/3 (plus evening) days
etc.

kja

Thanks for laying it out by nights, sblack74, but Sassafrass is right -- the extra information about transit is really necessary. (Sorry I didn't say so before.) When thinking about your transportation times, remember that it isn't just the time it takes to get from place to place -- you also need time to check in and out, pack and unpack, get to and from your lodging, get lost and oriented, etc. It doesn't always add up to a half day, but that's not a bad way to estimate the requisite times.

For my interests -- which might not be yours at all -- I would find the time you've allotted to both Prague and Munich frustratingly short. I wanted 4 full VERY busy (on the move every possible moment) days in each of those locations. I can imagine a satisfactory visit to Salzburg that includes 2 full days; I haven't been to Nurnberg yet.

So as you continue thinking through your plans, do give some thought to whether you will really have the time to see and experience what YOU want, and if not, to how to prioritize to make the most of your trip.

BTW, public transportation is excellent in this part of the world, and like dreamon, I consider the option to use it a great benefit. Comfortable, convenient, no need to have a designated driver or worry about an unfamiliar car on unfamiliar roads governed by unfamiliar rules of the road ... freedom!

Hope that helps!

masinyaren

Nurnberg is for one day. In Munchen i suggest to go to bar "Shakespeare", restaurant Tivu

sblack74

Thank you so much Sassafrass and kja. I am definitely thinking about those travel days while planning out what we want to do in each area. I have train times, routes written down for each trip with a couple of options on arrival/departure times and that will help in the deciding factor on how many nights we actually end up spending in each location. I am making hotel/apartment reservations in each city with the plan I have now, but I am making sure I have free cancellation, changes for each one. I want to make sure we have the lodging we want before everything is booked, but I know this itinerary isn't set in stone yet, so I want flexibility to make some changes.

For the Munich area - one day trip I would like is to the mountains. I'd like some hiking, enjoying the views and time outside enjoying the Alps. Zugspitze, Mittenwald or someplace else? Is that whole area going to be a mad house because the of Passion Plays or is it just really crowded in Oberammergau?

Fodorite018

We just returned last night from Germany and Prague. We had two excellent dinners in Prague, one at Bredovsky Dvur and the other at Bila Krava. The Naked Tour Guide (no they are not naked, lol) does excellent walks. I highly recommend the bright and early morning tour. We had an excellent guide and it was well worth seeing everything before the crowds woke up.

sblack74

mms - Thanks for the restaurant suggestions! I have looked at the Naked Tour Guide website, their tours look great! I like the idea of the early one to avoid the crowds. Did you also do the Castle at Night Tour? That sounds like a good one too!

Fodorite018

sblack74--No, I had really hoped to do that but my husband ended up pretty sick so we didn't do much in the evenings at all. Our guide said it is really easy to just go to the castle at night on your own, and not even pay to go inside anything, but just to catch sunset there is really pretty. So you might try that. BTW, a great place in Prague for breakfast is Mistral. Their avocado toast was amazing!!! Giovanni's pizza, right by the main square, was very good too. We did not expect much with it's location, but it was our day of arrival and we were hungry, but we really lucked out with it!

Iwan2go

I might be wrong, but when I look at the bahn.de (the German website for trains) I see that Prague to Nurnberg is by bus (or takes 4 hours and 31 minutes by train). Just a suggestion: would you be interested in looking into using a transfer service? We used Mike Chauffeur in Prague to go from Prague - stop in Cesky Krumlov for two hours - ending in Salzburg, and it was WONDERFUL. I do realize it’s more money than the train, just throwing it out there as a faster option - and it would be door-to door - sometimes if you add in any necessary taxis from the station to the hotel on both ends, it’s not a lot more.

Here’s the link if you’re interested. I see 6300 CZK for the transfer Prague-Nurnberg, which is about $275.00 USD.

https://mike-chauffeur.cz/central-eu...s.html#route-h

sblack74

mms - thank you! As much as I want to experience local food, some good pizza would be a great option on our arrival day, especially with tired, jet lagged teenagers! We might just do the castle at night on our own, I am going to look into that today and make a decision.

lwan2go - I have looked at private transfers, but I don't think I looked at Mike Chauffeur. It would definitely be worth the extra money if it saves time plus the added stop in Cesky Krumlov. I will take another look and see. I could possibly do that and then go from Salzburg to Nurnberg and then to Munich.

Fodorite018

sblack74--We were not jet lagged since we had been in Germany the week before, but my DH was really run down so the pizza place was good comfort food too, but it really was good. The round funnel cake looking things that you see everywhere, I am sure your teens will want to try them but if you are curious, just take a bite of theirs. I threw mine away, lol.