Lindau, a wondrous old town on a peninsula jutting out into the Bodensee, is also an easy daytrip from Oberstaufen I would think. And think it is still in Bavaria so Bavaria pass would work.

I'm not sure why you are going back to Oberstaffen after Munich. When you go to Oberammergau you may want to make a stop in Garmish before going to Munich. Garmish is a little bigger than the villages you are visiting. Not as much charm for me. If you like standing at the top of the mountain the Zugspitze may be worth the 50-60 Euro pp cable car ride. Another fun little village about 10 miles from Garmish is the violin-maker's village Mittenwald.
I would take whatever time it takes to go to Neuschwanstein, Hohenschwangau, Wiesekirche, Oberammergau, Schlos Linderhof, Ettal Monastary, Garmish/Zugspitze, Mittenwald .... Then into Munich. I agree with your idea to take a train on a day trip from Munich to Salzburg. Use the 29 euro Bayern Ticket for the whole family to go round-trip after 9am.

I just checked the Zugspitze cost, 48€ in summer 39€ in winter.

Many thanks for all of your input. It will really help plan out trip. One more question. Heidelberg is hosting a Bach festival when we plan to visit for a day and night, so most of the hotels are sold out. I would love to see Rothenburg. Does it make sense to visit Heidelberg during the day and then drive to Rothenburg for the evening and next day? Or should we first visit Rothenburg, since we are driving from Oberstaufen, then visit Heidelberg, then stay somewhere like Karlsruhe?

I came across a figure for 2011 (but can't find it right away) that said that German trains carried more passengers than China and India combined!

That's a whole lot of trains for a much smaller country!

Lots and lots of train choices.

I'd also factor in having to park a car.

Whilst German trains carry lots of people I just cannot fathom them carrying more than China and India combined - would like to so that stat and source. 1 billion folks in China and few have cars relatively - ditto India - Germans travel more inter-city by car than trains but S-bahns and metros I guess count as trains.

Still kind of incredible.

PQ: that's just it. I couldn't believe the figure and it was put out by some official German organization.

Here's the wikipedia figures:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_us...ics_by_country

I'll keep looking for that original article. Maybe it was a percentage comparison of some sort.