We have booked our flight to Munich arriving May 3 and leaving May 11. My wife and I, our 4 yr old daughter and another adult friend are traveling. Our daughter travels fairly well. We are planning on renting a car and driving from place to place. We enjoy seeing scenary, architecture, etc. We are not museum people.

1) We want to change hotels no more than three times. Something like 3 nights, 3 nights and 2 nights.

2) The only must things on our list are Berchtesgaden and Neuschwanstein.

3) We definitely want to venture into Austria and/or Switzerland (was even considering Prague as a possibility. We do not plan on going north of Munich.

All suggestions are appreciated. Sorry for such a long post.

Hi K,

How about:

Fly into Munich - 2 nights
drive to Salzburg - 4 nights
See Berchtesgaden
See the Salzkammergut
Drive to Fuessen via St Johan in Tirol - 1 night
see the castles
Drive back to Munich - 1 night


Fly home

In that time I think that 3 destinations is perfect. I would start in the Salkammergut area and end in Munich. I like St.Gilgen as a base for Austria[ 4 nites], then drive over to Oberammergau as your base for Bavaria[ 3 nites, and then end in Munich. That makes a good and easy loop.

Hi,
Considering you have eight nights and only two must see things, I'd suggest after landing, head for Berchtesgaden area for 3 nights. Salzburg is only about a half an hour away. I think you'd have enough to do/see within Berchtesgaden, Salzburg, Konigssee, etc. We did take a drive to Hallstatt from Berchtesgaden as a day trip (beautiful scenery) and spent the evening in Salzburg on the way back. My opinion would be to base in Fussen for the next 3 nights. There are many things to see and do in this area. Neuschwanstein, Hohenschwangau, Tegelbergbahn, Wies Church, Oberammergau, etc. An alternative to Fussen could be Mittenwald. From Berchtegaden, you could drive through Austria, the Innsbruck area and on to Mittenwald (45 min. north of Innsbruck) for 3 nights. You could also reach Fussen through Austria by taking a longer drive. I'd then take a leisurely drive to Munich (we like stopping at Andechs Monestary) and spend the last 2 nights there.

Paul

Thanks for the replies. Here is the itinerary we are considering:

Day 1 - Arrive 8:00 AM, rent car drive to Salzburg
Day 2 - Salzburg area, overnight in Salzburg
Day 3 - Berchestgaden area and then drive to either Mittenwald or Innsbruck, overnight there.
Day 4 - Go to Zugspitze and then drive to Lindau. Overnight in Lindau.
Day 5 - Explore Lake area, go to Mainmau island.Overnight in Lindau.
Day 6. - Drive to castles, and then on to Munich.
Day 7 Munich
Day 8 Munich
Day 9 Fly home.

Is this doable? I know it is more hotel changes than I wanted, but I just don't think we can do what we want without the extra hotel change.

Hi,
This is only my opinion, but day 4 sounds like a long day to me. If you really want to go on the Zugspitze trip, I'd take a night from Munich and add it to where you'll base for the Zugspitze. It would be terrible to find the weather bad on the one day you allocated for it, plus theres a lot to see in the area if you have one bad weather day. There are 2 places in which to reach the Zugspitze...Ehrwald, Austria and Garmisch, Germany.
www.zugspitze.at
www.zugspitze.de
The cable car in Ehrwald is very quick to the top, about 10 minutes or so.
Again, this is just my opinion, as I'm not a big fan of Innsbruck...an excellent alternative is Hall in Tirol, only 6 miles east of Innsbruck.
www.regionhall.at
A wonderful place to stay just 5 minutes walk from the old town is Gasthof Badl.
www.badl.at
We've stayed here 3 times in the last 4 years. Very nice hotel, good and reasonable restaurant, great balcony views of Hall and the mountains surrounding it and absolutely wonderful owners.

Paul

The first 3 nites can be in one location--you do not have to stay in Salzburg. I would prefer St. Gilgen as the base but others would argue for Berchestgarten--both are close enough to access Salzburg easily. I would forget Innsbruck---it is a big city.

Again thanks for the replies.

On Day 4, I figured we would go up via Ehrwald (faster trip), I am the one who wants to do this, the other adults don;t care if we go up or not, so I figured we would go up spend alittle time at the top and then come down and drive on. I realize I am limiting the experience but I figure, it is better than not seeing it all.

Re: Innsbruck, I think I will forego that all together. I either will base in one place for three nights or choose an alternate stopping point.