Itinerary Advice? Munich, Vienna, Salzburg, Zurich, BO
 

Hello! My husband and I are working on our itinerary for a 12 day trip late July/early August to Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. I was hoping to get some feedback from the fodorites who have already been so helpful in planning this and so many other trips! We are in our late 20's/early 30's, love the outdoors and hiking, breweries, and music history.

Day 1: Arrive Munich @ 10am, explore Munich
Day 2: Munich (possibly head to Neuschwanstein Castle?)
Day 3: Train to Vienna early AM
Day 4: Vienna
Day 5: Train to Salzburg early AM, concert in the evening, overnight stay in Salzburg
Day 6: Train to Zurich in the afternoon/evening
Day 7: Zurich (Swiss National Day and visiting family)
Day 8: Train to Murren early AM, stay in Murren next few nights, exploring BO
Day 9: Murren/BO
Day 10: Murren/BO
Day 11: Train ride back to Munich for flight home (no way to fly out from another place)
Day 12: Head home from Munich (international flight @ 11:30am)

Where I definitely need help:
-We know it may seem a little rushed in the beginning of the trip, but we'd really like to spend the bulk of our trip in the BO. Right now we have 2 nights each in Munich, Vienna, and Zurich. I'm torn though as I feel like we're shorting our time in Salzburg with just 1 night. Would you sacrifice time in either Munich or Vienna and just do 1 day in either one of those, spending another evening in Salzburg? Our day 5 must be in Salzburg and day 7 must be in Zurich, otherwise we're rather flexible.
-Since we're flying in and out of Munich and I'm getting the impression from all rail sites that it's a headache (meaning long and many stops) traveling to/from Murren, we were just going to leave a full day before the flight and overnight in Munich. Good call? I hate to lose an entire day traveling (especially just before another full day of traveling), but it'll be scenic and an enjoyable train ride hopefully? Or, any other suggestions on how to best get ourselves set up for the trip home?

Thanks in advance for your help! Making a phone call now with help about rail passes too :)

In my opinion you are trying to do WAY too much. Every time you change bases you lose a half to a full day with all the logistics --not just the transport but also checking in/out of hotels, finding your way around in a strange city, figuring out the transport system, and so on. You are changing bases 5 times with this plan (yes, you will need to return to Munich the day before your flight, it takes about 7 hours between Munich Hbf and Mürren). Wow. Of course, you can see things through the train window as you are rolling along but it's a bit like watching Europe go by on television, not like being out in it.

Other things to consider are jet lag your first 3 days and that when you stay two nights somewhere you really only have one full day in that place.

Having been to all of these places many times, my advice would be to save both Salzburg and Vienna for another trip and focus your time on Munich and Switzerland. There's enough to do in Munich given your interests to keep you occupied for the entire 12 days alone. Same for Mürren.

Don't buy a RailEurope pass, way expensive and won't do you a lot of good in Switzerland. You don't need a pass in Munich, you can get around on Partner Day Tickets for very little money. If you book 90 days in advance you can get incredibly cheap fares between Munich and Zurich. Probably Half Fare Cards will be your best bet in Switzerland.

I have very lengthy write ups on transport, lodging, restaurants, hiking, and things to do and see in both Munich and the Bernese Oberland. If you'd like copies send me a private message with your email address.

Wow, thanks so much Kim! I'll message you my email shortly :) You're absolutely right though and we do need to remove something, so since it was Austria's whole music history and Salzburg's festival that drew us to creating the trip in the first place, I'm thinking Munich might have to be something we save truly seeing for another trip. Bummed we couldn't fly in and out of Zurich, but that's the way the tickets worked :(
I've checked out ticket prices and travel times and added that too. For any trips that involve Austria, I've found crazy cheap prices through the OEBB website (29E for Munich to Vienna and Salzburg to Zurich, and then 19E for Vienna to Salzburg...am I reading that correctly?), but what sites do people use for Switzerland? I've been looking at SBB and Rail Europe, but is there anywhere else anyone could suggest? You used to be able to get an international ticket to/from major cities to Switzerland (ie: Milan to Zurich) for like 45 CHF on SBB without any sort of passes. It was awesome! I'm definitely leaning towards the Half Fare cards, but without knowing options for Zurich->Murren and Murren->Munich I'm not 100%. Anyway, hoping this sounds better? Here goes...

Day 1: Arrive Munich @ 10am, train to Vienna (4-5 hrs)
Day 2: Vienna
Day 3: Vienna
Day 4: Train to Salzburg (2-3 hrs)
Day 5: Salzburg
Day 6: Train to Zurich (5-6 hrs)
Day 7: Zurich
Day 8: Train to Murren/BO (...)
Day 9: Murren/BO
Day 10: Murren/BO
Day 11: Train ride back to Munich (8 hrs), taking notes on where to visit when we come back!
Day 12: Head home from Munich (international flight @ 11:30am)

Thanks again!

Ooh, "Click and Rail"! That's what it was called. Anyone else remember that?

You may be able to find a cheap one way airfare to Vienna from Munich that you can slot in for a couple hours after your arrival. Although it may be somewhat more expensive than the train, transferring from an overnight flight to a 5 hour train would really put you behind the curve for starting your trip.

Kim - Trying to send you a PM but have no idea how to! Been searching for a while, sorry... my email is aquajueldesign at gmail dot com if you can send. Thanks so much!

I think your revised plan is much better (if still more fast-paced than I would prefer).

Have you considered flying open jaw - into Vienna and out of Munich? It could save you a lot of time. And I must admit that it doesn't seem that you will be spending any actual time in Munich - just a LOT of time getting to and from it. Have you considered flying into Vienna and flying out of Zurich?

Hi kalikiana,

Yes, as kja says, you need to look at an open-jaw flight, into München and out of Zürich. An open-jaw usually is the same price or just a bit more than a regular round-trip, and it would save you time and money back-tracking. You find them under the "multiple destination" or "multiple city" buttons on your airline's site.

Have fun as you plan!

s

Thanks kja and swandav! Tickets are already booked on points. Had originally hoped to just fly in and out o Zurich (which would have worked so much better!) but we waited too long to book and could only get in and out of Munich. So yes, unfortunately it will just be a peek into Munich, and yes it adds a bit more of a pain to the trip, but we are looking forward to adding it to the must-see list for a future Germany-only trip and focusing this one on seeing family in Switzerland and the concerts in Austria.

Still though, we need to figure out how to get from Murren to Munich. We know it will basically be a day "lost" in travel, but are still hoping to minimize connections (I've seen up to 11 train changes for the trip!) without the price being outrageous and I'm not sure which rail site would be the best to look into - SBB? DeBahn? Rail Europe? We are still trying to think of the best rail passes for the entire trip, so we're flexible with that. Anyone done this before or have any thoughs?