We stayed in Salzburg on May.
Beautiful city . We went to Eagle nest and it worth a visit. But we went to Konnigsee and I didnt like , very boring , in my opinion no waste your time there. Hallstat is a little nice town , it worth .

I really liked the hotel Westfalia in München http://www.pension-westfalia.de/index2.html

It is directly next to the Theresienwiese. The U-bahn station is Goetheplatz. Just 1 or 2 stations from the Marienplatz. The hotel has a free breakfast buffet and nice rooms. I believe for a double bed it was around 60 Euros/night/couple...check the site to make sure.

Also, I would definately recommend the Eagle's Nest and also the Königssee. The Chapel St. Bartholomä was so gorgeous and the boat ride was great to get there. I wasn't bored at all...but I think it depends on what your interests are. There are awesome hiking trails there at the Königssee, so if you're active and enjoy nature, there's nothing boring to it at all and most assuredly worth the side trip along with the Kehlstein (Eagle's Nest).

if you want to spend $250-300; go for the Goldener Hirsch Hotel in salzburg. It is 1st class and their restaurant is very good. Also eat at St. Peter's Abbey-very good. Try the Mozart dinner/concert. Suprisingly the food is good!

GP is definitely worth an overnight, for no other reason than the ability to wake up, have breakfast, and then high-tail it over to the Zugspitze before the crowds, and often the clouds, roll in.

Fuessen is also a great place to stay, to beat the crowds that descend on Neuschwanstein.

In GP we stayed at the Frauendorfer. Great place to eat. Mediocre place to stay.

Hi
We were in Garmisch-Partenkirchen last fall. We stayed at the Mercure in Partinkirchen. Very reasonable rates. Free parking. Close to everywhere by walking. The staff gave us good directions to several local sites we wanted to visit and we wound up staying there for a couple of days longer. There's a very good Italian restaurant there also.

Thank you so much for everyone's help. I have the car rented and the hotels booked. One last question: After our short excursion into Bavaria, we are flying back into Dusseldorf and taking a train to Kassel to visit with my wife's grandmother. Is it better to get tickets in advance or will prices be the same if we buy tickets at the train station? I'm afaid a delayed plane will force us to miss a pre-bought train ride. Thanks again!

>After our short excursion into Bavaria, we are flying back into Dusseldorf and taking a train to Kassel to visit with my wife's grandmother.

May I ask you why you are travelling in such a convoluted way? If you just take a train from Munich (or from Garmisch via Munich) to Kassel, you will be there by the time your plane lands in Düsseldorf. And then there are all the hassles associated with luggage and plane travel (security etc.). WHY?

>Is it better to get tickets in advance or will prices be the same if we buy tickets at the train station?

The normal tickets cost the same no matter when you buy them. With these it doesn´t matter whether you kiss some train or not since you don´t buy them for a particular train. There are however also advalce discout tickets (Dauer-Spezial), which you can buy in advance over internet for 29 Euro one way - subject to availability, and these are tied to a specific train.

I'm afaid a delayed plane will force us to miss a pre-bought train ride.

Before I thought flying to DUS to get to Kasselw ould be just too convoluted. Now I have looked up and I am convinced it is insane. A direct train from Munich to Kassel takes about 3 hours. Your plane will just be taking off in Munich airport when the ICE from Munich pulls into Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe station.

altamiro, thank you! We have a round trip ticket from Dusseldorf to Munich so I just figured it would be faster to jump on the flight back up to Dusseldorf. After doing some research you are correct, it would be faster and easier just to take the train up from Munich.

One last question on my itinerary that I can't seem to find the answer to. My car rental dropoff is at the Munich airport. Does Die Bahn go through the Munich airport on it's way to Kassel? Or will I need to take the train out of Hauptbahnhof? Thanks!

Just drop your car at the Bahnhof. That should be do-able.