mberry

I've read a lot of posts about the various salt mine tours and am (almost) convinced to spend one of my three Munich days visiting a salt mine. One suggestion was to take a bus tour from Munich. Where can I find info on these bus tours? Am I right to think that RT travel time will be about 4 hours and that this kind of excusion would take a complete day?

Budman

I'm thinking that the closest salt mine tour from Munich would be Berchtesgaden. You could probably take the train, but I don't know that I would go thru all that trouble for a day trip just to do the salt mine tour. If you combine it with other activities in the area, yes.

It's about a good 2 hour trip each way by car.

Bob1

We have done the Salt Mine in Berchtesgaden 3 times since 1970. Great fun, but I would not do a one day trip from Munich to do this trip. Stay in Munich and enjoy that town. If you are in the Berchtesgaden area (beautiful) the salt mine is fun. But not worth a full day to do it.....IMHO.

Riffic

I agree with Bob1,

There is plenty to do in Munich and closely neighboring areas in just 3 days rather than trek out to Berchtesgarden.

But if you do go on the Saltmine tour, you could cheaply take the train to Berchtesgarden using the Bayern Ticket (M-F) or Schöneswochende (S-S) ticket.

mberry

Thanks for the info, especially about the trains. Perhaps I should have added that I'm traveling with two kids (11 and 14), that we prefer outdoor activities/sightseeing, don't like shopping and don't drink beer. Given those considerations and from the many posts I've read (particularly those about traveling with kids/teens), I do get the impression that a salt mine tour is something we should do. I'd love more/other suggestions. (I couldn't find one of those "100 things to do..." posts for Munich.)

kitty

We just got back from Germany/Austria and did the salt mine tour in Hallein outside of Salzburg. My 11 year old son thought this was the best thing we did on our two week trip while my 15 year old daughter thought it was one of the worst. The tour was almost completely in German (except for a couple of short films that were subtitled in English). I didn't find the excitement level high but it was somewhat interesting.

We did two day trips from Munich - to the top of the Zugspitze and to Fussen to the two Ludwig Castles. Both of these day trips were excellent - two of the best days of our trip. My husband and I found the Zugzpitze was the absolute best. Incredible views that we just couldn't imagine. The kids also enjoyed this day trip a lot. They got to play in the snow and throw snowballs at each other (odd for us Southerners especially in June). If you do go to the Zugspitze take cheap gloves for the kids to make snowballs with. My kids hand got cold. We did fine with long sleeve shirts and light weight jackets for overall warmth.

Have fun.