Hello!

My husband and I are going to be traveling at the end of july to bavaria for one week. The problem is that we want to see far to much. We will probably fly into munich but can not decide what to do from there. The things we are interested in are: Munich, King Ludwig's Castles, Rothenburg, Eagles Nest, Salzburg and maybe Hallstatt. I know this is alot. If anyone has any good ideas for us and itinerary ideas that would be great! Thanks for all the help in advance.

Assuming you're renting a car, you can head to Rothenburg from Munich, do spend the night there and take the Night Watchman's Tour. If you have time you can take the Romantic Road to the castles, if not take the autobahn. I'd recommend staying overnight in this area also. From there head over to Berchtesgaden to visit the Eagles Nest. We dropped our rental off there before we headed to Salzburg by bus(about an hour). You can do a day trip to Salzburg from there if you don't want to change hotels again but you won't be able to see everything in a day. From Berchtesgaden (recommend Hotel Bavaria) or Salzburg you can head back to Munich for your flight home. You're trying to cover a lot in one week. I'd recommend Hallstatt for another trip. We spent 10 nights on this itinerary and that didn't include Munich. Have fun!

Since you are going in July and have only one week, I would suggest to stay your first nite in Munich and tour the city on you first day. On day 2, rent your car and drive to the area around Salzburg/Berchtesgaden and stay in 1 place for the remainder of your trip. You can get better rates in any of the many places to stay outside of the cities. From that one spot, use your car to visit the city of Salzburg, the town of Berchtesgaden, Hallstadt, the Eagle's Nest, etc. I personally would leave out Rothenburg in favor of not jumping around because your time is limited.

If you are renting a car I believe you can do all you listed. It will require good planning and stamina, but if this is a one in a lifetime, I would advice to go for it, otherwise, I would say save Hallstadt and Rothenburg for another trip What about the following?

DAY 1 Arrival to Munich. Explore Munich
DAY 2 Munich
DAY 3 Head out to Rothenburg, worthy stops at Nordlingen and Dinkelsbuhl (Romantic Road). Overnight at or around Rothenburg.
DAY 4 Drive down highway (German style ) towards Fussen for a visit to Ludwig's Neuschwanstein Castle. A worthy stops in the area in the area is Ettal and Oberammergau (Ludwig's Linderhoff Castle). Overnight in Oberammergau.
DAY 5 Head out to Berchtesgaden early drive, visit, continue on to Salzburg. Overnight somewhere around there. If there is time try to get to Hallstadt.
DAY 6 Drive to Munich
DAY 7 Departure

Again, this will feel a bit rushed, but I believe it will be an enjoyable visit. Tons of lodging options in the region, don't feel too anxious about pre-arranging exactly where you will be staying every night. My best advice is to rent a car and go got it! >-

I like the approach by Emily except I would spend 3 nites in the Salkammergut area and then the last 2 nites in the castle country---stay in either Garmisch or Oberammergau. That make a nice loop of 3 destinations.

Thanks so much for the good ideas. We were wondering if this would be doable...
day 1 fly
day 2 Munich
day 3 Munich - Rothenburg (in the afternoon
Day 4 Rothenburg to Fussen Area
Day 5 Fussen Area
Day 6 Fussen Area - Salzburg
Day 7 Salzburg - Munich(in the evening)
Day 8 Fly

we have not decided on train vs car except we know we would like to drive the romantic road from rothenburg to fussen so we can stop along the way. Is the above plan doable and would you change it? If so how? and how long would it take to drive that section of the romantic road without stops? I know we will be stopping so I want to make sure there is time for stops.

Thanks so much!

we may also be able to add an extra day. if so we would like to stay longer in salzburg

Great post-- would a similar itinerary be ok in early January? We're trying to decide what to do with 7-10 days in late Dec/ early January.

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If you click on my name, you'll see several posts about this region. HTH!