My wife and I will arrive in Munich on June 22, 2009 at 11AM and fly home from Munich on July 4. We are picking up our car on June 24 in Munich. Our original itinerary is being reconsidered by our planning department.
Plan 1- Mon-Tues Munich; Wed-Thur - Salzburg ; Fri- Sat - Vienna
Sun- Mon - Budapest; Tues- Lake Hallstat; Wed-Thu-Fussen,Garmisch or Mittenwald; Friday- Munich.Saturday- Fly Home
Plan 2- Mon- Tues Munich; Wed-Thur - Salzburg; Fri-Sunday Vienna
Mon-Tues- Lake Hallstat; Wed- Thu-Fussen,Garmisch or Mittenwald; Friday- Munich.Saturday- Fly Home.
We will miss Budapest but the relaxation in Lake Hallstat and Garmisch-Mittenwald area may be a better vacation for us.
Thanks.

Take a look at a map. You have a lot of back tracking built into your trip.

You might consider not picking up the car till Salzburg. You can ride the train easily from Munich to Salzburg. The Bayern Ticket is 27 euros for up to 5 people. You ride a train after 9am on weekdays. That way you wouldn't be paying for parking and two days of rentals while you see Salzburg.

AisleSeat,
We are picking up our (European Delivery)BMW in Munich and dropping it off in Munich after our trip. We are planning on driving to Salzburg and Vienna and parking the car at our Hotel if possible, and using public transportation. Sorry I should have explained this in my post.

I like Plan 2 - Budapest is almost 5 1/2 hours from Hallstatt - not a great day of driving to look forward to - and 2 1/2 from Vienna. That would be 8 hours driving for one overnight stop.

I try to stick to 3 day overnights, but if you want to get Vienna in, then your 2 day stops are at least reasonable ones given the sights to see and the distances apart..

I'm not sure what AisleSeat means - there is no backtracking in your plan, or it's all backtracking. If you need to leave from the same airport then your are backtracking at some point. A line out and back with different stops is just a flat circle.

I like Plan 2. I think I'd save Budapest for another trip.

I don't know what your hotel budget or preference is, but we have stayed twice at the Hotel Admiral in Vienna. It's in a good location behind the Museum Quarter which is right off the Ringsstrasse and near the UBahn and tram. Rates are reasonable and they have several car parking spaces next to the hotel for guests. You must tell them when you make the reservation that you need a parking space.

http://www.hotel-admiral-wien.at/admiral/en/service.php

We have 2 nights in Hilton Vienna using reward points but we don't have any other nights booked. We were worried about the long drive to and from Budapest also. Amy suggestions for the other locations would be appreciated.

Hi cin,

I prefer Plan 2.

Basically, you have to decide what you want to see.
If you want to see European cities, then skip Garmisch/Mittenwald/Füssen, cut down Hallstadt to an outing from Salzburg and go to Budapest. It will be more expensive, but maybe you should consider dropping the car in Budapest and get a flight or nighttrain back to Munich.
Personally, I'm more fond of plan2, as the trip could be summarized as "Munich, Salzburg and Vienna plus alpine landscape/villages". Budapest is a bit the odd one here.
As Hallstadt, and the whole "Salzkammergut" is really close to Salzburg and really has to do a lot with Salzburg, it makes sense to to Hallstadt and the Salzkammergut after Salzburg on your way to Vienna.
But I'd think about going back to Munich differently.
Füssen, Garmisch and Mittenwald are famous bavarian alpine villages.
Yet, if they were in Austria, they would be far less famous, that's at least my opinion. The german part of the alpes is simply quite small and of that small part, those places touristically stand out.
To get a glimpse of some really high mountains, I'd consider to go back to Munich via Graz and Klagenfurt/Villach (or via Liezen/Schladming, also beautiful) and cross the Großglockner national park using the Groglockner Hochalpenstraße, maybe staying in the village of Heiligenblut. You may then even go back to Munich via Innsbruck and Garmisch.
And - Neuschwanstein isn't really that great, to be honest.

Different strokes for different folks, but we thought Neuschwanstein a real standout after years of visiting many medieval castles. Not that we don't still enjoy medieval castles--I am a castle nutcase.

But the fantastic Neuschwanstein is a real change of pace with its German mythology and Wagnerian opera connections, the fascinating decoration in the rooms that were completed, the blending in of "modern" improvements--and its connection with that very historic period of the 19th Century is extremely interesting. The only thing I don't like about Neuschwanstein (and Hohenschwangau Castle, too) is that the tours are too short.

With a car you could stop at Herrnchiemsee, one of King Ludwig's castles that's between Munich and Salzburg. The castle is on a small island in the middle of the lake and is supposed to emulate Versailles. A nice little detour.

Also with a car you can stay at Hohenschongau. That's the town at the base of the hills where Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau castles are located. To avoid the crowds, you can see one castle when you arrive, presumedly later in hte afternoon, and then get up, see the other castle, and leave before the buses arrive.

And check out Wieskirche, an exquisite Baroque church in a field, not far from Hohenschwangau.

I'd love to spend some time wandering around the Salzkammergut in a car. Lakes, mountains, cute small towns.

Budapest looks like it will go on the next trip list.
Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau are definites so far. Not sure where to stay yet, in this area. The Großglockner national park and staying in the village of Heiligenblut sounds very interesting. Is the driving through this area a little unnerving for someone(my Wife) with a little fear of heights? I like these drives, but they make my wife nervous usually she closes her eyes. If we stay 3 nights in Vienna we will be able to leave early to make this drive.
We already have our flight in and out of Munich and can't change it.

The driving is fine. It is almost all through broad mountain passes - not too many "cliff" like twisting roads.

After all, German roads, like German cars, are built for driving.

I'd also follow Watzmann's suggestion to consider to add some real mountains to your trip. The motorway from Munich to Vienna via Salzburg barely touches the front range of the Alps.

I doubt, though, that you can drive from Vienna to the Grossglocker alpine road and drive that road, too, in one day.
I'd rather add one day to Salzburg to see Hallstadt, and split the travel time between Vienna and Füssen with an overnight in Heiligenblut. And do the drive via Grossglocker and Krimml waterfall to Füssen when you are fresh again next day.

The Grossglocker road is often used for show rides with vintage cars from the 1920s.. this will give you an idea of the road's grades - which are very easy to handle.

Cinquanta

I picked up my Bimmer last May and we did the Grossglockner (among other things). My Mom hates being a passenger and she wasn't too bad - and I had the top down for much of the drive, too. I just kept it in second gear for the most part and it was all good. You won't have many opps to go into higher gear anyway, with all those turns.

Heiligenblut was beautiful. Here is one of my pics:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/skywalkerbeth/2763422481/

I'd second the advice to turn west/left at the foot of the Großglockner Hochalpenstraße (Großglockner High Alpine Route http://www.grossglockner.at/en/) to the famous Waterfalls of Krimml (near Gerlos: http://www.gerlosstrasse.at/en/). Then, my suggested route would follow the Zillertal (Zillervalley http://www.zillertal.at/index.php?lang=en) north to the Inn valley.
Here, I'd take the Achenpass straight north (no difficult drive, wide road), pass the beautiful Achensee http://www.achensee.info/home/home_en.html?_season=at2 to the Sylvensteinspeicher (Sylvenstein-Lake).
Here, on top of the lake's dam, I'd turn left and follow the small toll road through the upper Isar valley to Wallgau http://www.wallgau.de/index.shtml?en_wallgau and further to Mittenwald and Garmisch and Füssen. (part of the scenic route "Deutsche Alpenstraße"/"German Alpine Road": http://www.germany-tourism.de/ENG/de...trasse-id8.htm). Also great from Sylvensteinspeicher is the valley "Eng", a dead end valley with beautiful alpine maple trees, towered by massive rocky mountains:http://www.standi.de/index.php?page=karwendelbilder
Another option along the drive from Vienna to Heiligenblut is the Wörthersee, a beautiful lake close to Klagenfurt: http://www.woerthersee.com/en/

Wow! Watzman a lot of very specific and good information. I would have not even thought about these routes, thanks. We are planning on the days after Vienna to be sightseeing and relaxing in the Austrian and German border area.

I forgot to mention that Zell am See, at the north of the GG, was very pretty too.

We spent 4 days on the Achensee in September 2007. It's a beautiful area in the Austrian Tirol that few Americans visit.

http://travel.webshots.com/photo/288...11574650RxTYIH

We stayed at the Vier Jahreszeiten (4 Seasons) in Maurach, a very nice spa hotel.

http://www.4jahreszeiten.at/

Hi Cinquanta! Your trip (plan #2) sounds very similar to the one we took in December. We did 3 nights in Munich (then rented car), 2 nights in Berchtesgaden (stopped in Hallstatt for the day on the way to...), 3 nights in Vienna, 2 nights in Salzburg, 2 nights in Nuremberg, 1 night in Rothenberg ODT, and 2 nights in Stuttgart before flying out of Frankfurt. Of course we were there for the Xmas markets, so we went to the towns we thought would have the best markets.

We originally planned to do 2 nights in Fussen but had to give that up because we added in Vienna sort of at the last minute, and had to eliminate something. But anyway, if I were you, I'd definitely eliminate Budapest from this trip - it's just too much.

I don't know if you have any status w/Hilton, but we stayed at the Hilton in Vienna, and with Gold status we got upgraded to an Executive room. It was so nice because we could use the lounge every day for free breakfast, and even had dinner in there one night too! Saved us a lot of money in Vienna.

Jenblase,
We have 2 nights at the Hilton Vienna with points. We did have Gold status (I have to check) but I don't know if this helps when using points. We will probably add 1 more night in Vienna and pay for that night.