Trip to Bavaria - Tips?
 

We will land in Munich on July 4 and stay until the 9th, then train to Switzerland. Here is our proposed itinerary. Your thoughts and suggestions would be appreciated.<BR>Thursday - rent car, drive to hotel in Murnau (five nights), go to Garmisch and visit Zugspitz. Hiking.<BR>Friday - Castle day. Our hotel will reserve tickets for the castles and the musical "Ludwig."<BR>Saturday - Drive to Innisbrook. See the sights and hopefully get in a hike.<BR>Sunday - Return car. Train to Salzburg (which I am guessing will be a lot like Zurich on a Sunday - not much open but can still see the sights. Does anyone know if the "Sound of Music" tour runs on Sunday? If so, how early?<BR>Monday - Munich. Can anyone recommend a tour (two to four hours)?<BR>Tuesday - Train from Murnau to Vevey in Switzerland.<BR>Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

For some reason I have trouble following the "flow" of this portion of yout trip. Maybe I'm not concentrating. It sounds like a lot of running around, as aopposed to moving around a lot but with a discernible path.<BR><BR>Stiil don't take this as criticism, I actually just wanted to make sure that you had taken some time to look at http://www.twenj.net/bavaria.htm - - it's a labor of love created by dearly departed, and former regular here, Edward Gehrlein.<BR><BR>Missed but not forgotten,<BR><BR>Best wishes... to you up there, Ed...<BR><BR>Rex<BR>

to the top, of the Zugspitz!<BR>

You're going to Salzburg for at most, half a day? And Munich for less than a day? I'd stay in one or the other for two days.

Maybe I should have phrased my post differently. If you were staying in Murnau (mid-way between Munich and Garmisch) for five nights in early July, what would you do? Our thoughts:<BR>1. Garmisch - Zugspitz<BR>2. Castles and surrounding areas<BR>3. Munich<BR>4. Innisbrook<BR>5. Salzburg<BR>I know that is a heavy concentration in cities, but all are fairly close. If you dropped one of the cities,which would it be? Would you add anything?? And yes, Rex, I did see Ed and Julie's website. Info on the castles and driving in Germany was wonderful, but they seemed to have focused on a different part of Bavaria for their stay. Anyway, if anyone has any suggested additions or changes, I would appreciate the information.<BR>

Linda,<BR>Check with your hotel or the local tourist office in Murnau for a map of hiking trails in Pfaffenwinkel, the area of Bavaria in which you'll be staying. One trail follows the river Lech from Epfach to Fussen and Neuschwanstein; another circumnavigates the Starnberger See. A third travels to Wieskirche, a marvel of the Baroque, the equally stunning church in Rottenbuch and Hohenpeissenberg with panoramic views from its summit. These are all sights well worth visiting by auto.<BR><BR>Don't miss Ettal monastery and Ludwig's castle, Linderhof, on your way to Garmisch.<BR><BR>Do be sure to secure a vignette at the border before driving to Innsbruck; fines for autos lacking the vignette are steep and on the spot.

Wes, Thanks for the tips. <BR><BR>Anyone else out there who has good suggestions or comments for things to do and see in this part of Bavaria? If so, thanks in advance.

Linda,<BR>Drop me an Email if interested. I have a number of driving itineraries that hit on three castles, 13 alpine lakes, Wieskirche, Rottenbuch, Ettal, Oberammergau, Garmisch, the Zugspitze, Mittenwald, Innsbruck (note spelling), parts of both the Romantische Strasse and the Deutsche Alpenstrasse. You can readily modify then to reflect Murnau as a start point. If nothing else, they'll give you insights into what's to experience in the area.

Linda, I just tried to e-mail you directly because I'm afraid my response may be a big long (and long-winded). I was lucky enough to attend the Goethe Institute in Murnau in August 2000 and rented a vacation apartment while there. It was a truly wonderful experience and would be happy to share more with you if you'd like. Just e-mail me directly to the address above.

I went to Munich last summer and the most fun we had was on Mikes Bike Tour. Not a rigorous bike tour, took about 4 hours (with a break at a beer garden). I highly recommend them. thier website is: http://www.mikesbiketours.com

I have some problems with this itinerary, too. Much of it strikes me as highly illogical. I don't quite see the reasons for spending so little time in Salzburg and Munich. Nor do I see the logic in driving to Innsbruck, then taking the train to Salzburg, and then returning from Munich to Murnau before leaving for Vevey. <BR><BR>Why? If you leave from Murnau to go to Vevey, you must retrace your steps to Munich to make the connection to Vevey. Why not spend the night in Munich and leave from there for Vevey? Otherwise you go from Munich to Murnau, spend the night, then take the train back to Munich and leave for Vevey. You are allowing precious little time for Munich as it is. <BR><BR>By the way, that is at best a 7 hour trip from Munich to Vevey, with a minimum of 2 changes: Z&uuml;rich and Lausanne. Some of the schedules from Murnau are from 8 to 10 hours in length.<BR>I hope you like riding trains.<BR><BR>As for Innsbruck, there are more interesting places to go, like Salzburg and Munich. I visited Innsbruck last summer and left, hoping to never return. <BR><BR>If you want to go hiking in that area, drive to S&ouml;lden in the &Ouml;tztal, and possibly visit the recreation of the Iceman's Village. Take the Gletscherstra&szlig;e up to the snow and ice fields from S&ouml;lden.<BR><BR>The Zugspitze is a worthy objective, and there is plenty of hiking around there.<BR>There are two ways up, one from the German side and one from the Austrian side. <BR><BR>The Sound of Music tour in Salzburg was one of the worst ripoffs of my traveling experience. I have expounded at length on that subject elsewhere on this forum and have little desire to recreate the details of a totally negative experience.<BR>

Wow. Thanks to everyone for responding. I will follow up with Wes and Margaret by e-mail. By way of explanation, we are hotel/spa people and built our trip around two hotel packages (one in Murnau, five nights and one near Vevey, six nights - our flights accomodate this - into Munich and out of Zurich. I know Geneva would have been better, but ...).<BR>So that is why we are not staying a few nights in Munich or Salzburg. But I do appreciate the suggestions and will try to talk my husband into ditching the Innsbruck drive and using the extra day to either further explore Munich or do some local hiking. Glad to hear that Mike's bike tour is good and that the Sound of Music tour is, to quote another poster, "worth skipping." Your thoughts have been helpful and I do appreciate it.