Good day, I please need some help with my itinerary. We are a family of 3 (1 teenager) and would like to travel to Germany (Bavaria ), Slovenia and Czech Republic, passing through Austria. It will be end of December this year (starting 27th). The idea is to visit some ski resorts in Slovenia (vogel or kranjska) and maybe even in Bavaria. We don't see much snow in South Africa! We won't stay in the resorts but rather in close by towns. And then also visiting castles and doing sightseeing in the towns and cities. Definitely Neuschwanstein and zugspitze, and skocjan caves and lake bled &lake bohinj in slovenia.
My problem is where to start and end this journey. I was looking at arriving in munich, and departing from Prague, or arriving prague and departing from Venice. (Most affordable flights from South Africa at the moment are arriving Munich, departing Venice or arriving Munich departing Prague or arriving Prague departing Venice, and even Munich return)
We would like to rent a car mostly and use trains where necessary. But I am battling to figure out the route with the best place to rent a car and drop off in the same country to avoid expensive drop off costs. (Eg Vienna and Innsbruck or Munich return or munich and regensburg )?
An idea of our itinerary would be:
3 nights Prague (day trip to Cesky Krumlov )
1 or 2 in Ljubljana
3 in Bled or Bohinj
2 in Salzburg or Berchtesgaden
3 in Fussen/Mittenwald /Garmisch-Partenkirchen area
If we leave from venice I need to add 1 night here
And depending on route maybe need one night in Regensburg or Munich
I am still very flexible so all advice will be appreciated. It will be our first trip to Europe. We did a self plan trip to Thailand 2 years ago.
Thank you so much! Lee