Central Europe Location for 1 month stay

I would ask what specific places you hope to see in those countries; you mentioned only Prague, which is at least 5-1/2 hours from Munich by train. (Flying wouldn't be much, if any, faster by the time you did the airport dance.) If your target list will include major cities like Vienna (at least 4 hours from Munich by train) and Ljubljana (at least 6-1/2 hours by train or over 5 hours by bus) or mountainous regions of Switzerland, I'd suggest you consider how many days you'll want to spend at those destinations. It makes no sense to take multiple day-trips to a distant city because it has more than one day's worth of sights you're interested in. It doesn't take a lot of multi-day trips for the cost of extra hotel rooms--in conjunction with the necessary round-trip transportation--to wipe out any savings you might have with a single, month-long booking.

It's obvious the stay-put-in-one-place concept appeals to a lot of people (there have been other posts like yours), but when the goal is to travel widely, I think it's unlikely to be a good idea. This isn't to say you could not have an enjoyable month in a base like Munich and travel around the area; it's just that I'd plan to cover a much smaller area than you may be assuming will work well.

I'd start by getting guidebooks to Germany and Austria and putting together a list of interesting destinations. Check travel times to see what is practical. Does it appear you'll have enough attractive destinations practical from Munich or some other place you might decide makes more sense? In that case, you can consider possible options in western Czechia and maybe northernmost Switzerland.

Keep in mind that in many cases you'll pay quite a bit more for tickets on express trains if you don't buy them well in advance. That can put a crimp in the idea of waking up in the morning and deciding where to go. Escalating fares aren't an issue on slower, regional trains of the sort you could use to relatively nearby towns.

If you like basing in a city, Munich isn't at all a bad impulse for those locations.

Innsbruck as well, on an appropriate high speed rail line.

Previous poster is correct - your desired destinations are far enough apart that there isn't one central location that will allow day trips to all of them.

Two locations, two weeks each? One east, one west?

As adraven pointed out, your plan as stated is not only impractical, but likely twice as expensive as it needs to be once you factor in all the return trips and duplications in accommodation costs.

To see how impractical just from a distance point of view, try this: pull up a map of Europe on Google Maps. Zoom in to just the total area you anticipate seeing. Stick a (virtual) pin in the city that appears to be the most central. Then use that same map to give you the distance from that city to each of the other places you want to see. I think you will quickly see how impractical doing day trips to far flung places would be. Most people would limit day trips to areas less than 3 hours from the home base.

However there is some merit to having a series of home bases and moving a few times after exhausting the local possibilities.

Nancy, not in my nature to tell someone they cant do something so I did a bit of looking. First of all they “day trips” for the most part will need to be two-night trips and no matter where you choose to stay a great many of them will need to be flights.

So, I will make some assumptions.

Prague, Vienna, Geneva, Ljubljana, Frankfurt
One way tickets
BUD to FRA, Lufthansa under $150 and 2 hours
BUD to Vienna, 3 hours on the train
BUD to Geneva, EasyJet, under 2 hours
BUD to PRG, Ryan under $100 and about an hour
BUD to Ljublijana will take you about 3 hours with one change and cost about $200

So, it can be done. But do you want to do it? Pick another base city and the result will be similar, maybe more long train rides, but not shorter trips.

Personally, with a month I would pick four cities and spend a week in each and do day trips to local points of interest.

Going to disagree with Mister E (nothing personal
bud!). Don't base in Budapest and fly to visit other places.

If you want one city Munich is a good choice, but you will need to stay overnight to visit Switzerland etc. But many good day trips accessible by train from Munich as well.

People have already given you lots to think about in terms of your initial ideas about how to "see Austria, Switzerland, Black Forest Germany, Prague and Slovenia" from a base in Munich. I agree with their observations and with the possibility of renting an apartment for a week in each of 4 locations so that you could explore them and their immediate environs. That would require some serious prioritization, of course.

Using Booking.com to zero in on apartments or hotels in some cities or towns in your chosen countries would help you get a potential idea of costs. Here's the link: https://www.booking.com/

Using DBBahn to see train schedules for getting from one major location to another, as well as to some of the day trip options will show you how long those trips will take, even if you can't buy the tickets from DB. Here's the link: https://int.bahn.de/en/

I see this is your 1st post on the RS Forums. Is it safe to assume that this will be your 1st trip to Europe? If so, it would probably be a good idea to take advantage of some great online resources on this RS website to help with your planning.

Travel Tips cover the basic parts of planning and preparing for a trip to Europe. I find the information there helpful for those things I didn’t know I needed to know. Here's the link: https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips

Explore Europe has sections on each of your listed countries. Be aware that some have very much more information than others. Here they are with their links:

Germany: https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/germany

Austria: https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/austria

Switzerland: https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/switzerland

Czech Republic: https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/czech-republic

Slovenia: https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/slovenia

There also are Forums for each of the countries on your list. Asking questions there will produce targeted answers about visiting them.

Planning a trip anywhere is usually a process that involves lots of work and changes along the way. If it's a 1st trip and you haven't used many of these kinds of resources, it can be a steep learning curve. You're doing a really smart thing to start your planning now. You have lots of time for learning.

If you are open to travel night trains also Berlin can be an option. There are night train options to Vienna and Zurich.
Of course flying is also possible.
Advantage is that also nice cities such as Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Stockholm are in night train reach from Berlin.

Your area is huge, even for a full month.

I would NOT stay in one location for a month. if you do, you would have to pay rent for that place, plus another lodging for places you would visit. With that large an area, day trlps are just not the greatest idea.

Also, staying in some of the places enhances your trip even more.

Even if you were only focused on Bavaria and Austria, you doing a day trip to Vienna from Munich would be silly.

Avoid flying, you waste more time in airports and miss the scenic places en route if you train or rental a car.

KHank I didn't think it was a good idea either. More of an illustration of the problem.

As forctrains, after about 3 hours the romance of the rails is dead for ne. Rather be moving around an aurport.

As for the waste of staying in one place for a month and then paying for another place for over night trips. You can get an AirBnb for a month in most of the cities mentioned for under $1000 a month. You won't get 10 nights in a hotel for that price. Do, yes, great idea. Rent for a month, have a home, dump the heavy stuff and go travel.