It looks like my rebooked trip on Delta Airlines will happen this summer in late July into early August. I need help to plan three weeks in Bavaria, Austria, Slovenia, and ending in Switzerland. I am flying into Munich, Germany and out of Geneva, Switzerland. I want to spend some time in Bavaria, before heading to Salzburg, then to Slovenia before spending the last week in Switzerland. I may cut out the Slovenia segment, although it is four hours by rail from Salzburg. I spent a week in Vienna on a previous trip, so looking to explore Salzburg and day trips from there. I plan to use the rail system to get around and maybe a one-way airline ticket from Ljubljana to Zurich to save time. In multiple trips, I have used trains, buses, European airlines, and ferries to get around Europe in the past. I think a week will be enough in Switzerland as it is small and expensive. What's the best way to make my way from Munich to Geneva?
Posted by
Noblesville, Indiana, USA
1412 posts
Bled and Ljubljana are both worth visiting and are on the Eurail map directly linked from Salzburg. We actually enjoyed them more than the latter. I don't have experience with any other part of Austria but if I was riding the train I'd probably double back toward Geneva through Innsbruck. Zurich, Luzern, the Berner Oberland (via Interlaken), and Bern are all fun to visit and accessible via rail before you get to Geneva. We didn't have time to visit any of the communities on the lake except Montreux (beautiful) so can't help you much there. We visited all these places (and several others) on the same trip but I drove instead of taking the train. We flew into/out of Zurich so we made a big loop.
Posted by
Florida
341 posts
I agree with KBK on Lake Bled and Ljubljana. Not only beautiful but interesting histories especially in Lj (which has a river running through it with restaurants on both sides).
What are your interests? Are you a castle person or city sightseeing? History like going to Dachau? Churches?
For looking up possible train schedules, I use DB.de - it isn’t exact but will give you a general idea of routes and how long they take.
Give the forum a little more info so we can help you.
Posted by
Southeast US
4050 posts
You don't give your exact dates of travel, but given your date range, it is likely you will be in Salzburg during the Salzburg Festival (Salzburger Festspiele), the summer classical music/drama/opera festival that runs from 17 July to 31 August. That drives up lodging rates a bit and makes the city more crowded, but the crowds are still quite manageable. If you have interest in any of the 3 represented genres, performances are top notch (though quite pricey). Ticket sales were apparently halted due to uncertainty of whether the festival would happen, but online sales start again on June 7.
Once again, depending on your interests, consider a guided tour of the Festival venues if such tours open up (not offered right now due to COVID-19). This guided tour is about the only way outside of attending a performance to see the Summer Riding School (Felsenreitschule), which would be of particular interest to Sound of Music fans.
I love Salzburg. My #1 recommended off-the-beaten-path, non-touristy activity: walk to the Neustadt (new town) to grab a coffee/snack at the Panoramabar located within the architecturally-interesting city library. The venue started its life as a commercial sports bar, but now is a cafe that trains adults with developmental disabilities to work in the food service industry. Neat concept. Great views of the city. Unusual horizontally-traveling elevator to get to the cafe. Shockingly red carpet in the library. A part of Salzburg most visitors never venture out to see. The Panoramabar does require some very basic German language skills because the wait staff is unlikely to understand English.
Posted by
Irving
3279 posts
Skip Slovenia this time and visit it in a future trip when you can combine both Croatia and Bosnia & Herzegovina. Logistically Slovenia isn’t convenient, especially if traveling by public transportation. You’ll waste an entire day geting there (and back) that will involve multiple train connections that are no fun.
I would sleep in Munich for three nights and take day trips to Dachau (15-minutes by train) for a half day and Salzburg (2h) for a full day. I would then take a train to Füssen (2h 15m) and sleep there for three nights. From Füssen you can take a train to Neuschwanstein Castle (15m) and then walk over to Hohenschwangau (30m). The next day I would look into taking a direct bus to Oberammergau (1h 45m) for the day. From Füssen you can also day trip to Reutte, AT (30m).
From Füssen I would take an early morning train to Luzern that requires two connections taking 6h and spend a couple nights there before continuing on to Gimmelwald and the Berner Oberland (3h involving three connections). I would sleep there a minimum of three nights.
From Gimmelwald I would take a train to Bern (2h and three connections) and sleep there three nights. This would include a day trip to Murten / Morat (45m train ride).
From Bern you can take a train to Lausanne (1h 30m) and sleep there for two nights and visit Château de Chillon (45m) by train. From Lausanne you can take a 1h train ride to the Geneva airport.
Following is a breakdown of the minimum of nights I would spend in a place per night:
3 nights Munich
3 nights Füssen
2 nights Luzern
3 nights Gimmelwald
3 nights Bern
2 nights Lausanne
Posted by
Washington DC
28247 posts
Ljubljana's not a bad trip from Munich by bus. I think it was 4 or 5 hours when I did it in 2015. Salzburg to Ljubljana would be considerably quicker, but possibly so infrequent (or even nonexistent??) as to be unworkable.
Posted by
Southeast US
4050 posts
It looks like Flixbus has 2-3 buses going per day from Salzburg to Ljubljana, depending on the day. The 2 daytime departures are scheduled for a 4-hour duration. The brutal 1:35 am departure is only 3.5 hours! It looks like in August there is a 1 am direct train, but oebb.at train/bus connections are otherwise somewhat complicated -- better in July, but still 6-hour trip with transfer from train to bus at Villach.
Posted by
California
497 posts
We’re doing a line starting in late August through September
Fly to Geneva, stay in Montreux
Trains to BO, Wengen
Train to Vienna from Zurich
Train from Vienna to Graz
Train from Graz to Ljubljana and Lake Bled
Then fly back, right now from Ljubljana through LHR and back to States but may tack on a few days in France.
We could’ve trained all the way from Vienna to Ljubljana but thought we’d check out Graz and breaks the trip up a bit.
All depends on what happens on reopening! Entire trip will be changed if we can’t get in these places by Fall