What would you do?

It looks like you only have 9 days on the ground so a lot depends on how much time you want in Paris at the end before you fly home. Figure a day to travel from wherever you are to Paris and how much time in Paris and count back from there to how much time you have. I think Munich for a few days with a day trip to Salzburg, then somewhere as a stopover between Munich and Paris and that's all you have time for. I also did a day trip to Regensburg and Passau from Munich so you could easily spend 4 nights there and not have to move around and change hotels and then just move on to Paris.

My two favorite cities in Europe are Paris and Salzburg. Munich is also a great city to explore. I would not try to add any other cities to the mix. You will have more to see than you have time. The Sound Of Music tour was a lot of fun. You might look for a tour that lasts all day and takes you to sights outside of the city in addition to the Sound of Music sites. Be sure to get a Museum Pass for your stay in Paris. It will allow you to maximize your time. You are going to have a great time!

That was kind of our second half of our The Big Trip 2014. Paris was the usual things you do in Paris. High speed rail between Paris and Munich.

For the Bavaria leg of things, we rented a car and just kind of roamed around between Salzburg and Munich the first few days, and then dropping the car off for nights four and five when we were in Munich proper. Germany has wonderful local mass transit in many cases, but it's also a great place to do some driving in a nice German sedan and it can be fun to fire up the GPS and explore some of the smaller towns in the countryside and mountains at your own pace. (Just remember to pick up a ten euro vignette sticker if you're going to be driving on the Austrian autobahns; they do random roadblock checks for them on the off ramps.) Did Berchsgarten/Konigsee as a day trip from Salzburg and then a night in Garmisch and More Alps as an indirect way between Salzburg and Munich.

Are you a train or a plane person? How long do you want to sit on either? budget? Why Munich? Why Paris?

Munich (2) => Salzburg (2) => Vienna (2 or 3) => fly to Paris (3 or 4)
Munich (2) => Salzburg (2) => Innsbruck (1) => Luzern (2) => Paris via Zurich (3)

Hello chelseapiersanti. You will be at Europe 8 whole days, after the day you arrive at the Munich airport. It looks like :
Day 1: Munich (the day after the day your flight arrives at Munich airport)
Day 2: travel to Salzburg (train)
Day 3: Salzburg
Day 4: Sound of Music tour
Day 5: travel to Paris (train from Salzburg to Munich, fly from Munich to Paris)
Days 6, 7, 8 : Paris.

We have used Munich as a base for day trips several times. We love the Hotel Torbräu. If you book a deluxe double the little mini-bar is free, they have an outstanding breakfast that is included in the price, and best of all it is across the street from the Isartor S-Bahn stop which you can connect to directly from the airport. We always use trains exclusively, and because we do some sort of train trip every day find the a Eurail or German Rail Pass a good deal. Some of our favorite day trips from Munich: Salzburg, Neuschwanstein Castle, Bamberg, Nuremburg, Berchtesgaden (Eagle's nest tour company also does a Sound of Music day that may include the Konigsee, Konigsee, Dachau,Garmisch-Partenkirchen. I did not post links because sometimes when I try to do that the post gets deleted as it is considered advertising.
Private message me if you need more ideas. We have been to Bavaria several times.

Whenever we travel to Europe, we always fly open jaw into one city and out of another. We cover more territory that way and avoid expensive backtracking to our original destination city.
All the great cities of Europe are worthy of at least 4 full days' touring. And Paris is a premier city of the world.
With very short time for a secondary city, I too agree about Munich. And you should consider flying Paris-Munich due to your lack of time. I suggest taking a train straight to Salzburg and spending two days there--including your Sound of Music Tour.

Then use your remaining time to see Munich before flying back to Paris.
It's a shame you don't have another 4-5 days, as we absolutely love traveling by rental car through the Austrian Alps and the Dolomites of Northern Italy--places of immense natural beauty. Munich is also surrounded by many great day trips.

@David, I believe the OP is flying open jaws into Munich and out of Paris, which will maximize their time in Europe.

Thank you everyone for your replies and suggestions! All advice is so helpful. @James E., to answer your questions, we don't mind trains or planes. We'd prefer to get where we're going sooner than later. One thing I am kind of interested in is maybe taking a train through the Alps a bit, I don't know if it's worth it or if we'd logistically have enough time. As far as overall budget, we could probably swing $2000 for tickets (plane or train), sightseeing, food, hotels. The reason we chose to fly into Munich and out of Paris is because we have airline miles and could basically do non-stop flights to and from using those miles and going to and from those particular cities.

One thing I am kind of interested in is maybe taking a train through the Alps a bit.

I am thinking you could use Munich as a home base and day trip to Salzburg and other locations, for instance, Mittenwald. The train ride there is pretty scenic and not too long.

OR, you do something funky like Munich > Salzburg > Innsbruck > Munich, then fly to Paris.

OR, after a few days and day trips from Munich, train from Munich to Paris via Strasbourg. I am a fan of train travel, so I would be ok with the time it takes. You may not be. How I wish I were planning a trip....

Debbie

Hi,

On this last trip last month, I did similar flights but in reverse order.. in: SFO to Paris CDG , out: Frankfurt to SFO. I could easily have chosen Munich since both have direct flights to SFO.

Munich (2) => Salzburg (2) => Innsbruck (1) => Luzern (2) => Paris via Zurich (3)
Munich (2) => Salzburg (2) => Vienna (2 or 3) => fly to Paris (3 or 4)

Hello Chelseapiersanti. The airlines Air France has a flight from the airport of Munich to the CDG airport of Paris. The flight departs from Munich airport at 3:50 p.m., arrives at Paris CDG at 5:30 p.m. The time duration of that flight is 1 Hour and 40 minutes. The airplane is an Airbus A321 (this year). The price for the Air France airline ticket (one way) for one person is 55 U.S. Dollars.
Look at the suggested itinerary for you in my reply dated July 21, at 4:53 p.m. On day 3 you could ride in a bus from Salzberg to Berchtesgaden in Germany (30 minutes bus ride). And ride in a bus from there to the NAZI Documentation Center (Obersalzberg stop). And ride in a shuttle bus to Adolf Hitler's "Eagle's Nest". There you would see a great view of mountains. And return to Salzberg that day.

Why would she need to fly from Munich to Paris on her arrival day if her goal is to see Salzburg? She should train to Salzburg from Munich since she'll already be in the neighborhood, it seems to me.