10 Days from Munich To Prague (we would like to drive some?)

So, I'd rent a car in Munich and drive around until we can catch a train to Prague perhaps? We could do all trains, but driving in a van with 9 friends sounds like too much fun. Thoughts around this?

Oh and let's do qualify what honeymoon success was attributable to the forums help! Hah!

In a 9 person people carrier you have a choice - 9 people and no luggage area because the last row of seats go all the way back to the back window, or tip the last row of seats up and you have room for 6 and some luggage.

Travelling light?

Salzburg is 2 hours from Munich, considerably longer from Füssen.

I was hoping a full size, 12 passenger van would exist in Europe as a rental, but I haven't looked yet. Worst case we take all trains, but for the RR leg of the trip a car seems ideal.

Your regular driving licence is only good for up to 9 passengers (incl. driver) in a van. If there are more than 9 you will need a special bus permit.

Even if you do have this permit I don't think you could easily rent a van with more than 9 seats.

Rent 2 cars possibly?

I once had a 9 seater and the seats were all quite high. Thus we could deposit all our luggage under the seats. Even with 9 people there would have been enogh space for all of us plus our luggage.

Well, it's possible our eleven committed travelers will whittle down to nine or fewer by the time this trip comes around, in which case we go with the van. If we wind up with more than nine, two cars it is. Many thanks all for the advice regarding the transportation. I'm going to alter the itinerary a bit and see what people think as well.

Worst case we take all trains

That's probably the best idea. Because the trips on days 4-6 are possible with a
cheap day ticket, and you can never rent a car for the price of them (assumign 10 travellers): Bayern Ticket 2x €53 for 10 people = €106 pp (also valid for the bus from Füssen to
Neuschwanstein). The trip to Prague costs €19.90 when booked in advance.

The comparison calculation for days 4 - 6 looks something like this:

3 days x 2 Bayern tickets (for five travellers each) = €318.
3 days x2 car rental (Sedan, Avis) = ca. €1000 + 300 CDW + € 150 (petrol for 2 x 700km)
+ fees for the Salzburg trip (motorway sticker, parking) = € 60, total approx €1500.

Can you run me through the math here again? I found a 9 passenger van rental for $625 for 4 days (USD). That's $69/person approximately. Now that doesn't include fuel, but seems pretty reasonable. Are there tolls? Are you including parking expense?

The flexibility of having a car, would be worth a small premium, but the numbers you're using appear more than double what I had come up with so far and would definitely push me towards all train travel.

I will compare pricing two cars and see what I find that way as well. Thanks so much for the feedback.

Something to consider here. Driving is not the issue, it is the parking. We had a station wagon for this past trip. It was a nightmare. In most cities the parking is in garages which are tight little spaces with low ceilings. When we did come across a lot, it was better but the spaces were still smaller than what we are used to in the states. Once in the space, getting out was quite tight. I will never rent a car bigger than a compact car ever again in Europe.

Can you run me through the math here again?

Well, if you can reduce your group to nine people, it' getting of course much cheaper than renting two sedans. E.g., Mercedes Vito (or equivalent) at Sixt including CDW €500 (plus fuel approx €120 plus parking fees €20/day plus Austrian vignette €10) ~ €700 (that's still twice the rail price, though). The baggage problem, however, remains. The Sixt page says: 9 People, three suitcases.

BTW, you'd have to return the car in Nuremberg. As far as I know none of the major car rental companies has an agency in Rothenburg.

I'm definitely leaning back towards train travel. I recently drove a large car all over Tuscany and it went well, but I'm guessing the small German towns don't have the parking accoms of San Gimi and Volterra?

Also, as an update to the above itinerary I'm thinking:

Day 1: Arrive Munich and the jet lag sleeps
Day 2: Munich (Dachau tour and then evening strolling/contemplating)
Day 3 Oktoberfest all day
Day 4: Leave Munich for Rothenburg (midday?). Walk around and do night watch tour...
Day 5: Awake RODT and do winery tour. Depart for Fussen or elsewhere near Neuschwanstein
Day 6: Leave Neuschwanstein area for Salzburg.
Day 7: Salzburg - bike tour, go up to the fortification thingy and walk down to abbey biegarten (may some other things...full day in Salzburg)
Day 8: Salzburg - awake and head for eagle's nest. Once eagle's nest complete...head to Hallstatt?
Day 9: Wake up and see some Hallstatt sights? Spend part of a day before catching train to Prague (I'm sure we'll have to transfer)
Day 10: Full day Prague
Day 11: Full day Prague
Day 12: (morning Prague) Fly home

We added a day to the trip, so I tried to work in Hallstatt. We could dedicate that day to one more in Munich, one more in Prague or one more visiting a Romantic Road town. Thoughts around that? If we drive the leg from departing Munich to arriving Salzburg, what do you guys think of this? Could we complete this same itinerary by train and still be efficient time-wise? Overall how does the allocation of time per city look? Thanks!

You have virtually no time at all for Munich itself, and two days is very short for Prague.

True enough... Munich and Prague are both being short changed. Would you skip Hallstatt and just dedicate that time to an additional day in Munich?

I would drop something; actually, I'd drop more than one thing. But my interests as a tourist are extremely different from your group's, so I'm not a good person to suggest what to cut out.

On my last trip, we flew into Paris and jumped a train to Bruges from CDG:

I felt the pace of the trip was more or less ideal given only having 8 full days on the ground: I'm bringing this up because I'm hoping to give you an idea of what pace I'm looking for.

Day 1 - Land and train from Paris to Bruges
Day 2 -Bruges
Day 3- (rent car) Bruges to Bayeux
Day 4- All day WWII tour from Bayeux
Day 5- Bayeux - Tapestry and cathedral in morning, car to Arromanches for lunch, then drive from Arromanches to MSM for evening photo splendor
Day 6- MSM dawn light photos and walkabout, then take car to St. Malo and return - walk around St. Malo and hop train for Paris
Day 7- Paris
Day 8- Versailles/Paris
Day 9- Paris
Day 10- Fly home

We gave Paris three full days on the above trip, including Versailles, which I felt was still not enough time of course, but otherwise, is the pace much different from what I'm considering for Bavaria-Prague? We are all young, will not have kids with us and are mostly of the opinion that we can rest when we're dead. On my honeymoon, my wife and I saw 16 cities in 15 days throughout Italy. Any more qualitative feedback on time spent in each place would be great. Right now, I'm thinking of making Fussen a daytrip from Munich and letting that be an opt-in for Neuschwanstein or stay in Munich to see more sights there. I'ms till considering cutting Hallstatt and tacking that day onto Prague.

I would suggest skipping Hallstatt and add that day to Munich.

"...something Germanic in nature." Then you should focus your trip on going only to North and eastern Germany. I personally would skip all the places you have in mind except for Munich.

Alright...I'm going to heed this advice...Hallstatt is struck.

However, I consider Austria, "Germanic in nature". I suppose we could quibble about that. Prague is on the iten, because I've been to Bavaria and Austria a couple times and it's on my go list.