I am planning a trip to Austria and Germany in May 2016. We are travelling as a young couple and this will be my wife's first time to mainland Europe. Here is what I have so far:
1) Fly from Pakistan into Vienna early morning. Planning for 3 nights in the city at a cozy boutique hotel.
2) Train to Salzburg and hire a car and head towards Ramsau bei Berchtesgaden. Are 3 nights enough including a day trip to Salzburg?
3) Head towards Garmish or Innsbruck and drive to Fussen for 2 nights. On the second day we want to visit the castle of Neuschwanstein.
4) I have yet to plan for the last part of the trip before flying to London where we will be staying with family. My wife wants to go to the Swiss Alps, but I feel we will have had seen enough of the Alps by then. Any other suggestions? Maybe we should skip Berchtesgaden/Salzburg and go Berner Oberland instead.
My itinerary is fully open other than the fact I should be spending the maximum number of days in Germany considering I will be applying for visa at their mission (Even that can be changed. Germany seems to easiest because they have visa facilities in my city). I hope to experience a mix of European cities and well as landscapes.
We've chosen Vienna because of its palaces, and culture and because it's somewhat doable in 3 days. Paris--I'd like to save that for another day. However, we are still open to suggestions. We visit London for a few weeks every year but I have never been to another big European city other than Istanbul (and Amsterdam when I was 5).
Some considerations:
Wife doesn't like to travel light--therefore I feel hiring a car would be best.
We are a couple and enjoy a good hotel.
We probably won't be returning to Europe very soon given the hassle of applying for a visa.
Vegetarian diet