Please sign in to post.

8-10 days in Austria and Germany

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

Posted by
11294 posts

One important point: I don't know how you define "vegetarian diet," but I know that other South Asians often mean "no eggs" as well as "no flesh protein"; milk is OK. However, in many places outside of South Asia, "vegetarian" is taken to mean "no flesh protein, but milk and eggs are OK." So, if you don't eat eggs, you will have to look for "vegan" rather than "vegetarian," or will have to learn the local words for the specific food groups you do and do not eat.

Posted by
8889 posts

As Harold says "Vegetarian" is no problem in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Most restaurants have a vegetarian option, and there are many vegetarian-only restaurants.
But "vegetarian" includes eggs and diary products (milk, cheese). That is animal products that do not involve killing the animal.
If you want no animal products at all, that is called "vegan" and is harder to find.

Vienna is worth the visit. Important, whatever route you plan, you must return your hire car in the same country you picked it up (but not necessarily in the same town), otherwise it costs you a lot of money.

You are supposed to get your Schengen visa from the country you will be spending the most time in. With your itinerary, getting your visa from the German consulate would probably be OK.