9 night itinerary help please

"...other suggestions welcome."

Hallstatt involves a lot of backtracking and not that much payback. Once you're in Salzburg (3 nights) you have the Königssee and Berchtesgaden at your doorstep. A day trip there would be wise.

"The Bavarian Castles" probably means the more modern palaces in the Füssen area. For real castles, add Marksburg and Rheinfels to your list of Rhine activities - "boat rides on the Rhine, wineries, etc." That's where the castles are. You can tour both. See Rick's comments as well. As for those modern palaces, the one I liked best is the King Ludwig II masterpiece located not in Füssen but near the town of Prien on an island in Lake Chiemsee, which is right on the route between Munich and Salzburg.

https://www.ferienhaus-am-chiemsee.com/files/template/background.jpg
https://www.dw.com/en/herrenchiemsee-a-dash-of-island-magic-mixed-with-megolamania/a-18524402
https://www.schloesser.bayern.de/englisch/palace/objects/hch_ns.htm

That will save you some transport time, I think.

I second your idea of Nuremberg for 2-3 nights. It's a great city itself with great connections for day trips to other nearby places - Rothenburg, Bamberg, and Iphofen - and others as well.

Then you have 3 nights in Munich. That's 3 places with 3 nights each. Seems good to me. Order? Probably Nuremberg - Salzburg - Munich.

IMO......Hallstatt is not to be missed if you are in Salzburg. Trains work well in Germany rather than a car. Enjoy your trip.

Hallstatt means a 4-hr. round-trip train journey from Salzburg. As a day trip it's very pretty but it's a small place and you may find you've spent twice as much time in transit as you did in the town itself. If there are several important things you want to do/accomplish there that really will require some time, it will probably be better as an overnight - so a full day plus. If not, perhaps it could be combined with a visit to some other place along the route as well. Depends on your priorities, but pretty as it is, I didn't find all that much to keep me there very long.

I‘d spend the extra day in Rothenburg

I would not do Rothenburg or Nurnberg they are out of your way. Save them for another trip.

I would consider Oberammergau or Mittenwald between the castles and Salzburg. Or from Frankfurt some time on Lake Constance/Bodensee.

That is just me.

Thanks for the replies! Lots of options to consider...I'm still a bit fuzzy on the whole train vs car and if we get a car where to pick up and return. It seems like a hassle to take a train from Fussen to Reutte in order to pick up a car in Austria rather than Germany, but I don't think we would want a car in Salzburg. I know how long it can take here in the US to pick up a rental car and don't like the idea of spending a lot of time dealing with picking up and dropping off a car. But then, I think it would be fun to get off the high speed highways and take a leisurely scenic drive through the mountains on what we might consider the "backroads" assuming such routes exist.

Mainz-Cologne is a bit long for a day trip, you'll spend at least 4 hours (total including getting to the train station and waiting for the train) there & back. There's a fast (ICE) train that takes 1:23 hours. The slower train that goes along the Rhine might be more interesting, about 1:45 hours.

Strasbourg is a little farther (2.5 hours), more scenic, but more than a day trip from Mainz.

How about if we rent a car in Mainz, drive to Black Forrest area (what to do or see there? Hiking?)? Spend 1 or 2 nights?
Drive to Fussen, see castles, 1 night Fussen
Drive to Munich train station, return rental car, train to Salzburg, 3 nights Salzburg (big SOM fan, Mozart, day trip into mountains)
Train back to Munich for return flight home, 2 nights Munich

"How about if we rent a car in Mainz, drive to Black Forrest area (what to do or see there? Hiking?)? Spend 1 or 2 nights?
Drive to Fussen, see castles, 1 night Fussen..."

Confusing. You first wanted the Rothenburg/Nuremberg area - but you are tossing that out now for the Black Forest, where you aren't sure what to do?? Why did you cancel that? The Black Forest means a huge detour. One poster claimed that R'burg and N'berg "are out of your way" as you proceed toward Munich, but that is false.

Also, your new plan counts only 7-8 nights but you have 9 nights. Right??

I'll stick with my suggestion - 3 nights in Nuremberg/Rothenburg area, 3 in Salzburg, 3 in Munich. But if you are convinced that the "castles" (including Neuschwanstein, I presume) are worth your time...

3 nights R'burg/N'berg
1 night Füssen
3 nights Salzburg
2 nights Munich

However, you are making two separate trips into two different parts of the Alps - Füssen, and the mountain day trip from Salzburg. Seems like you probably don't need both.

Possible solution... Use my 3-3-3 suggestion - and instead of the Füssen "castles", stop before or after Salzburg for a visit the King Ludwig palace that your own plan overlooks - Herrenchiemsee It's ON THE WAY to Salzburg, not a big detour like Füssen would be (I suggested that once before I think.)

If you're a big SOM fan, consider a short outing from Munich to the SOM trail in Werfen. Werfen is also home to Hohenwerfen Castle (falconry show there too.)

Thanks Russ, I do like your 3-3-3 suggestion. Would you recommend doing this by train or car, or a combination? If a combination, where would you pick up and drop off car?

Well, as you seem to already know, a car within Salzburg and other cities like Munich and Nuremberg isn't very helpful, costs you money to rent and park, etc.

I would do this all by train if it were just me and DW. That said... you might find a car convenient for those non-specific day trips of yours... a "day trip into mountains" might require a car, and you also said, "I think it would be fun to get off the high speed highways and take a leisurely scenic drive through the mountains..." - which will absolutely require a car! So yeah - maybe you do rent a car for 1-3 days.

For example... Train for Days 1-3. Day 4 Leave Nuremberg around 8 on train to Salzburg, arrive around 11:00 and sightsee. Day 5 also in Salzburg (no car needed.) Day 6 - rent car for 2 days in Freilassing (Germany) just outside Salzburg; one day for a long day trip into mountains, maybe to see Werfen + Berchtesgaden, Königssee... then back to Salzburg for Night 6... PLUS Day 7, one day for travel to Herrenchiemsee Palace (Prien, boat dock to island is there) and then drive into Munich to drop car. No car after that; take train to MUC airport at end.

Just checking out Werfen and the SOM walk. YES!!! That is an absolute must do for me, thank you so much. And the falconry show sounds good too. As you can probably tell I am m most excited about the Salzburg/SOM part of this trip. It has been a dream for 50 years to take a SOM tour. I know people there don't get why it is such a big deal, but it was a tremendous and positive influence in my life.

A few years after the film first came out, I fell quite hard for a girl whose feelings about SOM were like yours. She dragged me to the catacombs in Salzburg (and to other places too, not at all against my will, mind you.) If there'd been a SOM tour then, I'm sure I would gleefully have been at her side. So SOM was very much a secondary reason for good memories - but I still kinda get it on some level.

If you end up doing a day trip to Werfen for the trail and Hohenwerfen castle - and only that - then you can surely do that by train from Salzburg, if you wish. It's a very pretty trip as you approach Werfen along the Salzach River.

And then after Salzburg... you COULD take the train for Salzburg - Munich with a stop at Herrenchiemsee; deposit bags in a locker at Prien's train station while you visit. A shuttle train next door to Prien station - the Chiemseebahn - gets you to the boat dock for the float over to Herrenchiemsee Palace.

If the Salzburg area is really important, maybe you can find a way do 4 days there. There's no rule that you can't do 3-4-2(Munich) instead, for example. That could yield time for aday-long drive through the mountains - just rent a car in Salzburg in the morning and return it in the PM.