A week in Bavaria need two bases

Both places mentioned are Upper Bavaria only. You may want to add other parts of Bavaria?

For evening entertainment you need towns / cities, not villages.

Do not forget driving permission (not license only) for countries you want to visit (for Germany).

Bavaria scool vacation in 2020 begin July 27 for 6 weeks. Before end of June no other state of Germany will have school vacations.

Go earlier rather than later, and for just 6 nights, I would pick one base beside Munich. Part of travel is finding your evening entertainment locally rather than planning on entertainment venues. RS and his guidebooks are pretty good at pointing out opportunities. I personally love G-P, but there is Mittenwald also. Trains and buses cover everything so other than doing Neuschwanstein/Hohenschwangau on a tight time frame (not my favorites) a car may be unnecessary. Berchtesgaden is most easily accessible through Salzburg - so maybe just stop there and visit the beer gardens if you want a separate site outside Munich. Please note the lovely wrought iron Mac Donald's sign in Salzburg.....

"I love to visit small villages and staying in areas that are a little away from the crowds."

Garmisch and Berchtesgaden are not small villages - in fact, they're among Bavaria's most popular destinations - and visitor numbers get bigger every year. You'd think these towns would be happy about this, but the crowds have become unmanageable and locals are concerned about the overall impact on their region. At last count, the Berchtesgaden area booked over 800,000 annual guests and nearly 4 million room-nights, and the B'gaden tourist authority is formulating strategies to reduce these numbers and to change their visitor profile. (They want a more exclusive crowd, with fewer people and fewer cars over a given season, but also a crowd that stays longer than just 3-4 nights - and that is willing to spend more Euros.) German kids may still be in school in June, but with the recent boon in tourists from Asia and the Middle East, innkeepers don't need as many German families anymore to fill beds.

You might want to try somewhere else.

Thank you to all that have responded so far.

I was afraid that these places would be overly popular. For good reason I am sure but I just can't do shoulder to shoulder crowds. I am not too concerned about the evening entertainment. A good meal and a bottle of wine or a beer with a beautiful view are all that I really need. What I do need to do is study the map and do more research on rail links as a viable option over driving. I am not afraid to drive, but it does add a little more stress to the vacation when you are in unknown territory and around more assertive European drivers. Thank you all for your input so far. I am an experienced European traveler, but I just don't know Bavaria. Hence this is why we picked Germany for our next trip and why I'm on the forum asking questions. I will get back to the forum when I have more specific questions and have done a little more research.

Margaret

"A good meal and a bottle of wine or a beer with a beautiful view are all that I really need."

One of the prettiest places in the Alps is Mittenwald, about 20 train minutes from G-P, maybe 1 hour from Innsbruck. It's much smaller than G-P. It does get lots of day trippers from other places - so no, it won't be tourist-free! But it's well connected by train (see link to local rail map below), easy to get around on foot, and drop-dead gorgeous.

https://requisitosparavisa.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/mittenwald_-3.jpg

https://hastingshouse.typepad.com/hastings_house_us/travel_in_europe/

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mittenwaldbahn#/media/File:Mittenwaldbahn-Karte.png

You might want to find a second base town somewhere else in Bavaria, one that's a little different.

Passau is a beautiful town in a beautiful spot - and offers river cruises too.

Regensburg is a UNESCO-protected World-Heritage site - a very nice, well-preserved old town - not a village but no big metropolis either. Lots of pubs there!

Both cities have good train service as well.

You only have five days, you can't see it all. Aim for the tail end of June.

Oberammergau might be a little full, what with the play and all, but is in a very good location to spend all of your time there. if not, the small village of Bad Bayersoien is nice, has a few restaurants and a pleasant lake to walk around. From either it is easy to reach Ettal Abbey, Linderhof, Andech Monastery, Fussen (castles), GP (gorge hikes), Mittenwald, the attractive but little visited towns of Landsberg, Murnau and Bad Tolz.

Further east, Ruhpolding will have few English speakers, is in a nice setting and a has a number of restaurants. The main church is lovely inside, the cemetery as nice as it gets. From Ruhpolding - Berchtesgaden (Eagle's Nest, Salt Mine), Bad Reichenall, Ramsau, Konigssee and Mount Jenner, Chiemsee, Burghausen with its wonderful castle. Not far across the border are Salzburg, Werfen Castle and the fortress town of Kufstein, all worth visiting.

Garnish and Berchtesgaden are great places to stay. Yes, they get crowded certain times of the year, but they do have the feel of a small city. Compared to Munich, Vienna and Prague, they are small cities. Both places are crowded in the Winter due to the skiing nearby.

We lived in Augsburg for four years and spend several nights in both locations.

From Berchtesgaden you can see the amazing views from the Eagle's Nest and visit Salzburg, Austria (the Salt Mines are interesting as well).

From Garmisch, you have the castles as well as the Zugspitze. If you like hiking, we did a two day hike up the Zugspitze (you probably won't have time for that, so take the cable car or cog train.