Bavaria itinerary help

When you arrive you probably will be jetlagged and not very active. So you could use that time of drowsiness for the transfer to Salzburg: take the S8 from the airport to Munich East (München Ostbahnhof ) and transfer to a Meridian to Salzburg (doable with a Bayern ticket, 38 E for four, valid on any regional train after 9am).

Then: (Salzburg / Hallstadt) - Munich - Regensburg - Nürnberg - Rothenburg - Munich. Spend the last night in a town near the airport, e.g. Freising or Erding.

BTW, I'd take out one night from Rothenburg and add it to Nuremberg.

I also like the idea of flying into Munich and then heading to another city. The day you fly in is pretty much a lost day anyway, so what's another hour or two on the train? Here's another possible itinerary, This has you staying in a base town and taking day trips, rather than packing up and moving too much.

Fly into Munich and take 1 hour train to Nuremberg

Nuremberg 3 nights – day trips to Regensburg and Rothenburg

Take 3 hour train to Salzburg. 3 nights

Take 2.5 hour train to Hallstatt. 2 nights

Take 4 hour train to Munich 5 nights (day trip to Regensburg if didn't go from Nuremberg, and possible day trip to Fussen)

Have a great time!

We did 13 nights in Southern Germany this summer. This was our itinerary and it was perfect for us.

Flew into Munich and went straight to Salzburg (2 nights)
Garmisch (via train from Salzburg) (3 nights)...included day trip to fussen for the castles
Then we rented a car for 6 days:
Baden Baden (1 night)
Bacharach (2 nights)
Rothenburg (2 nights)
Munich (3 nights) (returned car on the way)

Since we were flying home from Munich we wanted to end there. I wouldn't have minded another night in Garmisch...so much to do there. I wouldn't return Baden Baden but the thermal bath and casino was fun, LOVED Bacharach and the Rhine! Rothenburg was amazing and 2 nights was perfect. Munich 3 nights was perfect as well. We also made a pit stop in Heidelburg to see the castle on our way to Rothenburg.

In each place we were able to see everything we wanted plus have some down time to sit in a park with our books and a bottle of wine.

This Dbahn Template is good for checking train schedules.

http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en

For prices in Austria.

http://fahrplan.oebb.at/bin/query.exe/en

We would probably start in Munich. After a long flight, we need some walking time to adjust to the new time zone. Another couple hours on our tailbones is just about unbearable. We have done it.

Füssen has some beautiful Alpine lakes as well as the castles. It is not as gorgeous a Hallstatt but a stay in Füssen instead might make your trip a little easier to plan.

Go from Munich to Salzburg and then back to Regensburg (our favorite in Germany). Then Rothenburg, Nürnberg and back to Freising as SLA019 suggested. Freising is closer to the airport than Munich itself and attractive in its own right.

I'm having a hard time connecting them all via train/bus

It shouldn't be all that hard using the link to the Bahn website above. All those cities have train stations and you just put in one as the start and the other as the destination and the date and time, and it will give you choices of connections, with multiple train changes if needed.

If you have a specific question, ask here.

Rothenburg is great, but you can see the city in half a day. I recommend you look for a Romantic Road tour that also stops in Dinkelsbuhel, Donauworth, Augsburg, and on down to Garmisch.

Three nights in Salzburg is a bit much, but fine if you also visit Berchtesgaden.

Visiting Rothenburg via train and bus will be more difficult than renting a car and driving. Best to find a tour or rent a car.

We have visited Rothenburg 5 times in the last 10 years. We like to visit the churches, the Stadt Museum, Detwang, etc. and so it fills 2 days for us. We have visited it each time by train. There are usually a couple connections but they are well coordinated. Visiting Rothenburg ob der Tauber is no problem by train.

There are usually a couple connections but they are well coordinated. Visiting Rothenburg ob der Tauber is no problem by train.

Correct! Coming from Würzburg, there is one transfer (Steinach bei Rothenburg), coming from Nürnberg two (Ansbach and Steinach). The Ansbach station is small, the Steinach station is tiny (the Rothenburg shuttle waits for any north- and south-bound train at track 5), so no problem at all.

We just took a 2 week trip (in-out of Frankfurt), started in Rothenburg (2 nights), then Fussen (2 nights), through Oberammergau to Salzburg (3 nights), then out to Vienna (3 nights) and back to Frankfurt (1 night in Regensberg and a trip to Nurnberg to visit Documentation center along the way). We loved everywhere along the way. In planning the trip, I thought Fussen (castles, etc..) would be the low-point. We don't love touristy spots, crowds, etc... but the whole family loved the Fussen area and the history/natural landscape in this area rounded out the trip. Oberammergau, too, was enchanting!

Take away points: Rothenburg at night is magical (do the Nightwatchman's tour)!!
If you do visit the Ludwig castles, no need to do the inside tours....just walking up to both and experiencing the magical beauty of surrounding countryside is amazing.
Consider renting a car--we did, for $320 for entire 2 weeks, and it really enabled a full experience of the smaller villages/sites. No issues at all!

To add to what Sla said, the regional trains that run between Würzburg and Ansbach run hourly, as does the shuttle to/from Rothenburg. Connection times at Steinach can be short, but it is a tiny station. Getting from the mainline platforms to the shuttle platform only takes a few minutes. Just stay with the herd. The shuttle driver is not going to leave the station if people are still getting on.

Visiting Rothenburg via train and bus will be more difficult than
renting a car and driving.

Driving from Munich to Rothenburg, according to ViaMichelin, takes 2h50m. Using regional trains, the trip takes 3h20m. So, if you drive straight through and don't make a wrong turn or get delayed in traffic you only save half an hour (and probably spend that long renting the car), but Michelin's estimate for cost of fuel alone for the one way trip is about 28€ vs 28€ for the Bayern-Ticket. Plus you have the cost of the car rental.

Regional trains run hourly. By train, you normally have to change at two stations to get to Rothenburg. According to the directions on ViaMichelin, you'll change streets five times just to get our of Munich.

Consider renting a car--we did, for $320 for entire 2 weeks, and it
really enabled a full experience of the smaller villages/sites.

On my last trip, I spent 18 days traveling with a partner in Bavaria. Adjusting for today's ticket prices and the current exchange rate, We spent $274. I don't think you are including costs (fuel, parking, etc) other than the actual rental. Per ViaMichelin, fuel for my travel would have been $151. So I paid $123 more for tickets ($7 more per day, $96 for an entire two weeks).

As for visiting smaller villages, in addition to a dense rail network (over 1000 stations in Bavaria), there is an extensive network of bus routes. Regional Verkehr Allgäu (RVA) and Regional Verkehr Oberbayern (RVO) together have over 8000 miles of bus routes in southern Bavaria. I've spent about 3 months (87 nights) traveling in Bavaria and never needed a car to go anywhere I wanted to go. I eschew larger towns. Two-thirds of my nights have been spent in villages under 10,000 population (half under 5000).

We did two nights in Fussen to see Neuschwanstein Castle. After touring the inside, which I recommend, we hiked over to a hut by the base of Tegelberg for lunch. That was a fun afternoon with the locals. FYI, the cute shops in Fussen aren't open on Sunday.

We did one night in Hallstatt. It is an beautiful location, but there wasn't much too do after 6 or so at night. It was even a challenge to find an open restaurant for dinner.

Three nights in Salzburg seems about right. We only did two nights, and we ran out of time to see all the sites.

Have fun! I might have to google airfare:)

I was in Hallstatt for two nights in 2009, and I don't remember it being particularly difficult to find a restaurant for dinner, although the first night I did eat fairly late at a restaurant on a street above the market square. Maybe I ate there because it was so late and all of the restaurants lower in town were closed; I don't remember. The next night I ate earlier and found a place closer to the town square.

I really recommend visiting Berchtesgaden while you are in Salzburg (in fact, I would actually stay in Berchtesgaden and make a day trip into Salzburg). The fastest way to Berchtesgaden from Salzburg is the Watzmann Express (RVO 840) that goes from the Salzburg Hbf, with a few stops in Salzburg (incl Mirabell), to Berchtesgaden. A TagesTicket (all day pass) for the RVO buses (RT Watzmann Express and most buses in Berchtesgaden) costs about 10€. The last bus back to Salzburg leaves Berchtesgaden around 6 pm, but if you want to stay later, buy a BGL Tagesticket, Bus & Bahn (site in German) for 12€/person. It allows you to stay later in Berchtesgaden and come back on the train via Freilassing. It also covers most buses in Berchtesgaden for the day.