Better strategy for Germany in 5 days: Stay put in one city or try to see everything?

I think the idea of establishing a "base city" such as Munich to stay in and then do day trips from there is an excellent idea. This will maximize your actual time to explore and enjoy Germany by eliminating all the time and effort it takes to move lodging from place to place. You can easily spend 5 days in Munich and barely even scratch all the interesting things to see and do in Bavaria.

One of the really good pieces of advice that comes out in this forum frequently is to "assume you will return." This means that don't worry about trying to fit everything in to one trip that you ever want to see in your life. Assume that you will have other opportunities in the future and plan to really enjoy the few places you do end up going to.

I hope you have a great trip.

head down the Rhine, driving off the beaten path, There really isn't an "off the beaten path" along the Mittelrhein. You basically just have one main road on each side of the river and the side streets that run through the individual towns. You can drive on roads that take you up out of the gorge, but then you're missing the main sites. I would, however, recommend making a side-trip to Ahrweiler and the abbey of Maria Lach.

Just relax and take in the city and it's day trips. A good idea, but ditch the rental car for this option. Most German cities are easy to navigate by car, but Munich is the big exception. It's hard to find your way, even with a GPS, and parking in the center of town is very limited. Only the most expensive hotels offer parking, and even there, you have to pay extra.

I often practice the "stay-put" concept but when I seek out a base town, I usually end up scratching major cities like Munich, which require too much in-city and into-out-of-the-city driving - which I don't enjoy at all. Also, Munich tends to be too far from most destinations in the Alps and forces far too many long drives - or if you're a train enthusiast like I am nowadays, too many long train rides.

I would instead seek out a town like Prien am Chiemsee (or other in that area) and do outings from there. By train it's an hour into Munich (and why drive that, even if you have a car?) and the same to Salzburg. Burghausen is an easy day trip. Berchtesgaden, Tegernsee and other mountain destinations are within striking distance as well. Or you could use Dießen am Ammersee (see photos) as a base for Munich, Garmisch, Augsburg, Landsberg, and other places to Munich's southwest.

All that said, with just 5 days, I'd be very reluctant to go all the way to southern Bavaria at all. You would absolutely fail to exhaust the possibilities if you picked a Middle Rhine Valley town like Boppard for a travel base. The scenery in the surrounding areas, including the Hunsrück, the Eifel, the Rheingau, and the Mosel, Ahr, Nahe, and Lahn River valleys, is terrific; the castles are largely authentic - Burg Eltz, Rick Steves' favorite European castle, is tops - and the small towns tend to be older in appearance and maybe more charming on the whole than in southern Bavaria, IME. Hiking is great here too. The cities of Trier, Cologne, and Mainz, (I'd use trains to visit Cologne and Mainz BTW) on top of all this, will make you wish you had 2 weeks.

I'd say Nürnberg would be a much better base. Würzburg, Bamberg and Regensburg are all within some 1 hr by train. But I belong to the apparent minority which finds Munich underwhelming.

We're big on day-trips from a base city, but we also hate packing up and moving - which involves a lot of travel and check-in overhead. We also like feeling at home in our hotel after a day or two. That's personal opinion.

Germany has a very good trains, so make sure your itinerary calls for a car. For example, I would never see the Rhine by car. I'm big on the KD boat from Bingen to Boppard, in that direction. The train is so fast you could even go back to Cologne that night. But a car makes a one-way boat trip inconvenient.

I'll admit that we rented a car for the Mosel and Trier. But near a place like Munich, a car is no help.

Do you have a list of those neat little places yet? Or are they, as yet, ideas in the mist?

Thanks for the responses and the well wishes.

Right now I Mostly just have ideas, don't have many specifics pinned down right now. I guess I have the idea of alpine views, cozy, rural gasthaus', scenic bavarian meadows, and fairy tale castles all in my head and trying to figure out the best way to enjoy it. It all seems great!

Hi fishcaper9,

"I have the idea of alpine views, cozy, rural gasthaus', scenic bavarian meadows, and fairy tale castles all in my head "

My opinion, base in Mittenwald or near Fuessen. Another option is in the Berchtesgaden/Konigssee area. I think you'll find what you're looking for.

Here are some of our pics of both:

Mottenwald, etc.:
www.flickr.com/photos/pjbassplyr/albums/72157646768642256

By Berchtesgaden, etc.:
www.flickr.com/photos/pjbassplyr/albums/72157646958077741
www.flickr.com/photos/pjbassplyr/albums/72157646391509589
www.flickr.com/photos/pjbassplyr/albums/72157646627881107

Paul

1. Why are you starting in Köln (Cologne)?
2. Why then don't you concentrate your travel around Köln.

First, Köln has some things to see - the Cathedral, the old town. From Köln it's only an hours drive, or 37 min by train, to Aachen, where, on Christmas day, 800 AD, at the Cathedral there, Charlemagne was crowned emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.

Just over an hour's drive up the Rhein is Koblenz, the confluence of the Rhein and Mosel rivers. There is enough to see in that area (Cochem, Bernkastel, Zell, Burg Eltz, Beilstein, Koblenz, Braubach, Boppard, St. Goar, Bacharach, etc) to keep anyone occupied for five days.

Germany is a big country, with lots to see. It would take months, maybe years, to see everything. Don't try. You'll spend all of your time and a lot of money going from place to place. You'll see more of the inside of an automobile and the road than you will of what's interesting in Germany.

If you want to see Bavaria, start in Munich. If you have to start in Köln, driving to Munich, according to ViaMichelin, will take 6 hours and cost 56€ just for fuel, let alone car rental. Instead take the train from Köln to Munich. There's a direct ICE connection that only takes 4½ hours. Right now, you can get an advance purchase discount ticket for that train for as low as 53€.

While you are having your "relaxed stay in Munich", you won't need a car to see the local sights. Public transit in Munich is very good and inexpensive. If you do venture outside the city, you'll find you can get almost anywhere by train and/or bus using a Bayern-Ticket (all day pass for regional trains in Bavaria), 23€ for one person.

Yes, If I decide to focus on munich I am going to train or fly to munich and use public transit. I have actually spent lots of time in koln over the years visiting my friends who live there, But I really haven't seen much of Germany outside of the big cities in that region.

I think you should reflect on your own feelings about travel. How would you travel if, say, you went to New England. Would you try to see every state and every city or would you concentrate on one place, like Boston ? In Germany, as well as Europe in general, you cannot see everything in one trip. Assume that you will be back again (and again?) My own preference is to spend most of your time in one area. Cologne has easy access to the Rhein and the Mosel. Munich has easy access to the castles that everyone has read about , as well as Innsbruck, Austria.. Nothing wrong with hitting the RS tourist spots, but remember that everyone and his brother will be there too. Five days is not enough time to really appreciate a country or its regions. I have lived in Germany for over 12 years, both as a student in Heidelberg and an Ami in other areas. I have not seen everything that I should have seen and I regret missing out on many areas. But that's just my opinion.