Considering a trip to Munich to day trip to Nuremberg and the "Nest".......

You can visit both using a Bayern Ticket, just travel after 9 am weekdays. You must travel using regional trains, so be a little careful on what train you pick, as some make every single stop and it can take a while to get between Munich and Nuremberg. These are usually designated as Regionalbahns, the ones designated Regional Express will get you there a lot quicker. The Bayern Ticket also lets you use all the local transport in both cities for the day.

Munich and Nuremberg are cosmopolitan cities and you can find anything, from vegetarian, to pizza to Chinese.

The only issue with Oktoberfest is that hotel prices will be sky high, so book early if the Wiesn is going on when you are there.

I wont weigh in as I go to Munich for the fest and so it seems our interests are quite different. I would consider, however, if you want to stay in Munich, not going during the fest as all of the accommodations will be 2-3x more expensive and plus the party spills out into the streets and pretty much covers the entire city to some degree... good people watching though.

And if you by the Nest you are speaking of The Eagle's Nest, I personally don't recommend as it is the literal definition of a tourist trap, but some people like that sort of thing... but there are far more historically relevant places to chose from.

Thanks for the replies. I was wondering if the eagles nest was a tourist trap from looking at the web site.

"My main interest is in visiting the historical areas in the Alps and Nuremberg..."

"Historical" covers a LOT of ground. With your references to the Eagles Nest and Nuremberg, it sounds like you may have a WW II focus - nothing wrong with that of course but keep in mind that the Nazi era (sometimes the only period Americans know of and associate with Germany) was a short blip in terms of all the European history you might take a look at during your stay. You have many choices - but here are a few suggestions you might not have come across in the glossy tourist brochures:

Wouldn't it be nice if you could get a peek at the life of the common Bavarians over the last 5 centuries? You can actually do that at the Franconian Open-Land Museum in Bad Windsheim.

In Munich, Nymphenburg Palace is often overlooked by tourists:
http://www.schloss-nymphenburg.de/englisch/palace/index.htm
http://www.theworldisabook.com/16991/munich-with-kids-nymphenburg-palace/

Burghausen Castle has been around for around 800 years - it's the furthest thing there is from a tourist trap:
https://www.visit-burghausen.com/en/inform/attractions/worlds-longest-castle.html

Oktoberfest begins Sep. 22 in 2018. If you must be there at that time, there's no reason you need to stay in Munich if you don't wish to. Augsburg and Landshut are a couple of nice cities from which you could make a day trip into Munich for any specific sights you wish to see there, and to other places as well. You could even stay as far away as Salzburg Austria and day trip into Munich if you wished.

For Eagle's Nest, consider a tour with Eagles Nest Historical Tours. This is the company recommended by RS in his book. They have a bus tour, but you can also do a private tour. I did the History Buff private tour. It was 8 wonderful hours spent with one of the owners of the company, David Harper, who gave a meaningful overview not just of Eagle's Nest, but of Berchtesgaden and the entire Obersalzberg compound/complex. I learned a ton.

Both Munich Hbf and Nürnberg Hbf have Chinese food outlets in the Food Court, plus pizza and a host of other choices.

I was wondering if the eagles nest was a tourist trap from looking at the web site.

I don't understand this. What is your definition of a "tourist trap"? Is it somewhere that tourists go, like the Statue of Liberty, or the Grand Canyon? Or towns which also have residents like Venice, Memphis, San Francisco or Gimmelwald?

If you are a tourist and go where other ones go is that where interesting things are or is it a tourist trap?

I don't see what the tourist trap bit is with the Kehlsteinhaus (the proper name for what is referred to as the Eagles Nest), the elevator to get to the top, the buses to get up the very steep mountain road, or the mountain landscape at the top at which I spent two hours very happily hiking.

Can you tell me where the problem is?

sure, Nigel.

The technical "definition" of a tourist trap would be one that somewhat "traps" the person there, and generally tries to incur as much expense as possible on the tourist... now, if you like the Eagle's Nest, fine, everyone likes different things and I don't care what you like, but in my mind, when you have to ride (I forgot how many) at least two buses to get there, an elevator to the top where they recommend staying for at least two hours before you can catch your bus ride back in the hopes that you will run out of things to do and so will choose to eat at the very sub-par restaurant, all so you can see something that is, IMO, of questionable historical significance... it is the literal definition of a tourist trap, to me.

While the other places you mention might not be "traps", they're still touristy and so it's up to the individual whether or not they wish to visit these places... it's really just splitting hairs. I tend not to do things like museums and other more "touristy" things... and all I can tell you is that I went to The Eagle's Nest and I really hated it... but that's just me. Some people like that stuff, and so let 'em go, but I'll never recommend it :)

The technical "definition" of a tourist trap would be one that somewhat "traps" the person there, and generally tries to incur as much expense as possible on the tourist... [etc.]

Well, it could not have hurt if you had a bit of information prior to your visit. 1. You don't need to use the bus, you are free to go up on foot. I did that first time in 1954 when I was five years old, so you certainly could have mastered it too. ;) 2. The »restaurant« is a simple mountain hut run by the Deutsche Alpenverein, so it has to be »sub-par« eo ipso. Prices are supervised by the Alpenverein and do not much differ from those in other mountains huts. 3. The profits made are used for charity purposes; please show me another »tourist trap« which does that. 4. Nothing obliges you to spend there two hours or more if you dislike the nice walking opportunities; just descend to the next bus.

BTW, the Bavarian government wanted to blow up the Kehlsteinhaus in 1949; that was prohibited by the US army, which was still in control of the area.

Characterize/rationalize it however you want, pal... if that's not a tourist trap than nothing is...

OK, I bow to your elegant and lucid argumentation.

Most German menus have lighter options and "Fitness Tellers". And salad bars are common. It's also common to see dishes priced as full and small portions.

You've already worked out your main problem. To stay in one place and visit Nurembrg and the Kehlstein on easy day trips pretty much fixes you to Munich - and even if you don't visit the Octoberfest the hotel prices will go up. And it isn't a festival like other cities have, it's more of a mass party and quite contained.

I bow to your elegant and lucid argumentation.

I don't (I hope you, SLA, were being sarcastic). I don't think his arguments were elegant; as for lucid, I suspect there is something else going on here that he doesn't tell us.

I completely disagree with his assessment of Kehlsteinhaus. If you think it is not historical, you don't know history. Building it, a 50th birthday present to Hilter from the Nazi party, and the road to it, was a monumental engineering achievement. Although not often, Hitler did go there, and it is a strange feeling to know you are in the same room he was once in. Although it's not a gourmet restaurant, it's pretty much the same food as what you would get in a lot of local restaurants in Germany and, considering the location, very reasonably priced (two of us ate lunch for less than 20€). And, on a clear day, the view from the Kehlsteinhaus is spectacular. You would spend more than three times as much to go to the top of the Zugspitze for a similar view.

I found three similar definitions of "tourist trap" online and none agree with his unconventional definition. According to the common definition¹, the "trap" is not keeping you there, it's getting you there in the first place for something insignificant, produced and promoted just to take your money. I would consider a real tourist trap to be any Sound of Music tour in Salzburg, as well as a third party tour of Dachau. At Dachau, the memorial's own tour is well worth the 3€; paying many times more for someone to hold you hand on the way out, when you can easily do it yourself, is the trap.

1. Example: a place specifically designed to attract stupid tourists and take their money. -Urban Dictionary

The views from the "nest" are spectacular on a clear day. However historical signficance of that place is MINISCULE. And being in the same room where hitler used to be should make any normal educated person sick to his/her stomach. I guess Germans were right when they wanted to blow it up and replace with something else, like Austrians are doing now with the house where hitler was born.

I've visited Eagle's Nest twice. The first time, I visited with a big bus tour from Salzburg. It was a place with nice views on a sunny day.

The second time, I visited it as part of a comprehensive, 8-hour tour that told the story of the entire Obersalzberg compound. It became much more than a place with nice views on a sunny day... even the shape of main meeting room (now restaurant dining room) connects Hitler's "1000-year Reich" to the Holy Roman Empire (the original 1000-year Reich). Also, I can say I've been behind locked doors there to see the original, still-functioning submarine engine that was installed to supply backup power when/if needed. It's an amazing place, but it's helpful to have someone who can contextualize it...

The Kehlsteinhaus is very much a historical site whether you like it or not. The 101st Airborne got to it. It makes no difference to me if it has turned into a tourist "trap", then don't trap yourself. But it is historical still just like the Feldherrnhalle in Munich before the Odeonplatz, both of which have a Hitler connection.

The big US 3rd Inf. Div monument is in Chateau-Thierry. Aside from the WW1 site, the Anglo-French Military Cemetery, I was looking for, I saw that of the 3rd Inf Div, This was a day trip r/t from Paris to Chateau-Thierry in 1999. By train it was just about one hour.