Day hike in Bavarian Alps? Itinerary/ lodging ideas?

You will be paying very expensive car drop off charges when you cross into Germany with a Swiss rental car.

Have you considered taking the train from Zurich to Konstanz? Then pick up the rental car in Germany. It may be more efficient to drop southeast into the incredible Austrian Alps to do your hiking. You can easily go north from there into Bavaria.

Have you considered visiting Munich while you're in the area? There are many, many tourist sights in that town that would interest young men. (Dachau is one of them.)

After taking a couple of 3 hour train rides April, 2014, I prefer to do my long distance travel by budget European airlines. Air conditioning was marginal in April, and I'd hate to think how hot some train cars are in June. Flying from Berlin may allow you to see more travel sights and actually save money.

David,
Thanks for the insight on the car rental vs train. Zurich is only about an hour from Konstanz, so if it saves us $$, I would be happy to take the train from Zurich to Konstanz. (We have 4 tickets to buy if we go by train - which is why I was going with the car.)

I originally was looking at the Swiss Alps -- but we are open to any of the Alps. The key is spending the least travel time... knowing that we have to go from Konstanz and then, after the Alps, go to the Eisenbach/ Leipzig area. If you think the Austria Alps is a better choice, I'm open to it Do you have a recommendation for a location/ hike in the Austrian Alps?

I see a few problems here. One, you really can't pigeon-hole an Alpine hike to a single day far in advanced. If you only plan one day, what happens if the weather goes south on that one day? Alpine weather is very capricious, and to beat it's whims, you need to budget at least two full days. You could get lucky, but you take a big risk with only one specific day planned.

Two. You're driving too far through very busy traffic after an overseas flight. This is the equivalent of driving drunk. I won't weigh in on whether or not to use a car, but if you do, don't drive so far on your first day. Particularly if you've never driven in Europe.

Three. Day four looks far too optimistic. I seriously doubt you will have enough time to go all the way from the Alps to Erfurt via Eisenach. Particularly with summer traffic in Bavaria. And if you can't understand German, you'll have to wait for an English tour of the Wartburg. These are offered far less frequently than German.

Four: Only one day for Berlin?

Here's a suggestion that may allow you to fit in the hike, visit Konstanz, avoid the danger of a long jet-lagged drive, and maybe even beat the vagaries of Alpine weather. Stay for the first 2-3 nights in Flumserberg. This is a beautiful but less-well-known high altitude Alpine resort about an hour east of Zürich. And, it's accessible by car. If you stay here, the boys can enjoy a great mountain hike with some stunning views. You can take a daytrip to Konstanz. Most importanly, though, you can schedule your sequence of activities on the fly based on prevailing weather conditions. The disadvantage is that you're now even further away from Eisenach. Another alternative, and one that would help you avoid a drop-off fee for the rental car would be to get the Alpine experience in Oberstdorf, in the Allgäu region of SW Bavaria. Either way, though, give yourself enough built-in flexibility to compensate for bad weather.

"Renting a car - I heard that it was cheaper/ more efficient for 4 people?"

Sounds like "they said ...". Who are they? I've been traveling in Germany for 15 years, and I've never found a car to be cheaper. The car rental quotes I get are always for a compact car, suitable for at most three people with moderate luggage. For 4 people with only a little luggage, you need at least a family sedan and rental costs and fuel will be more.

I think the people who say a car is cheaper for 4 don't know how to buy train tickets. I've found that for me, with 1 or 2 people, a car is 2 to 3 times as expensive as using trains, and extra people are not that much extra. For example, a Schönes-Wochenende-Ticket (valid for travel through Germany on weekends) is the same price for up to 5 people. A regional ticket, like a Bayern-Ticket or a three Länder (Sachsen, Sachsen-Anhalt, Thüringen) Ticket is usually only 4€ for each added person (2-5). A Quer-durchs-Land-Ticket, valid throughout Germany on weekdays, is only 8€ more for each extra person. With sufficient advance purchase, a Savings Fare Ticket, for express trains, is 10€ to 20€ more for each person.

For example, Quer-durchs-Land tickets for Konstanz to Oberstdorf, the closest place to Konstanz where you can hike in the German Alps, would cost 68€ (44€ one a weekend day). ViaMichelin estimates the cost just for fuel for a family car as 28€. On top of that, you'd have the car rental for a day. The Bahn schedule shows the trip taking 3hr 31min. ViaMichelin estimates the driving time at 2hr 56min if you go through Germany to avoid needing to buy a Swiss vignette.

For Oberstdorf to Erfurt, ViaMichelin says 5hr 10min and 76€ just for fuel. With sufficient advance purchase, you can get train tickets for a 7hr 10min trip for 89€.

Once you are in the Luther area, you can travel all day with a Thüringen-Ticket for 34€ for all four of you. This would include all regional trains and most bus lines. Erfurt to Leipzig to Wittenberg would cost you 35€ just for gas for the car. On the day you stay in Wittenberg, the car would probably sit idle but still cost you a day's rental. So far I'm seeing just fuel for the car costing about the same as train tickets, but there's the cost of renting the car and insurance on top of that.

If you go from Wittenberg to Berlin on a weekend day, use a Schönes-Wochenende-Ticket for 44€; on a work day, use a Thüringen-Ticket for 34€ to the border and a 29€ Brandenburg-Berlin ticket the rest of the way, including local Berlin transportation to your hotel.

Of course all trips are different. You should definitely do the comparison yourself, don't just go by what "they" say.

Thanks for the honest feedback. I have never traveled in Germany - and these tips are very helpful. Thanks Tom for the idea of checking out Oberstdorf, It looks beautiful! I'll also research the Austrian retreat. I really was ignorant of Alpine weather - but it makes perfect sense. Thanks too for reminding me to take the time for recovery after flying. I'm going to need to rethink the itinerary.
Thanks Lee for the insightful notes on taking the train. We have a friend who lived in Switzerland for a few years who suggested the car. But I hadn't considered traffic in the mountains. Or the price of gasoline.

PS- Flumserberg, the resort that I mentioned, is in the St. Gallen province of Switzerland, not Austria.

"Leipzeig and Wittenburg - stay in Wittenburg (or has anyone stayed at Elbterrasse Worlitz?)"

Looking on a map, I didn't realize how close Wittenberg is to Wörlitzer Park. I haven't visited Wittenberg, but if you're in the area and have time, definately take about two hours to check out the gardens at Wörlitz. It's not so much a formal garden like what you see around many palaces, but a little rougher, and with all kinds of little interesting buildings and pavillions. The village of Wörlitz is very pleasent and has plenty of restaurants, but don't bother staying here if you don't intend to visit the gardens.

From the map, Elbterrasse Wörlitz looks to be a little further to the north. If you plan to visit the gardens, it looks a little too far to walk. I'd be very surprised if there were no transportation available, though.

My favorite hike in the Bavarian Alps is the hike through the gorge named Höllentalklamm, near Garmisch-Partenkirchen. It is beautiful and also a lot of fun---and teens love it too. This website has some photos which give a pretty good idea of what it is like:

http://monkeysandmountains.com/hoellental-garmisch-partenkirchen

The hike through the gorge is only 45 minutes or so, but one can continue on to a hut in the valley above, and from there to the top of the Alpspitze cablecar at Osterfelderkopf for a ride back down to down. That makes for a great day but you need good weather. ( I think the author of the website article did the hike I describe in reverse, as they mention a 15-km hike entering the gorge from the top).

If it not such a nice day, you can still have a great time hiking the gorge up and back. It doesn't really matter if it is raining, as you get wet on the hike from the spray even on a clear day.

You can take the train to the trailhead from G-P, or walk there through the valley, past farms and lots of cows. Or rent bikes in town and ride the path out to the trailhead at Hammersbach, lock up the bikes while you hike, and ride them back.

Thanks for the suggestion. I took a look at the link. You are right - it's beautiful! Thanks for the suggestion. It also looks pretty flexible weather-wise too - which is helpful because I'm finding more things to do than I have time to do!

Thanks Lola that looks like a great hike. I might need to try that one next time. haha

I just went on an awesome hike to the Neuschwanstein Castle. You can park and ride the Tegelberg Cable Car up the mountain. Then hike down to the Castle. The trail ends at Marienbrucke bridge. You get amazing views of the castle and the valley most of the way down. I wasn't that smart. I hiked from the Castle UP to the cable car. It took me believe 3 hours. I stayed in the near by city of Fussen. Fussen was one of my favorite towns.

Driving in Germany is super easy and the drivers are much more polite than American drivers. Also the car was not that expensive. I think we had our car for 7 days the first week and it was about $350 for a Mercedes. We took pictures of the car before driving away as a precaution so we didn't get accused of denting the car and end up with a charge. All that went fine. We dropped our car off b4 entering Switzerland but in hindsight I wish we'd just paid the drop off fee in Switzerland rather than taking the train. Garmisch is a wonderful area--but really you cannot go wrong in southern Germany and northern Switzerland. You got some good tips here.