First Time touring Germany/Austria

A good place to start would be reading the germany and austria tabs on the Explore Europe tab on this website. You might also consider buying the Rick Steves Guidebooks for Germany and Austria.

If you prefer mountains I would look at southern Bavaria, Tirol and the area around Salzburg. Another area that I really like that Rick Steves doesn't cover well is Lake Constance and all of the towns around it.

What time of year will make a difference in recommendations.

Jill, thank you so much for the info. I would like to go when it is a little warmer where we could possibly do some hiking. I've heard a lot about the area around Salzburg. How is there transportation around there? Are there trains that run to cities around there or would it be better to rent a car?

You ask about Austrian trains... The Man in Seat 61 provides excellent and complete information about rail travel in all of Europe, including Germany and Austria, but I have linked you to his page on the Arlberg Railway, a particularly scenic line that we just re-took after many years. Can't recommend it enough for someone traveling between Germany and Austria. On the day of our trip, we woke up in the German city of ULM, ready to move on to our apartment in a small town to the south of Salzburg, and boarded a train just before 9 am (the RailJet Express or RJX) which was bound for Salzburg, arriving there by about 3 pm. While there are shorter routes to Salzburg that travel via Munich, this train provided the extra-scenic detour via Bludenz and Innsbruck Austria which you can read about in the link above.

This train actually originates in FRANKFURT (at around 6 am, ugh.) From there it moves on to Heidelberg, Stuttgart, Ulm, and a few more small German towns before entering Austria, where the scenery turns magical quickly. Then it moves on to Innsbruck and Salzburg - and continues eastward across the rest of Austria to Linz and Vienna (if you are going that far.) Anyway, the point here is that if you are flying into Frankfurt or Stuttgart for some time in those areas, it's easy and enjoyable to get to Austria's most popular destinations using this specific train route.

We skipped Innsbruck and Salzburg this time as we've seen them repeatedly before - the change of train in Salzburg took us via the Salzach River gorge, another awesome train ride, via the towns of Werfen, and Bischofshofen to the little-known "Eben im Pongau", which we used as a base town for train rides to Zell am See, Kitzbühel, and other towns.

Werfen is a place near Salzburg you might want to check out...

https://www.salzburg-burgen.at/en/hohenwerfen-castle/
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g1165061-d590707-Reviews-Eisriesenwelt-Werfen_Austrian_Alps.html

Fly in/out of Munich. Visit Munich 2-3 days, then go to Mittenwald or nearby towns - www.alpenwelt-karwendel.de. for some days. On to Salzburg for maybe 3 days then a couple of days at one of the villages on a lake and/or Werfen with the amazing ice cave. That would be my recommendation for time near the alps. But that’s just a very small part of Germany and Austria.

Thank you so much for the ideas. I appreciate you answering me. That helps a lot.

Since stephen and I both mentioned Werfen, and you asked about accommodations, I'll toss out a place we stayed several years ago in the nearby town of Golling.

https://www.cafemaier.at/the-accommodation/?lang=en

We had the "Apartment Göllblick" with the big windows and view. It was a walk of only a couple blocks to the rail station for the journey to Werfen (or to Salzburg.) The small town has a suitable grocery store if you think you'll use the kitchen. Prices for the apt are higher now (like everything else) but still a very good value considering that breakfast in the bakery downstairs is included (a rare thing with apartment rentals.)

A guest card should be available at this and other accommodationa in Golling... the Tennengau card gives you free rail trainsport into Salzburg and on area buses:

https://www.tennengau.com/en/experience/tennengau-plus-card/

Hi Kent,
How much time are you allowing for your trip?
Germany without Austria is a daunting opportunity. Austria can also easily occupy a full week or more.
I would caution about relying too much on RS. I notice that he tends to tie Germany and Austria together and he also seems to skip around a lot. You can do that if your idea of Germany and Austria is one that limits your travel to the Munich and Salzburg areas, but if you consider the rest of Austria and that wonderful city Vienna as worth visiting (it is), you might need to do some deeper planning. Coincidentally I happen to have a copy of RS Germany sitting inches from me as I type this.
What I did for my wife when we visited is I planned an all Austria visit. We flew in and out of Viena and stayed there for a total of four nights. We rented a car that we drove throughout the rest of the country including Salzburg and never crossed into Germany. This same trip could have been done with public transportation, but the car gave us some extra flexibility.
For a Germany visit, you might fly into Frankfurt and explore the river region around there. You could take the train to Berlin and explore that city. You can travel to Southern Germany and then Munich and the surrounding area.
Heading towards the East there are other opportunities to visit this laid-back region. Some will suggest heading North to explore places like Hamburg, etc. Germany travel does not require a car, but depending on your plans, it is easier with one.
And, there are so many places to visit. What are your interests? How much time do you have. That needs to be the starting point, in my opinion.

Not sure how many days you have, also, what part of Germany to see?

Bavaria is next of Austria and you could focus on that area.

Germany-
Munich, Nurenburg, Regensburg, Augsburg, Rothenburg ob der Tauber (also the Romantic road down to Fussen), Garmisch/Fussen, Berchtesgaden (also nearby Salzburg, Austria).

Austria- Salzburg, Innsbruck, Vienna for a start.

If you want more than Bavaria for Germany, then consider the Berlin area. The Rhineland in Western Germany is great as well all the way from Cologne down to the Black Forest (Friberg and Triberg). Also, take in Strasbourg, France on the border.

Thank you for the information I appreciate it.

As Jill mentioned, you would probably want to focus on southern Bavaria. There are many wonderful towns to use as a home base, some of which aren't covered in RS. In 2018, my family stayed 4 nights in Grainau, which is a sleepy town just south of Garmish-Partenkirchen, an easy 1.5 hour drive from Munich. We had a rental car, so Grainau was the perfect base for day trips to Neuschwanstein, Mittenwald, and Eibsee/Zugspitze. That portion of our trip to Germany/Austria was absolutely the highlight, my kids still talk about it.

We stayed at this ferienwohnung (vacation apartment) in Grainau with a breathtaking view of the Zugspitze: https://www.ferienwohnungen-zugspitze.com/
However, there are hotel options in town as well; my parents have stayed in various hotels there over multiple trips.