Germany & Austria - what am I missing

My first thought was that you will miss Germany, not in terms of territory but culturally. You will get a very Bavarian / Austrian flavour which is also nice. But for the given time it is an ambitious but doable plan.

For the guys spend one more day in Munich at BMW Welt as pre-compensation for Sound of Music :-) You can split off that day and visit Nymphenburg Palace.

If your aim in Salzburg is to see Sound of Music sites you might consider a tour. We did Bob's tour and I enjoyed it very much. It's a minivan tour, rather than a big bus tour. It takes you into the countryside, which is nice. You can see some sites in town own your own. Even my hubby liked it. An additional night in Munich sounds like a good idea. https://www.bobstours.com/main.php

MarkK - would you have a suggestion on how to add Germany culturally to the trip? Nothing is set in stone yet other than the flights and having to be in Stuttgart on Day 8. My daughter is currently living in Germany and spent the weekend in Berlin, I was kind of jealous and would love to visit Berlin but feel the travel to / from Frankfurt would take to much or our time.

Another vote for the BMW Museum and Welt. You still may be able to book a tour. We were there during their Easter shut down last year and did a tour of the Welt since the factory was closed--very interesting even though no one in our family is super into cars. One idea for a half day trip from Salzburg that is guy/family friendly is the salt mine in Hallein. I got tickets at the Salzburg train station, which included round trip train, bus to/from the mine, and mine tour tickets. A really unique experience and much closer than the Hallstat or Bertesgaden mines. https://www.salzwelten.at/en/hallein/prices-opening-times/

@OP: Your schedule is well filled and you are very much rushing through already - no critique, understandable to available time - therefore I would not add somethig that adds travel time compared to experience time.

Berlin would be an interesting additional view but also Hamburg or the western part. Berlin would be too much and you will need 3-4 days in Berlin alone.

Two small ideas:
- You mentioned Bamberg already which is state Bavaria but culturally little different (from Franconian view very different ;-) ) with food, architecture, dialect. Also industrial: sneakers and sportswear instead of cars ("oha" 5 EUR into bw-thinking box). But of course not as much as you would visit Hamburg region.
- Around Frankfurt (also different culture: biggest German brewery group but Ebbelwoi is favorite drink) you could visit Mainz (much history) and do a day trip into Rheingau without spoiling your time limit too much. Eltville is close and a very nice small village.

I would not want to get on a train for 3 hours after a trans-Atlantic flight. Just stay in Frankfurt and sightsee here, go to bed around 20:00, get up and catch your fast train to Munich early in the morning. You will feel better after a good nights rest and you can buy those cheap train tickets without stressing about whether your flight will be delayed. Frankfurt has more to offer than what some people on this forum think. Use this day in Munich to sightsee, and go to Dachau the next day.

MarkK @OP - thank you again. As you noted already with us moving quickly I am concerned about throwing in a destination that is southwest from my primary destinations. I am going to look more into those tomorrow.
If I chose to stay more east, understanding the bavarian view limitations, What would you think of either us staying in Frankfurt the day we land and spend part of the next day there or going straight from Frankfurt to Nuremberg for the first night rather than going straight to Munich. We could arrive in Nuremberg about 2 pm, spend the balance of that day and part of the next day before heading to Munich.

By the way, just now noticed you are from Berlin. As I said my daughter was there this weekend and absolutely loved the city and was significantly impacted by the historical sites she visited.

For Salzburg Day 7, if you’re seeing Porsche than you might like Red Bull Museum (planes etc.).

Hallstatt and Eagle’s Nest are day trips but might not be viable in March.

Same goes for ice caves and salt mines.

We spent the morning in Dachau a couple of years ago on our BOE 14 day trip. I would visit Munich to get a sense of some of the history of the time before visiting the concentration camp. We were fortunate to have the same local guide give us a historical walking tour of Munich one day and then go with us to Dachau the next. While well worth the visit, it is not someplace that I would want to be the very first activity of my trip.

Salt mine would be open ( I went in Dec ), but ice caves are not open

@ starlatay: nice to hear that she loved Berlin. And agree it is so full of history and of emotions that for a lot of people it is overwhelming. Come and visit us in summer. Really a beautiful atmosphere. The Carnival of Cultures is one of our main street festivals and really something to enjoy.

Nuremberg is also an honest recommendation, especially the Kaiserburg. If you do Frankfurt - Nuremberg I guess a stop at Herzogenaurach at factory outlets of Adidas and Puma is a must-have but do not forget to continue to Nuremberg :-) A nice stop in between is Würzburg.

Whatever you do you will miss always a lot left and right. Just live and enjoy the moment. Have a great time!

Hi,

If you really want to do something different, you could change your present travel plans and go right to Berlin within a few of hours after landing in Frankfurt, easily done on a direct ICE connection. I did that in 2014 after the landing at FRA from SFO was one hour later than scheduled.

I'm going to go negative and suggest you don't do the BMW-Welt on the advice of my husband, who is a car guy.

The best car museum in Germany is the Mercedes Museum in Stuttgart. Porsche is the second. According to my husband, BMW is a distant third. It's also a bit of a trek. I'd stick to one car museum in Stuttgart. As a non-car person, I think the Mercedes museum is way more interesting than the Porsche, but for Porsche fans their museum is very exciting.

Your trip is already very rushed and busy so I would either spend your unplanned day in the Salzburg area or go early to Stuttgart. Salzburg isn't huge but there is a lot of stuff to see nearby, the whole Berchesgaden area, the Eagle's Nest (big mountain views, a retreat built for Hitler, the amazingly beautiful Koeningsee, salt mines). If you chose to spend the extra day in Stuttgart, apart from the two car museums the preserved former Imperial Free City of Esslingen is 10 minutes via train, or the beautiful baroque palace of the Wurttemberg royal family in Ludwigsburg, 10 minutes in the other direction. If anyone in your group is into wine, this is a fantastic and underrated wine country with many options for visiting wineries and local wine taverns along the way.

Listen to Sarah. She knows her stuff.