Germany planning April 2019 Ideas and advice needed.

"I just need some direction on places to visit, why, and don't really want to see a lot of sites just enjoy the scenery and culture."

Try the German Alps between Oberstdorf and Berchtesgaden. Also the Rhine and Mosel River Valleys (near Koblenz.) Why? Because you say you want Germany's best scenery. The Rhine and Mosel are very good in spring. Culture: impossible to know what you mean by this. To learn more about the people and their historical roots, you'd sort of need to visit places... museums, open-air museums, castles, palaces, etc... and unless you know German, probably places that have displays and tours in English (and of course English options aren't for locals but for tourists.) If culture means people-watching and hanging out in pubs and cafes, you'll want to spend time in towns and cities. Or maybe traditional festivals is what you mean.

Once you have your destinations in place you can figure out cars and/or trains. NO rush on that yet.

We just spent 3 weeks in Bavaria, Switzerland and northern Italy last month and visited all of the places you mentioned. Here is our itinerary, our weather experience and a couple of suggestions for places we did not get to but which you might like.

We spent 6 nights in Munich. In addition to seeing Munich sights, we took day trips to Salzburg, Nuremberg and the Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau castles. We did all this by train and thought it was easy to do without a car. We were there May 13-19. Weather was not terrible, but every day had at least some rain and temps were mostly 60s and low 70s and humid. Recommend Kufstein and Innsbruck in Austria as possible places to check out, they are scenic especially in good weather.

We traveled by train from Munich to Padova and then changed trains to continue to Florence. From Florence we took day trips to Venice, Siena and Pisa. We did all this by train and it was not difficult to coordinate. We were there May 19-25. Weather was warmer than Germany but still had rain 4 days out of 6 (but not all day rain, showers off and on). Mostly high 60s to high 70s and humid. Florence, Venice and Pisa were all heavy on tourists, Siena was calmer. Venice is wonderful even if crowded, just lose yourself in the back streets, find a nice lunch place, visit some churches and artwork and you won't run into really huge crowds. Recommend you consider Verona, Milan, maybe Lake Garda or Lake Como as possible additional places to see. Train would work for Verona and Milan, would need bus for the lakes or maybe car.

After Florence we took train to Lugano for one night. Great weather, 70s, sunny, few tourists, great views from Mt San Salvatore. Expensive. Recommend hotel Lugano Dante, great location and awesome staff.

After Lugano we took train to Lucerne. Very very touristy but still worthwhile. Last weekend in May, pretty warm, 80s, humid, chances of rain each day but didn't happen.

Then returned to Munich and flew home from there.

Our travel style is to pick a base (Munich and Florence) and then do day trips where we might visit one cultural site or museum per day, then walk the city and have a nice lunch somewhere and return to base where we'd prepare own dinner in rented apartment. On a travel intensity scale of 1-10 where 1 is a superficial traveler who skims the surface and 10 is an intense traveller who wants lots of depth in each place visited, we are about a 2.5. We were more interested in scenery than museums; not everyone would want to travel that way but it sounds like your style might be similar.

Good luck with your travels, I predict April will be cooler than our experience, a bit less rainy, and certainly less crowded.

Been to Europe 3x this decade. I would recommend 2-3 days in the alsace of France. Tremendous history, culture and food. I fully enjoyed the 4 day auto trip thru the black forest. Stops in Gutach, Triberg, and Alpirsbach ending in Ulm. Salsburg for three days is amazing...the surrounding lake region, the city itself and the Augustiner beer garden. I thought Bamburg was a great two day stop. The 'venice ' of germany. Two days on the Rhine and Two on the mosel also outstanding. Good luck and enjoy

Berlin/Dresden/Potsdam

I just spent over two weeks in Berlin, Dresden, and Potsdam.

The trip was fantastic; I still have not posted my trip report/observations/suggestions.

Berlin offers so much history, sites, museums (The German History Museum), art galleries, palaces (Charlottenburg Palace) etc. . Berlin has a great transportation/metro system, which included an easy metro ride out to Potsdam to visit the Sans Souci Palaces. Berlin is very bicycle friendly if you care to rent a bike on your own or use some bike touring companies. I think you can take bikes on just about all forms of transportation; they are widely accepted.

Also, I spent two nights in Dresden, which is a phenomenal city to visit. This city has the Historic Green Vault and my favorite, the New Green Vault. Also beautiful churches, buildings, palaces (The Residence Schloss?), art galleries, etc. I could have easily spent three or four nights in this city. Dresden is a solid two-hour train ride from Berlin's main hauptbahnhof (train station). That is why I stayed overnight.

This is just my input which might help you in planning for Germany.

OP GTL646:
I apologize; it look like when you arrive in Munich that you want to head south. If you change your mind and decide to head north, I can't recommend enough how wonderful my trip to Berlin was.

I appreciate all of the comments.

I tend to look at a map check rail connections and times, check reviews and read about cities in several sources.

I will fly into Munich and fly out of Venice. So I would want to flow toward Italy with a stop in Lugano to visit my wives relatives.

I like to enjoy my trip and not be on too many stops, I feel at least 5 or 6 nights is a good amount of time to enjoy a city. Hopefully day trips to explore a site or 2 outside the city.

Now I am looking at the train system to see where trains run from Munich.

thanks very much.