Munich to Berchtesgaden to Innsbruck and finally to Verona

Your best route would be to take the RVO bus (Watzmann Express, 840) to Salzburg or a train to Freilassing and get on an Austrian Rail train, Railjet or Railjet Express to Verona via Rosenheim, Innsbruck, and Brennero. Those connections take 7 -8 hours; do you really want to split it into 2 days? There will probably be several train changes on the way, one usually, but not necessarily in Innsbruck, but you can always pause the trip overnight there.

Berchtesgaden and Salzburg are close. There used to be, might still be, an overnight train from Salzburg to Venice via Udine. Might be worth checking on. If there still is, that could be an alternative. It would take longer, but you could sleep through the trip (some people can't) and get to Venice in morning and Verona late morning.

Added: There are two night train possibilities. There is a night train leaving Salzburg around 10pm, going to Rome. you'll have to change at 5:30 in the morning at Bologna to a regional train at 6am and get into Verona around 7:45.

Another night train leaves Salzburg a little after 2am and gets into Venice Mestre around 8:20, from where, an hour later, you can catch a regional train to Verona, getting there around 10:40.

Follow the first part of Lee's reply, bus to Salzbrg Hauptbahnhof (main station).

Then Railjet to Innsbruck, regular service and discounts for early booking/ fixed intinery. These austrian trains take a shortcut through Bavaria but don't stop (long story about tax and passports that predates EU). There are also a few Westbahn trains which take the same route. Westbahn really discount for advance bookings but have an overly complicated class system and are not as comfortable - but they have double decker cars and the views can be better! For this 2 hour journey I would use 2nd class railjet - or 1st class Westbahn if it was cheaper than railjet

2nd class railjet https://www.vagonweb.cz/fotogalerie/foto/2026/05/20250511_111525.jpg

1st class Westbahn (from an angle which fails to show height benefit!) https://www.vagonweb.cz/fotogalerie/foto/202202/20220508_105853.jpg

PS: the title mentions Munich-Berchtesgaden, the answer to that is likely to be Bayern Ticket or Guten Tag ticket depending on whether you need local buses that day.

there is the original Salzburg-Innsbruck route via Zell am See (which is still used for pricing purposes!). This is incredibly scenic but slower and I you'll need at least one change of train.

for Innsbruck-Verona the trains are planned to be new generation Railjets, which have not received such good reviews as the older versions and mostly sit lower . 2nd class https://www.vagonweb.cz/fotogalerie/foto/202401/20240504_121159.jpg for this ride I might go 1st class if it was at a good price.

Thanks so much for these really helpful top tips
I don't think we'd be using overnight/sleeper trains
The bus from Berchtesgaden to Salzburg and then train to Innsbruck sounds a good idea
I have heard that the train journey from Innsbruck to Verona is particularly spectacular in terms of scenary. Is that right? If so, I wonder if a slower train rather than quick is worth booking
Thank you once again. Very helpful!

yes, the Brenner Pass route is very scenice, but no - do not use slower trains, it will take much longer and not be any cheaper than booking the fast one in advance. The scenery for the whole journey is very nice, you are never very far from mountains even on the Bavarian short cut. As far as I was concerned the only let down was Verona!

yes, the Brenner Pass route is very scenic

Well, it's OK, but for someone who lives in Colorado, it's not very impressive.

In 2009, I was in Innsbruck, and because I'd heard so much about Brennero pass, that was such a big barrier to travel from Rome to Germany in old times, I decided to check it out. I took the train from Innsbruck to Brennero. The ride up to Brennero was pleasant enough, along the bottom of a well wooded valley with lots of little towns, but it hardly seemed like a pass by Colorado standards. At 4500', it's about 900' lower than my house. No big drop-offs. It's wimpy.

The station at Brennero is a few hundred yards past the border. Rather than saying, "Italy, check", I bought a ticket to Fortezza and traveled down the pass on the Italian side half an hour to Fortezza, where I had lunch, before returning to Brennero and Innsbruck.

Italy, check!

where did you find lunch in Fortezza?