Need help with itinerary

The whole trip group guided tours rush people around to stuff mostly seen from outdoors and skip most of the museums. You could do the same on your own or see the museums I would see. Do you want the museums or do you want to skip them?? Do you want to Leave from Munich? I didn't make time for Berlin. Berlin has a museum Island with some appealing museums. You have time for some of Berlin and Munich.

Hi Laura. Hard to answer without knowing your interests. Mountains? Cities? Small towns? Museums? Is Berlin a must to start? etc.. If not interested in Octoberfest, you may want to limit or skip Munich as hotel prices will be high. I love Austria and would spend more time there, but of course I'm not you; don't know your priorities.

If you want a mix of culture and scenery, you could go Berlin → Dresden → Prague → Vienna, or Berlin → Leipzig → Nuremberg → Munich slope game. Both routes are manageable in 7–8 days.

Laura, please list a few interests, also do-not-likes can help.
I ask myself how somebody can give advice without knowing Laura's interests.

Typical top 10 of Berlin. For a Reichstag building a pre-reservation is recommended.

Berlin has a museum Island with some appealing museums.

btw: Berlin has over 170 museums plus surrounding , e. g. Barberini in Potsdam.

Event highlight in Berlin at travel date: Festival of Lights.

Berlin → Dresden → Prague → Vienna, or Berlin → Leipzig → Nuremberg → Munich. Both routes are manageable in 7–8 days.

I disagree—with only 7-8 days (which means 6-7 nights), you're looking at spending only 1 or 2 nights in each city, and most of your time would be spent traveling between each place.

Do yourself a favor and stick with Germany; perhaps spending 4 nights in Berlin and 3 nights in Munich. And if you choose to do that, I would suggest booking your flight to Berlin and then book a multi-city flight back home from Munich. It's easy to do and usually not more expensive than a round-trip ticket, and it will save you both time and money not having to travel back to your original destination.

There are day trips you could do from both cities, although Berlin certainly has enough to keep you going for weeks. In Munich, it's an easy and quick train ride to Dachau, if you are interested in seeing that. You could even do a day trip to Salzburg, although it would make for a long day. But Salzburg is beautiful and easy to get to from Munich by train.

If not interested in Octoberfest, you may want to limit or skip Munich as hotel prices will be high.

Not when you're there. Oktoberfest ends on October 5 this year, so even if you flew into Berlin the first week of October, the festival in Munich will be over by the time you got there, and hotel prices will be back to normal.

Thanks all for your wonderful advice. I am not a huge museum person, like more active walking tours. I am interested in seeing some cool smaller historic towns and was wondering if bypassing munich for vienna sounds like fun ...

Agree with Mardee, You only have 7-8 days. You can do about half in the Berlin area, say 3 days, then 4 days in Bavaria. In 4 days, you can visit Munich, perhaps the Garmish/Fussen area, or the Salzburg/Berchtesgaden area.

I agree with those who support 2 bases given the duration of your trip. Berlin + another city would be great.

Berlin is my favorite city. I think it's great, and there is much to do apart from museums. If it's in your budget, think about a private tour with Robert Sommer. He was the 15-year-old son of an upper level East German bureaucrat the night the Berlin Wall fell. He can give you an overview walking tour of Berlin, but along the way, he can give you insight into growing up in East Berlin, spending his teen and young adult years as a punk rocker, being a squatter in the former East Berlin after reunification, and ultimately gaining a PhD with a thesis on prostitution in Nazi concentration camps. He is a fascinating, approachable guy who can give you something more than a victor's history of Berlin/Germany (i.e., more than the standard West German history of Berlin/Germany). I've done many tours with him, everything from comparing East/West Berlin post-WWII architecture to exploring bunkers where Soviet nuclear warheads were stored during the Cold War.

Vienna? I like it quite a bit, too. You'd want to get there by plane. It's about a 9-hour train ride.

Part 2 of trip in Germany?

• Munich is a logical option and could be used as a base to see the Alps and some smaller towns if that is of interest to you
• Nuremberg is a good base not far from Munich that could be used to see cute towns like Bamberg and Regensburg. Consider a stop along the way at gorgeous Erfurt. It was not bombed during WWII so has quite gorgeous half-timbered houses. The RS Germany guide has a nice walk for the town. Its Oktoberfest runs through Oct 12, but I had no trouble finding locker space for bags in the copious lockers in its train station during Oktoberfest a few years ago. History? Recently named a UNESCO World Heritage site for medieval Jewish history. First East German city where a West German chancellor (Willy Brandt) visited (and was greeted by cheering throngs, much to the embarrassment of the East German government) -- memorialized by Willy Brandt Platz near the train station.
• Dresden is an option but is museum heavy. Nearby Saxon Switzerland offers options for outdoor activities

Good luck with planning!

I also agree with Mardee. With 7 to 8 days, you would spend half your time traveling between cities with such an ambitious itinerary. I would recommend spending three to four days in Berlin, and then visiting Dresden-Leipzig-Lutherstadt, before returning to Berln. The train rides between those places are fairly short. Bear in mind that some of the sights on Berlin's Museum Island are closed this year. I could be more specific about what to see if I knew what your interests are.

wow, thanks everyone for all your insights! Dave, thank you for your detailed recommendations. I think we may do that very thing. If we were to add on Prague as an extra few days, do you think we should do this en route to the Munich area ? I have never been but it is one of my bucket list desires. thanks again L

I just spent 5 days in Berlin alone and didn't see half of the "tourist" sites, although I do have enough other interests to keep me plenty busy. I'd think that, between Berlin and one other city you'd have more than enough to entertain. Close to Berlin you have Dresden, which is great, although mostly rebuilt (as is Berlin) since 1945.

I'd pick one of the cities you can fly out of, Frankfurt, Vienna, Copenhagen, etc. Any of those should also have enough other attractions to make for a good stay. I'd probably avoid Munich at the time you're flying, mainly as most of the decent places have long since been booked and prices are crazy.

... not a huge museum person ... seeing some cool smaller historic towns

Ignore Berlin and Munich completely for this purpose.

For staying on fast trains (ICE/IC network map) I recommend:

• Lutherstadt Wittenberg
• Erfurt
• Bamberg or Regensburg
• rest for Linz or Vienna

All are relative small cities / towns, have an own interesting history, a nice old town part and offer World Heritage sites.

If you have 8 full days, I suggest spending all of it in Berlin, plus a day trip or 2, such as, an afternoon in Potsdam (you want to see an historic town, this is it in Prussian-German history) , day trip to Lutherstadt Wittenberg, as suggested, or one to Weimar, very doable.

Seeing both Berlin and Vienna is doable, stretch out the travel days by taking the night train, easily done.

in order of priority to see by while driving south from berlin to munich by car: rothenburg, bamberg, salzburg, regensburg, berchtesgarde, wittenburg, and day trip on rhine
any advice appreciated

driving south from berlin to munich by car

If you are set on driving from Berlin to Munich by car, then Bamberg and Regensburg or Wurzburg should meet your requirements for smaller, walkable cities. And, if you do spend a night in Regensburg, I suggest a lunchtime visit to Weltenburg Abbey, about an hour away and worth a small detour on your drive to Munich.

Let me add that if you are diriving, look for a hotel with attached parking that is convenient to public transportation or walking distance to altstadts in cities like Bamberg. Most of the sites you will want to see are in the altstadts and you will most likely not want to drive once you reach your hotel. Before you book your hotel, check Google Maps to see if your planned route is a comfortable dirve for you.