One week from Munich with car

Summer vacations in Bavaria end on Sept. 10.; so it is not high-season but mid-season to travel Bavaria. Besides Oktoberfest there are local events (business, sports etc.). My recommendation is to book Munich area and typical tourist spots in advance. In between you can act more relaxed.

For an individual car road trip in South Bavaria the German Alpine Road is a good mixture of history, local culture and landscape. It can be an idea at all or give some inspiration. Mid and North Bavaria provide also nice towns with tons of history. It is more a question on what part of history you look for. North Bavaria has for example with Franconia an own region with its own culture aspects which are not the same like Bavarian ones.

Dachau was the first concentration camp - so the prototype to arrest enemies of the regime - not orginally for the Holocaust. The other main Bavarian c-camp is Flossenbürg. Both had dozens of satellite c-camps which you can see on this map overview.

To make this short and cruel part of history more tangible an initiative was establishing and placing Stolpersteine (metal memorial paving stones) which mark places where nazi victims lived before including their names and profiles. You will find a lot of them in Würzburg and Memmingen but also all over in Bavaria (map).

I wish you a super journey.

Hi! We’ve done this a number of times. Triangle, but we call it our loop.

I’d head to the Berchtesgaden area first . We love staying in Ramsau bei Berchtesgaden. We get off the highway from Munich at the exit for Traunstein and head towards Inzell on the 306 and then the 305 to Schneizlreuth to Ramsau (or Berchtesgaden). It’s a gorgeous drive. Between Munich and Berchtesgaden you may like stopping and seeing King Ludwig’s Herrenchiemsee Palace.

We then head to the Innsbruck area and stay in Hall in Tirol. Love it here. As an alternative to this, we sometimes stay in Mittenwald. Another favorite of ours. Then back to the Munich airport.

IF interested in places to stay in these…

Berchtesgaden area:

www.mayringerlehen.de

www.Friedwiese.de

Hall in Tirol:

www.Badl.at

Mittenwald:

www.schwalbennestl.de

Paul

"We like history over art museums..."

Me too. This being your first comment, I would just encourage you to incorporate some additional history into your plans.
History doesn't exactly stare you in the face in post-WW II Germany, but a couple of Bavarian cities actually do pretty well... Regensburg (on the Danube River, not too far from MUC airport and the Weihenstephaner Brewery in Freising) is one of Bavaria's UNESCO World Heritage sites.

Bamberg, also WH-status, see link above, and very "Franconian", is too. Bamberg lies well to the north of Munich. But if you were to combine Bamberg with a visit to nearby Coburg (castle) and Bayreuth (UNESCO WH Opera House, see UNESCO link above) you'd have a nice mix of your stated interests.

Other medieval-period options include Burghausen Castle, in the town of the same name, which shares the Salzach River with Salzburg just slightly off the trajectory between Munich and Salzburg, and Hohenwerfen Castle (in Werfen, AT, not far from the Eisriesenwelt, just south of Salzburg and also on the Salzach River. Hohenwerfen combines medieval history with a falconry exhibition.

The Romans had their way with Bavaria too, of course. Some ideas for that historical option:

https://www.discover-bavaria.com/Inspiration/viva-bavaria-in-the-footsteps-of-the-romans-through-bavaria-?

North of Munich, between Weissenburg and Eichstätt in the Altmühl River Valley you can combine Roman History, Pre-history, Medieval History, and outdoor activities in a place very few international tourists ever go... The Altmühl Nature Park could be a very good choice for you.

As MarkK says..."It is more a question on what part of history you look for." Are you American, SuperJane? We Americans are well-represented on this forum, and not surprisingly, many of us leaving the New World are anxious to see/learn what the Old World was once like. Unfortunately for us, travel guidebooks often let us down; some of the most interesting and most representative historical places in present-day Europe do not figure prominently in travel guidebooks like Rick Steves', which focus largely on the super-touristy historical stuff that today's Americans tend to have solidly under their belts already... WW II stuff... concentration camps, Hitler stuff, for example. To get beyond that very short historical period, other sources of information (like the UNESCO stuff) are esssential.

You mentioned an interest in base towns for a few days...

Landshut is a handsome town roughly equidistant from Regensburg, Burghausen, Munich, the Altmühl Valley, and Freising. It might be a consideration. A Salzburg (or nearby) base would be useful for the Werfen destinations, Herrenchiemsee, and Burghausen.