Planning a trip to Germany, what to add or take away?

I would definitely consider slowing down a bit, especially mid-trip, as you will become exhausted with all the transit between places. After a while, the noise and hustle of the larger cities will make them seemingly run together and this will generally wear you out.

Munich is large and can quickly overwhelm. Think about limiting Munich to 2 nights, or maybe 3, and add a night or two to Salzburg. You can be out of the city center of Salzburg and in the Alps with just a 15-20 minute car or bus ride. Berchtesgaden is only half an hour away and the Obersalzberg is on the way. Consider to go hiking or rent bikes for a day, finish with beers at Augustiner beer garden. That will help you relax and re-charge.

You can also do small day-trips to Hallstatt and other spots by train or car.

You can also do small day-trips to Hallstatt and other spots by train
or car.

Or bus. Actually, I did a day long bus trip from Salzburg through the Salzkammergut, with a stop in Mondsee, to Hallstatt and then spent two nights (full day) in Hallstatt and left the next morning for Innsbruck via Stainach-Irdning.

Thanks for the advice ill look into staying longer in Salzburg and less in the Munich. I traveled for the first time last year to Europe (England and Scottland) and we did alot of hopping around with a bunch of 1 night stays so i thought this time i would plan to stay in one area for longer and day trip it, hence why 4 nights in Munich. Is there some where nice out side of Munich to stay and just day trip into Munich/Dachau and still be close enough to go to Zugspitze and Neuschwanstein if that is worth going to see? i just planed 1 night stays in Rothenburg and Hallstatt because i have read that they are really busy in the day and quiet down at evening/night.

Days 1-3. St. Goar is generally a good base town if you want to visit places on the opposite river bank like Braubach (for Marksburg, the Rhine's only intact medieval castle you can tour - and a very goood one.) St. Goar has a ferry to St. Goarshausen that runs all day so you can board the train there for Braubach.

The best cruise is actually on your way to St. Goar in the first place. Here's a map of the cruise zone.

From FRA catch a train to BINGEN and board there (5 boats per day at 9:30, 10:30, 11:30, 14:30 and 16:30.) You will step off in St. Goar 1.5 hours later. That's really the only cruise you need - and it's a great way to see the valley for the first time, almost measurably better than by train.

You'll want to get a Rheinland-Pfalz ticket day pass for the trip to Remagen. €24/1/ €29/2. Buy from a St. Goar ticket machine. It's a very good museum, btw.

Burg Eltz would be possible as well. It might be fit in with your Remagen trip or your trip to Braubach - play with the train schedules. Burg Eltz stop is Moselkern. You walk from there. It's a much more enjoyable experience than the N'stein visit, IME. And it's a real castle (N'stein and its faux castle exterior was finished just before the turn of the 20th century, much closer in age to Sleeping Beauty's castle in Disneyland than to the castles of medieval times like Eltz and Marksburg.)

Thanks Russ
That helps alot with that leg of the journey. After doing a bunch of reading about N'stein I'm getting the general idea that it might not be worth the tour. But is the Fussen area still worth a trip or would you skip that part all together and go some where else? if so where?

If you definitely want to hit the Alps, then why just run to the Zugspitze and back to Munich on Day 7? Stay there in Garmisch instead and see what it has to offer - the Partnach Gorge is very good, the Partenkirchen old town is nice, the Fraundorfer Inn's Bavarian Evening is a kick, Mittenwald (short day trip) is gorgeous I prefer Garmisch and Mittenwald to Füssen overall. Here's a walking guide to Mittenwald: http://hastingshouse.typepad.com/hastings_house_us/travel_in_europe/
When you stay in G-P you are eligible for a visitors card for fee bus transport around town:
https://www.gapa.de/en/Info-Service_en/GAPA-Card-Gaestekarte

awesome i will definitely look into that. thanks again for your input

Another issue maybe you guys could help me out with is rail pass or no rail pass? i have been reading the post on this forum and the general consensus is that the rail pass is not worth the money. Should i just buy region day pass tickets for every day of travel?? That will result in an overlap between rhine and rothenburg, salzburg to nuremberg to frankfurt right? i did a quick tally of regional tickets for two ppl: 4 Rhineland-Palatinate tickets 116 euro, 7 Bayern-Ticket 217 euro and nurmberg to frankfurt flexpass 120 euro. total 453 euro or about $680 Canadian. A 10 day rail pass is $832 Canadian. ill be saving $150 but is that worth it to deal with buying tickets everyday a dealing with the 9am rule during weekdays? is my math or understanding of these tickets correct

thanks

Train prices... What DATE is Day 1? Hard to be right about these things without dates. And you are two adults, right?

Your math probably is fine but you're assuming you need the regional day passes (Ländertickets) for some days when you actually don't need that much ticket/expense. There are in fact day passes for smaller areas you can use in some cases - and also simple tickets - that will serve you better here and there. (In fact, I overlooked one of these above where I mentioned the Rheinland-Pfalz ticket!)

I can now say that the first 3 days will total €61 by train, rounded to the nearest Euro (I think you'd figured €87 for those days.)

• FRA - Bingen: RMV one-way ticket for two on regional trains, €17

• St. Goar - Remagen, Burg Eltz - St. Goar: VRM mini-group ticket, €22

• St. Goar - Braubach - Boppard - St. Goar: VRM mini-group ticket, €22

Not a Rheinland-Pfalz ticket in the bunch. (It doesn't matter how you combine these destinations - the same group ticket covers two adults.)

FYI here's a map of the VRM zone (light green.)

I'll find time to check the rest once I see your dates.

You are landing and leaving from a very historic city in Germany, yet have left no time at all on your plan to visit anything here. Were you not interested in seeing anything in Frankfurt? Any of the Holocaust memorials, the Gestapo jail, any of the medieval churches, or at least one of the 40 museums?

thanks again Russ looks like i have to do some more studying on the train prices lol, to see what works for me. we haven't locked in dates as of yet just trying to figure out the best options and the best price so i can narrow down the budget.

Ms. Jo the flights back to home, don't leave Frankfurt till after 5pm on day 13, so we have almost all day or untill around 2pm to see some of the sights in Frankfurt. Was going to check out Frankfurt first when we landed but my very first ever experience with air travel was last year and i experienced jettleg and my ears didnt pop for 6 hours after we landed no matter how much gum i chewed lol.

10-day German Rail twin pass flexi version from DB = €533 = CAN $804 (Note that the rail pass won't cover the trips to Hallstatt and back.)

Individual journeys: There's no great way to compare options without your exact dates. Day pass options for Day 4 and Day 12 vary by day of the week. Doing these 2 journeys on high speed trains will be more efficient than day pass options and may also save you money (pre-purchased saver fares) but the dates matter there as well; I selected an arbitrary date in September and the saver fare prices below for those days are the cheapest possible. (If your trip is soon, you would likely pay much more.) The day of the week also will affect the hour at which you can travel with SOME of the day passes - the Bayern Ticket for example has an after-9 rule on weekdays.

The 10 individual-ticket travel-day options for comparison with the 10-day rail pass are below. I used your original travel plan. Fares total €281, or CAN $484. Prices are for 2 adults:

Days 1-3: €61 (see above)
Day 4: S. Goar - R'burg: 1 DB ticket for 2, saver fare, includes high-speed trains €48 (much better than normal fare of €120+)
Day 5: R'burg - Munich: Bayern Ticket, €31
Day 6: Munich - Dachau: maybe (local fare) about €16 (this includes a shuttle bus to the camp which the rail pass does not.)
Day 7: day trip to Füssen, Bayern Ticket, €31
Day 8: day trip to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Regio-Ticket Werdenfels, €26
Day 11: Salzburg - Berchtesgaden - Salzburg: 2 RVO Bus 840 daypasses, €20
Day 12: Salzburg - Nuremberg - Frankfurt: (1 DB ticket for 2 with specified stopover) saver fare, includes high-speed trains, €48 (much better than then normal fare of €200+)

Then you also have these additional trips to pay for - the rail pass won't fully cover them as it doesn't cover Austria, only Salzburg and Germany...
Day 9: Munich - Hallstatt: €58 (1 DB ticket for 2, saver fare, includes high-speed trains; this ticket will go up in price as well the longer you wait.)
Day 10: Hallstatt - Salzburg (see oebb site.)

It's also possible to go half rail pass and half individual tickets for the 10 days in question. Let's say the Day 4 and Day 12 prices for your dates have climbed out of sight... then the rail pass can "cap" those prices to something reasonable. buy a 5-day twin pass flexi for Day 4, Day 12, and three other days (like 5, 7 & 8.) That pass is €335. (And you'd do the remaining 5 days as outlined above - those total €97.) Now your total would be €432 (CAN $652.) High, but not high in comparison with your total if you face paying the normal fares for Day 4 and Day 12.