Rental Car or Public Transportation Munich Area Plus Salzburg

Everything is cheap and frequent regional trains or local bus EUR per person. A car is not necessary, and a handicap in Munich.
You might consider getting the monthly Deutschland Ticket. 58 EUR per person covers everything.

You might consider getting the monthly Deutschland Ticket. 58 EUR per person covers everything.

Not public transport in Salzburg.

Be aware to cancel the subscription ticket early enough to avoid paying for January.

Dachau would be much easier with a car, I think.

No. Just take the S2 (S-Bahn is Munich's urban rail network), direction Petershausen, to Dachau (25 minute ride). At the Dachau trainstation take bus 726 towards “Saubachsiedlung” to the entrance of the Memorial Site (stop: “KZ-Gedenkstätte”). Bus runs every 10 minutes.
https://cdn.civitatis.com/alemania/munich/galeria/plano-metro-tren-munich.png

Not public transport in Salzburg.

True, but public transportation to and from Salzburg.

Wow! Y'all are awesome!

I do think that Deutschland Ticket is the way to go. I know it doesn't cover regional transportation in Salzburg, but I think we'll be on foot (or taxi if needed?) once we're there.

No car...got it. :)

When considering whether to rent a car one needs to consider if public transportation is available to the place you want to visit and how frequently it runs. If there is no public transportation, it runs sporadically, or it takes significantly longer to use public transportation due to scheduling or having to transfer, then a car might be preferable. Definitely no car in Munich.

To expand on Windyram's post, there are two stops with the name "Dachau" on the S2 line; you want Dachau Bahnhof, not Dachau Stadt. Dachau Bahnhof is the first Dachau stop coming from town.

Also, the S2 line splits, with one branch going to Petershausen, and the other one going to Altomünster. Dachau Bahnhof is at the split point, Dachau Stadt is on the Altomünster branch.

Here is the map of the S-Bahn lines in Munich. Dachau is near the top left-hand corner.

If you are leaving from any station on the central S-Bahn trunk line through downtown (Hauptbahnhof, Marienplatz, Isartor, etc.) there are two Richtungen (directions) in the station, Ostbahnhof and Pasing (probably shown on the station wall). You want to take an S2 in the direction of Pasing (to either Altomünster OR Petershausen).

This can all be easily done by train/public transportation, but I'll put in my plug in for a car for Neuschwanstein from Munich. Yes, you can get there by train but the drive is nice and a car gives you the option to stop along the way at places like Starnberg, Wieskirche, other small towns, or even venture into the mountains a little. I've done it both ways and honestly I prefer to little breaks we can take in the countryside on the drive up and back.

For the rest, 100% train/public transportation. We lived in Munich and owned a car and even then I took the train to Salzburg most of the time.

DJ

I have done this drive in winter a few times and only once hit a bit of a snow squall and we were tired anyway so we stopped for the night. I prefer to have a car as I like to be spontaneous and love pulling off the freeway whenever I see something of interest. Had no problem with hotel parking in Salzburg. You definitely do not need a car in Munich, but I would prefer it for Dachau, Neuschwanstein and Salzburg. It's really beautiful country to drive around in and just enjoy the scenery.