My girlfriend and I are planning a trip to Germany in September 2023. We plan on arriving on September 8 and leaving September 23. Our plan is to stay in the southern half of Germany. The plan is to buy the German Rail Twin Pass Flexi, but unsure whether we should do the 10 day or 15 day.
Day 1: Arrive in Frankfurt airport and take the train to Mannheim. We're spending the day in Mannheim meeting old friends and plan on staying the night here.
Day 2-4: Travel to Bad Duerkheim in the morning, go to Wurstmarkt in the evening. Next morning do a hike in the area and spend most of the day in Wurstmarkt seeing everything it has to offer. Morning of Day 4 we plan on taking the train to Lake Konstanz.
Day 4-8: We will arrive in Lake Konstanz in the afternoon/evening of our 4th day. While here we plan on taking a Zeppelin tour of the area and visiting Schloss Mainau. Other than those two attractions, this portion of the trip is really spent just relaxing around the lake. May do another hike in the area or hop over to Lichtenstein for a day. On the last day we plan on taking trains to Munich
Day 8-11: Plan on arriving in Munich in the afternoon/evening and visiting one of the beer halls. Days 9 & 10 are going to be spent around Theresinwiese for the opening weekend of Oktoberfest. We are going to try and catch the parade and spend the two days seeing everything and enjoying the beer tents. We have already got our hotels booked for these dates as well. On the 11th day we are planning to take a train to either Innsbruck or Salzburg.
Day 11-14: This portion of the trip is still undecided in what we are going to be doing. We want to go to Austria for a couple days, but up in the air about visiting Innsbruck or visiting Salzburg. Any insight or suggestions between which destination would be better is welcomed.
Day 14-16: Plan on spending the last few days back in Munich with no real set plan on what to do for the one full day we have left (Day 15). Might spend the time exploring more of the city or making a day trip to Dachau. Day 16 we head to Munich airport and then fly back home.
Between Innsbruck and Salzburg, which is the better city to spend a few days in during the middle of September? This is the only portion of the trip we're unsure of the destination. We both enjoy outdoor activities and like museums (art, history, anything of interest) a good bit. The German Rail Twin Pass Flexi seems to be our best option for the trip, but as mentioned earlier don't know if we should get the 10 day or 15 day. We plan on using local transportation while in each place, and I believe that many local trains/trams are included in the German Rail Pass. Does anyone have any experience with this? Is there anything that we should see or do while in any of the above cities that was left out?
