Summer 2025 Itinerary

1) Bier and car driving is not a good mix! Also not hours after. A car allows more experiencing left and right and driving German Alpine Road between your destinatons. Ensure validity of your driving licences and the need for IDP in Germany.

2) I would start with Munich (easier handling of jetlag) which is easy reachable by bus or S-Bahn from MUC airport. A rental car in Munich makes no real sense; so rent earliest when you leave Munich.

"We love medieval architecture": if you mean Rothenburg odT you shall know that it was destroyed 40-50% in WWII and rebuilt. Instead you can travel the Franconian part of the German Half-Timbered House Road. Btw: medieval architecture looks different in other parts of Germany.

Be aware that Bavaria has only a very limited range of German beers which are not my earlier favorites; nowadays I do not enjoy drinking alcohol, so I let it be.

Thanks for the reply. I like the idea of starting with Munich first as well. Should really help us get our bearings without much effort and can then grab the vehicle 2 or 3 days after landing.

Just to put it here in case there is some misunderstanding of my post: I will not be drinking and driving. I'm asking if it's best to have a car for this type of itinerary. I also like beer.

Glad to read a responsible answer relatong drinking and driving.

Let me add that German beers can have a higher alcohol ratio compared to what you are used to. This is especially valid for Bavarian and other South German beer sorts which can have up to over 14% alcohol content. Be careful with Starkbier and Bockbier; also some dark beer brands.

After a long sunny / warm day it can be meaningful to start with an alcohol-free beer into the evening.

I think you can trim two nights off of Berchtesgaden area and one from Garmisch-Partenkirchen area. Where you want to go and how you travel is up to you. For mountains and lakes, I would point to Austria. Of course, you could go to northern Bayern too, Bamberg area is Bierhimmel. You can always come to the Oberpfälzer Wald and have a Zoigl.

We love medieval architecture

So steal some time from the Alps. You won't find much medieval in the mountains.

The best-preserved medieval town in Germany is Regensburg - it's on UNESCO's very short list of authentic medieval towns:

https://tourismus.regensburg.de/en/experience-discover/unesco-world-heritage-/-sightseeing/unesco-world-heritage

There are direct trains to Regensburg from MUC airport that get you there in under 90 minutes. You might just start your visit there with a night or two. Going south into Munich (40 minutes) then later northeast to Regensburg would only be backtracking.

Nuremberg: from Regensburg you are closer to Nuremberg than you would be from Munich. Direct trains take only 60 minutes. Nuremberg is also worth a night or two. But for a day trip, I suppose you could head there in the morning from Regensburg, spend a full day in Nuremberg, and reach Munich in the evening. Nuremberg has lockers for your bags while you see the sights.

I lived in Augsburg for four years and visited all the places you listed several times.

I suggest that you stay in Salzburg instead of Berchtesgaden. You can do Berchtesgaden in one full day, but Salzburg needs 2 or 3 and has so much to offer.

Garmisch is great, you can do the highest mountain in Germany, the Zugspitze. Go up the cogtrain or the cable car. There used to be a glacier there in the Summer. If you like to hike, there is a two day hike up to the top of the mountain, I did it twice decades ago.
Fussen is near. The Fraundorfer Guesthouse was my favorite place to stay and dine in Garmish.

You need more than 3 days in Munich, especially if you go to Nuremberg. Consider cutting the Berchtesgaden/Salzburg stay to 4 nights and add those to Munich and Nuremberg. Also, Regensburg on the Danube is a small city that is worth an afternoon.

To go up the Romantic Road is great, but you need to rent a car for that and you need about 3 days for that.

Hey Russ, timely reply because I was literally just looking at Regensburg and Nuremburg wondering if one of those might be my best bet to head to straight from MUC.

So I've been playing around with this itinerary. I might be able to add one more night but let me lay out what I have now and then I do have a couple of questions.

• N1 & N2: Regensburg
• N3: Nuremburg
• *N4: Nuremburg or see below
• N5 - N7: Garmisch-Partenkirchen (3 nights)
• N8 - N11: Berchtesgaden (4 nights)
• N12 - 13: Munich

*I'm doing the second night in Nuremburg here mainly to support a day trip to Rothenburg. On the other hand I could consider picking up my car from Nuremburg and just driving to Rothenburg and doing an overnight there on N4 before heading to G-P. I will be turning into MUC and already checked pricing... all good there.

Any thoughts on this? We love the mountains but also don't want to get bored. Anyone with thoughts on G-P vs. Fussen? We do like the idea of beer gardens to end a long day but I assume this won't be hard to find in any of these spots.

Thanks all.

Hi Geova. Thanks so much for the additional insight. I think the revised itinerary I just laid out is a actually closer to your suggestions with the exception of the Berchtesgaden/Salzburg portion. I was actually thinking about that and just trying to figure out how to work that in if I have a car. I heard Salzburg isn't the easiest place to drive around in.

A car isn't an absolute must if the general consensus is that an itinerary like this could be fairly well managed with public transport. But I also don't mind having one if it makes everything generally easier.

Thanks again!

You could travel by train between Munich, Regensburg, Nuremberg, and Salzburg. When you're ready to leave Salzburg, pick up a rental car right across the German border in Freilassing (you can get there by bus or taxi). Use it in southern Germany, then return it in Munich. We did this two years ago; we enjoyed the convenience of having a car in smaller towns and the countryside. We were also happy to be without the hassle and expense of a car in the cities! If there was a fee for dropping the car in a different location it was no more that €20-30 (I would remember it it was higher!).

Some places we really enjoyed visiting were the salt mines near Berchtesgaden, Konigsee, Mittenwald (great hike just outside of town), the hiking trails near Neuschwanstein (had previously visited the palace), and Herrenchiemsee. Whatever you end up choosing, you can't go wrong!

MUC > Regensburg > Nuremberg: You will probably want to have the Deutschland Ticket in hand on Day 1. Sounds like you'll likely have a need for it later on too...

"Anyone with thoughts on G-P vs. Fussen?"

The number of options available to you from a G-P base makes it a winner against Füssen, IMO... Don't skip Mittenwald, an easy train ride from G-P, while there; it's first up on this page:

https://hastingshouse.typepad.com/hastings_house_us/travel_in_europe/

I think a car may be advantageous to you for SOME of your time in G-P; some nearby destinations are easy to reach by local train or bus (free with D-Ticket.) But you might like to hit some which are more distant and either not served by train or only by pokey mountain buses that can chew up your time.

I have not stayed at the Fraundorfer in G-P but I can certainly second the suggestion that you have dinner there. The Bavarian Evening there is just a lot of fun:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XD8SvqNDZxE

"I'm doing the second night in Nuremburg here mainly to support a day trip to Rothenburg."

That day trip makes sense to me... Since you are heading straight to G-P the following day, I see little charm in driving that distance. The train trip from Nuremberg to G-P is the way to go. Just one change of train in Munich.

Nuremberg has a LOT to see and lots of nice pubs and IMO and could easily fill a couple of days - even if you skip the WW II stuff that gets so much attention in Rick's materials. So I would catch an early train on this day trip to Rothenburg... the 7:21 departure takes 90 minutes, the 8:37 departure just 75 minutes... and then play it by ear... And I know this violates the Rick Steves code and mantra, but R'burg is not a large town, and at whatever point you've had your fill of Rothenburg, just hop on a train back to Nuremberg, where there's probably something you haven't gotten to yet on your list of things to see/do. (Remember that the D-Ticket is valid for trams, buses, and U-Bahn in Nuremberg too.)

Once your train gets you to G-P, you can pick up a car there.. but I'd schedule that rental after a day or two... do any train/bus outings first and postpone the car until the day/time you expect to need/want one for this or that outing, like maybe Linderhof Palace, or Highline 179, or...? I would keep that car for the Berchtesgaden/Salzburg area too. But to spare you a hefty drop off fee you may want to drop it back in Germany in FREILASSING (at the Austrian border) and catch the train into Munich from there with your Deutschland-Ticket. Several forum members recommend doing it this way.

Please have a look at these options in WERFEN, a short drive outside Salzburg, before finalizing your bookings. They may change your opinion about where to stay and for how long:

Hohenwerfen (medieval castle) and falconry exhibition: https://www.salzburg-burgen.at/en/hohenwerfen-castle/
The Eisriesenwelt: https://www.eisriesenwelt.at/en/

Well that's annoying. I tried replying to this, the format was jacked up so I edited it a couple of times, and now the post is gone somehow. Anyway let's try this again.

Looks like we're getting really close! Here is where I'm at right now and have just a few more questions to see if we can get this finalized, again I really appreciate all of the help. Oh and I added a night because why not.

Arrive MUC, train to Regensburg
N1 - N2: Regensburg
train to Nuremburg
N3 - N4: Nuremburg
Train to G-P, pick up car when needed
N4 - N10: G-P / Berch (figure out split later)
Drive to Freillasing to drop off car
N11 - N12: Salzburg
N13 - N14: Munich
Fly home

Some questions:
First, I'm not a huge fan of having all of these home base moves. Should I consider consolidating Nuremburg/Regensburg into one or the other? Like do 4 nights in Nuremburg and day trip? If I do consolidate could I reduce to 3 nights and one to the southern leg?

Second, should I consider reversing everything after the northern leg? Meaning head straight to Salzburg from Nuremburg?

Third, as mentioned above I don't like moving home bases this much so would it be best to just consolidate Salzburg/Berch into one spot and day trip to Salzburg? Figure this would give us the most flexibility in that area given we would have the car and could be more flexible with our plans depending on whatever might be happening weather wise (or other) that day.

Finally, do we need an extra night in Munich given we're covering a lot of the normal day trip areas already?

Alternate itinerary with fewer bases:
N1-N3 (or N4): Nuremberg
N4 (or N5) - N12: G-P/Berch/Salzburg
N13 - N14: Munich

Again really appreciate all of the help. We really don't mind making the hotel changes if it makes for a better trip, just want to be sure we're only doing so if it makes sense. Thanks!

Just wanted to bump this one time to see if anyone has feedback on the most recent post.

One other question in the meantime. Any suggestions for Berchtesgaden lodging? I'm also open to Ramsau bei Bertchtesgaden or other nearby spots. The one place I had my eye on in Ramsau requires 7 nights minimum so unfortunately a no go there, especially if we end up doing a stay in both Salzburg and Berchtesgaden.

Thanks again.

Personally I like your plan to base in Berchtesgaden and day trip to Saltzburg from there. Just depends if you are city or nature people. We did Saltzburg in a day and felt like we saw what we wanted to basically - lovely but didn’t leave wishing for a ton more time. Of course if you want to do the sound of music tour or multiple museums vs just the schloss then you’re going to need more time. On the other hand we had 3 full days in Berchtesgaden and wished for more.

How to spend the time:
1 day for Koenigsee and the hiking around there.
1 day for Jennerberg plus salt mine (or Eagles Nest)
1 day for a gorge hike - we liked Seisenbergklamm
1 day for relaxing - Bad Reichenhall has a great bath spa that was very uncrowded on weekdays.
A lot of people here like the Eagles Nest visit too.

We stayed at Hotel Edelweiss in Berchtesgaden- it was heavenly.

Arrive MUC, train to Regensburg
N1 - N2: Regensburg
N3 - N4: Nuremburg

'Should I consider consolidating Nuremburg/Regensburg into one or the other? Like do 4 nights in Nuremburg and day trip?"

No. Definitely not Nuremberg first. MUC airport > Nuremberg by train is circuitous, meaning at least 2.5 hours plus a change of train. Don't do that to yourselves after a long flight. And then a round trip to Regensburg on some other day? That would only subtract valuable time from your day because of the round-trip train ride.

This map shows Regensburg's location, with Nuremberg and Munich at either end of the red route line, which should illustrate the round-trip problem:

Map: https://cdn.gopili.com/default/map_journeys_square/map-14817_1-15152_1.jpg

Since Regensburg is almost "in-between / on the way" to Nuremberg, and since the train trip from MUC airport is much shorter to Regensburg than Nuremberg - and DIRECT - I would definitely go to Regensburg for N1.

But I would also like to make some additional suggestions for fine-tuning your organization...

I would book N2-4 in Nuremberg. On Day 1 you should have a few hours for Regensburg... but there's a good chance you will want a few more hours there on Day 2. So after breakfast on Day 2, check out and leave your bags with your hotel front desk, spend that sightseeing time in Regensburg as needed, then fetch your bags and catch a direct train straight to Nuremberg whenever you are ready to leave. Once in Nuremberg, you might have a little pm sightseeing time there before turning in for N2.

Day 3: After breakfast you are ready for the round trip to Rothenburg (should be around 2.5 train hours total with the best conections) plus whatever leftover time you have for Nuremberg in the pm.

Day 4: One solid day and N4 for Nuremberg.

Also... it's Nuremberg, not Nuremburg. I know, it's a distinction without a difference for English speakers who pronounce -burg and -berg the same way. But Germans do not, so for them, the spelling is quite important.

For great bier and a great meal in Munich, I recommend Paulaner am Nockherberg.

I'm seriously considering reversing this trip now, mainly because it will put us being in G-P on the weekend and will likely be much easier to get together with my friend who lives there.

• Night 1: Arrive Munich - Train to Salzburg*
• Night 2: Salzburg
• (pick up car in Freilassing)
• Night 3-6: Berchtesgaden (I know this might be a lot of time for many but I can already tell this will not be enough time for us and we will be back one day)
• Night 7-9: G-P
• Night 10-13: Rothenburg / Nuremberg / Regensburg TBD on this
• (return car either in G-P or Nuremberg area)
• Night 14-15: Munich

*Will also research cost of flying to Salzburg with a return from Munich

Any concerns here?

In case I have not mentioned it before, thanks for the berg/burg clarification. I will be sure to note that as I do deeper language research for the next several months!

Also thanks for the Paulaner suggestion. That was my first ever experience with German beer in the USA long ago so I look forward to enjoying it in Germany, along with some others!