Travel after Oktoberfest 14

Since you have two days in GaP, don't try to pigeon-hole your Zugspitze day in advanced. Just wait until you get there, and choose the day with the best weather.

The drive to Berchtesgaden depends on traffic conditions, which can be quite bad on the A8 between Munich and Salzburg. You can make the trip in little over an hour, or it could take close to three. Impossible to predict.

I would recommend staying your last night in Erding, simply so that you could spend a few hours at the fabulous Therme Erding. By the time of your visit, the on-site hotel may be open. Erding is about a 15 minute drive from the airport.

My comment is similar to Tom's. This time of year you may get a clear, crisp day or you may get overcast skies (foggy in the mountains). I'm not sure you have enough days to ensure there will be good weather. My advice is to hope for good weather, but have some backup ideas for socked-in weather. There is no point spending lots of time and money for amazing views if it's going to look like the inside of a ping-pong ball when you get there.

Hi,

First, we always pick up our cars at the airport. We got a quote and reserved and paid for a car for later this month for 7 days through www.gemut.com for a total of $245.00. Since you're in Munich, check about picking up there.

I agree you can't really plan on doing the Zugspitze trip on a particular day. It's not worth it if the weather isn't good. Be flexible. Include Ludwig's Linderhof if you haven't seen it yet and there's also a Sommerrodelbahn (luge ride) in Garmisch that's a lot of fun. Mittenwald is also worth a visit (20 min. from Garmisch) and it's our favorite place to stay in the area. It's the quintessential Bavarian village with an alpine backdrop. Don't know how else to describe it. Like a postcard.

The only part I don't see is driving all the way over to Konigsee for what amounts to half a day or so. It's about a 3 hour drive from Garmisch to Berchtesgaden/Konigsee. We've taken the boat trip on Konigsee in mid October a few years ago, and if you're not there early, it gets very crowded. While it is a scenic trip and St. Bartholomew's is picturesque, it's nothing we'd need to visit again. If that's all you plan on doing, there's not to much more than a beer garden to visit.

If you still plan to go to Konigsee, we absolutely love these 2 places to stay, as we've spent about 18 nights during 5 trips that included this area since 2006. The Mayringerlehen is in Ramsau bei Berchtesgaden, about 15 min. from Konigsee (10 min. from Berchtesgaden) and the Friedwiese is in Schonau am Konigsee, less than a 5 min. drive to Konigsee and maybe 3 min. to Berchtesgaden.

www.mayringerlehen.de
www.friedwiese.de/enska/isl.htm

Our favorite place for dinner around here is the Gebirgshaeusl. This is on the main road (B305) between Berchtesgaden and Ramsau bei Berchtesgaden. If it's nice, sit outside.
www.gebirgshaeusl.com/restaurant_e.html

On the drive back to the Munich area or airport area, stop and visit "Mad" King Ludwig's Herrenchiemsee palace. Over the top extravagant interior. You'll park and take the ship (about 15 min. boat ride) to the island the palace is on. It's then a level 15 to 20 min. walk to the palace itself. Nice trip. We did this in mid October also, and we had a total of 5 people on our tour, meaning there were zero crowds, which was really nice.

We also like staying in the charming old town of Erding before an early flight. We stayed at the Park Hotel in Erding. It's an easy short walk to the old town from here.

Hope this helps.

Paul

Thank you for all of the good tips. I am getting the idea that the boat trip on Konigsee is not worth the effort for driving over to BG. Can we stay in Erding without visiting Therme? The old town sounds great and close to what we are looking for. Again thank you for all of the assistance. This forum is great for ideas and recommendations.

"Can we stay in Erding without visiting Therme?" No, as soon as you arrive, you will be marched straight to the Therme, told to put on a bathing suit, and pulled directly onto the closest waterslide.

Of course you can stay in Erding without going to the Therme! The town is nice enough, but there's nothing really to distinguish it from a dozen or so other similar towns in that region of Bavaria (other than the Therme, which sits on the outside of the town, surrounded by pasture land). If you don't intend to bathe, I would skip Erding and stay in Freising instead. For the town itself, Freising is more interesting than Erding and closer to the airport.

I would suggest getting your rental car in Munich - you will save time on the trip out to the airport and likely money by not using an airport location. If you are concerned about driving in Munich, don't be. It's pretty straight forward to get out of the rental car parking and then out of the city, especially if you have a GPS.

I love Berchtesgaden and area but agree that it may not be worth the drive so far out of your way for just a half day. There are lots of great options you could consider in the Garmisch area that would easily fill the extra day for you. That being said, the drive will be quite pretty, especially if you get off the autobahn and take some of the Alpenstrasse.

Thanks, all.