travel to Munich and Austria

We did a trip to Munich, Salzburg, and Vienna and only used the trains. We liked staying near Marienplatz at Hotel Torbrau. It has a great breakfast and restaurant and is walkable in a charming area of Munich. Hotel Torbrau is right by the Isartor S bahn stop.

The general tone on this forum is that a car can be a problem in many European cities and countries.
I personally lean towards using public transportation where it makes sense (most cities) and renting a car for exploring the countryside.
A car in Munich, Vienna or Salzburg would be more of an inconvenience than a benefit. I have driven in each of these places and although they are not as challenging as say Milan or Rome, a car does not offer any advantage. I would suggest that using the public transportation will be faster and easier for you. Having said that, if you plan to venture out from these cities (with 10 days, I would guess not) the car can give you great freedom and does save some time.

Six adults + luggage sounds like two cars, or a very large vehicle - losing time looking for, and paying for parking, fighting traffic, navigating in unfamiliar territory, and drop off fees in another country. Doesn't sound good to me. Munich has an excellent public transit system (u-bahn, s-bahn). And rail to the other places, center to center, is fast and efficient. In ten days, I wouldn't see that much free time to explore on the way.

I would take the train. Super easy. The times we have been to Munich we just always walked, except for once when we went to a Christmas market further out. Otherwise it is easily walkable. Salzburg would be an issue with a car as the old town area does not allow cars except for taxis and ones with permits. Salzburg is easily walkable as well.

In Munich we loved Hotel Lux. Great room, excellent cooked to order breakfast and great location. There is no elevator though, but a beautiful grand spiral staircase. We have also stayed at Hotel am Viktualienmarkt twice and it is fine. The location is great, and the rooms are nice, but just a bit generic. Breakfast is just ok.

In Salzburg we stayed at Alstadt Hotel Weisse Taube. We adored this place! The rooms were great, the staff super helpful, and the location was ideal. We took a cab from the train station.

In Munich, rent bikes for a day and ride through the English Gardens. We spent a whole day doing this one September and we had no agenda, just rode, and we had the best time. There are beer gardens you can stop at.

Is it easy to get around Munich by train? Would it make more sense to
rent a car?

Yes, it is easy to get around the Munich area. Here is a link to the Munich metro system https://www.mvv-muenchen.de/en/index.html/. You can plan trips using this app.

Probably no to the car. Only exception would be if you are planning to visit sites far outside of Munich that have limited train service. If you are only going to be in Munich itself, then skip the car.

Love your itinerary...Munich and Vienna are two of my favorite cities in Europe.

Tip to riding trains in Germany/Austria-

Don't schedule anything that you can't cancel the day of travel. Every train I took was a half hour late or more so travel day is really a travel day.

If you buy the Bayern ticket, you can take the regional train from Munich to Salzberg and have two to five people on one ticket.

Trains are much more relaxing than driving. If you reserve your tickets early you can get great deals on Second or First class train tickets.

If you had a smaller group, I may have suggested a rental car but there is no car that is going to fit six adults and their luggage.

The Austrian OBB trains are much more punctual and nicer than DB.

Take the trains and use the apps for scheduling tickets. My wife and I always use the European trains and you will save time, rather than lose time, as no car worries and very, very frequent trains to those major destinations.

Thank you all for your experiences and suggestions. It’s been very helpful!