Way Too Early Trip Help - Germany/Austria/Switzerland

So glad you have a great adventure under your belt.
Did you say when this trip is? Sorry if I missed it.
Salzburg is magical, and much more charming than Munich IMHO. I'd spend nights in charming Salzburg. And- You have Berchtesgaden outside of Salzburg, and the salt mines. Did you consider flying into Munich?
I'm not a fan of the Fussen Palaces, esp N'stein- the definition of a tourist trap. Lots of lines and waiting, even with timed entry. And- hot in the summer. But if it's a priority, just be prepared for the realities on the ground and make it work.
You haven't mentioned Rothenburg, one of my favorite Middle Ages towns.
I'm very partial to Switzerland. I think staying Swiss for two plus weeks would be heaven!
Download the SBB app for Swiss trains, and the DB Navigator app for German train, to get an idea of travel times.
Also, Facebook city-specific groups are great for real-time, on the ground info.
Have fun planning a second great adventure!

Consider flying open jaw - into Munich and out of Zurich. You have to consider the time lost and the extra train cost if you fly into Frankfurt for no other reason, when you're really starting in Munich. Stay in Fussen on the way from Munich to Salzburg and dont keep doubling back to Munich.

Pat - Updated the original post for time of year. Thinking of June - August 2026. So, 15 days in that 3 month span. Since making my post, I’ve been reading RS forums posts about the Fussen castles. Not the highest marks. I’ll share with my wife, but if we go, I’ll have better expectations. I’m not familiar with Rothenburg, but if I’m reading a map correctly, it would likely be too far out of the way unless we flew into Frankfurt and stopped off while heading to Munich. Seems like a lot for an arrival day, and the idea of staying there 1 night isn’t appealing as I try my best to stick with 3 night minimums. Thanks for the tip on the German train app. I’ve already downloaded and set up a profile for SBB.

Stan - Thanks for mentioning open jaw. We did that in Italy (into Milan, out of Rome). I would only do open jaw if we chose to fly into Frankfurt, and we’d only fly into Frankfurt if there was a really good deal. Otherwise, we’d fly into Zurich and while it may cause a 3-5 hour train ride on arrival day (to Munich or Salzburg), it will be very convenient on the way home. I’m a little confused why you say stay in Fussen. It seems nice, but would it not be more convenient to stay in Munich for day trips to Fussen and Salzburg (if we choose to stay in Munich) vs. staying one night here/one night there? (Again, just personal preference to try to avoid 1 night stays).

Additional thoughts - If we did decide to stay in Salzburg (over Munich), I’d be open to flying into Zurich and taking train to Salzburg on arrival day or flying open jaw into Salzburg and out of Zurich (depending upon cost). At that point, I’d probably do a day trip to Fussen (if we decide to visit the tourist trap), but that would give us 2 days in Salzburg (kind of interesting). Just not sure what Salzburg to Fussen train travel would be like.

It's more functional to count nights, over days. Two nights is one full day. Traveling between towns takes much more time than just the train time: count time to check out, get to the train station , arrive early enough to find your track #, train travel, arrive and orient to destination, and check in.
This holds true for day trips. For Fussen, for example, time to get to the Munich train station, arrive early, two hours on the train, bus to N'stein, walk up the hill to the bus to the Palace. All day on your feet. Repeat to return. It's a long and exhausting day trip.
Salzburg is just too charming for 6-8 hours, it needs a few days. Sleep in the old town, go to the Fortress, walk around this magical area, a 30 minute bus trip to the salt mines, and then out to Berchtesgaden. And- the Augustiner Beer Garden, and the RedBull Museum a is short bus ride outside of town.
Thanks for responding, as it helps posters here help you even more. Safe travels!

Pat - 100% agree to count nights over days. Maybe I made a mistake somewhere, but I think I’ve got my time accurately accounted for. I think what your are getting at is that even if staying in Salzburg for 3 nights, a day trip to Furren to see the castles takes away an entire day, and therefore, we would only have one full day to see Salzburg. I’ll keep mulling that Furren day trip over.

One follow up, if you have time, what are your thoughts on:

A) Arrive in Zurich. Take the, what appears to be, 5+ hour train to Salzburg on arrival day, vs.
B) Arrive in Zurich. Stay in Zurich for one night. Get a good night’s sleep. Next day, take 5+ hour train to Salzburg. Spend 3 nights in Salzburg. Lose 1 day from: Lucerne (originally, 3 nights), Jungfrau Region (originally, 6 nights), Zermatt (originally, 3 nights).

I know the obvious answer is fly open jaw into Salzburg and out of Zurich, but if the cost difference exceeds a certain level, I may be inclined to fly in and out of Zurich.

Salzburg is a small airport with fewer options. If you can get a flight in, great. But most folks fly into Munich and it's an easy 1.5 hr train from Munich to Salzburg.
Depends on what time your plane gets in whether you travel by train on the same day, from any airport. Post-COVID, international flying has been a gamble. On our last few international flights, one was delayed by 24 hrs., one by 6 hrs. Our last flight was on time.
One thing to consider regarding train travel after an international flight is how many connections you have. (You probably won't have a direct train. )You most likely will be exhausted, and start nodding off. But you don't want to sleep through your connections. (set your phone alarm.) It's difficult to stay alert and figure out several connections at several train stations on jet lag. That's why I like flying into Munich for Salzburg. The train ride is short and direct, and there are several trains a day.
Hope this helps.
PS
I'd keep three nights in Lucerne. You'll probably spend the night before your flight in Lucerne.. Maybe take the Berner Oberland to five nights.
It's fun watching your trip evolve.

It doesn't sound like you are interested in Germany much at all if Füssen, now possibly off the table, was your only goal. But would you mind if I try to interest you?

Neither of your A/B options starting from Zurich for your short 3-day adventure look great. You'll have 5.5 train hours to Salzburg + 5.5 train hours BACK to Zurich (or maybe more depending on your destination.)

"We’re open to staying in Munich, Salzburg, or other surrounding cities in Germany/Austria."

Perfect. You wanted to see castles, right? Here's what I would do - with enough detail to show you it will work. Day 0 is only a 1-hr train ride...

• Fly into FRA. Let's say you arrive at 9-10 am on Day 0. You hop on the direct 11:24 RE train to BACHARACH (ar. 12:20) or BOPPARD (12:39.) The short trip after a long flight will be a huge advantage. Drop bags, see the beautiful old town on foot:

Bacharach: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g580190-Activities-oa0-Bacharach_Rhineland_Palatinate.html
Boppard: https://www.boppard-tourismus.de/media/was-ist-wo-broschu__re_en_190219.pdf

(There's more to do in Boppard, including a terrific chairlift ride.)

• Day 1: Take a day trip by train along the Rhine and Mosel Rivers (Germany's most scenic train rides) to Cochem and Burg Eltz (Rick Steves' favorite castle in all of Europe.) Return to your base town by train.

Cochem w/ Reichsburg Castle: https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4565/38662298236_f50bae3391_k.jpg

Cochem things to do: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g198637-Activities-oa0-Cochem_Rhineland_Palatinate.html

Burg Eltz: https://burg-eltz.de/en/homepage

• Day 2: Catch a train south to Bingen to take a cruise (11:15 - 12:50) north to St. Goarshausen. The boat takes you past dozens of hilltop castles, vineyards, and attractive old towns. In St. Goarshausen catch a train north to BRAUBACH for a tour of MARKSBURG Castle... OR... catch a train south to Rüdesheim, a touristy but scenic and enjoyable wine town. Return by train or ferry + train to your base.

Braubach:
https://fotos.schloemp.eu/wp-content/gallery/braubach/002Braubach-Bauernschaenke-Eck-Fritz.JPG
Marksburg:
https://www.marksburg.de/en/
Rüdesheim:
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g187345-Activities-oa0-Ruedesheim_am_Rhein_Hesse.html

• Day 3: Travel from the Rhine to Zurich (from Bacharach: 9:36 - 14:52, 5.25 hrs.) or to INTERLAKEN (9:36 - 15:59) or some other Swiss destination. You can break up the trip if you wish; a stop in FREIBURG, Germany (arrival 12:49 if headed to Interlaken, for lunch and a walk around town. Freiburg is a pleasant place and the station has lockers for your bags.)

Heads up for the Swiss part of your trip: The Euro2025 women soccer tournament will happen in July 2025 in Switzerland. Try to book accomodation and transports early.

While I love the alps and Munich, if I were going to spend most of my time in Switzerland, I would suggest the Black Forest and A few towns in France. Munich just seems like too far of a hike from where you are.

We really enjoyed Strasbourg, Colmar, (both in France) and Frieburg (in Germany). I am also obsessed with the pottery out of Soufflenheim.

Baden-Baden also isn't too far.

Then on your way to Zurich, stopping at Minau - a botanical garden on an island is so beautiful. The Rheinfalls are also amazing.

Pat - Thank you for your continued wonderful comments. Your suggestions are great. We might be leaning toward putting Salzburg on a hr back end of the trip now to make things easier upon arrival. I’ll keep everyone updated.

Russ - I have to say your level of detail is impressive. I like having a detailed itinerary, but I’m just not as familiar with some of these places. I’ll keep the idea of other castles / palaces open, but multiple one night stays on the front end of the trip isn’t my first preference. I know we’ve discussed a more formal Germany and Austria trip in the future, and I think I’ll keep these suggestions in mind when we have more time to devote to Germany as our main focus is on Switzerland this trip. I don’t deny that your time frames make it seem doable though.

MarkK - This is a great point. Luckily, the trip we’re doing isn’t until 2026, so I think we’ll be good there.

Susan K - Thank you for the ideas of France for our extra 3 days. I’ll definitely look into this. Salzburg and Southern Germany seemed to be more doable since we weren’t going to go to Western Switzerland. I think Salzburg is the leader in the club house for our extra 3 days for now.

I’ll keep the idea of other castles / palaces open, but multiple one
night stays on the front end of the trip isn’t my first preference.

That was not the suggestion I made, at least not the one I intended, at all. Sorry if I gave you that idea somehow.

My suggestion was to head from FRA to a two-night-base town (Boppard or Bacharach were the suggestions) and to make short, bag-free outings by train from there on

...we’ve discussed a more formal Germany and Austria trip in the future...

I am unsure what "formal" means here. I don't think it describes a visit to the Rhine/Mosel area. To be clear, here is what I was hoping to accomplish for you:

• To replace the castles in Füssen that you found "questionable" and that you might discard - with castles (real castles, btw) that rarely get a discouraging word on this forum...

• To offer you some time in Germany, which your thread title and its presence on the Germany forum strongly imply... and...

• To improve the transportation logistics between Switzerland and your other destination, using an airport which you had approved.

If it doesn't sound like what you want to do, no worries, have a nice trip, whatever you decide.

I will also say that I like Susan K's suggestion for the Black Forest and Freiburg. I would have made this suggestion too except that there aren't any castles there IMHO that match up to Eltz and Marksburg. If castles don't matter... the Black Forest is great for a short visit like yours.

Salzburg and Southern Germany seemed to be more doable since we
weren’t going to go to Western Switzerland.

Your Swiss airport option is ZRH. Freiburg looks like a big time saver. I recently used ZRH and traveled into Germany via Freiburg on my way to my destination. It went very fast. I had to look up the travel time just now to confirm. Here are the travel-time facts from ZRH to the destinations under discussion...

FREIBURG (2 hrs., 15 minutes one way = 4.5 hrs. round trip)
SALZBURG (5.5 hrs. one way = 11 hrs. round trip)
FUESSEN (4 hrs. one way... for ZRH > Salzburg > Füssen > ZRH... the fastest journey I could find requires 15.5 train hours.)

I hesitated to reply because there are so many options. I took my 11 year old granddaughter three years ago. We flew into Frankfurt, went to Rothenburg o.d. Tauber. Stayed three nights. She loved it! Medieval walls to walk, Night watchman's tour (Hans Georg Baumgartner) in evening, garden area overlooking valley, and picking out some favorite ornaments at KW. We then went to Nürnberg where she loved visiting the churches and lighting candles for special people and a sick friend. Less than 10 miles away (easy bus trip) we spent better part of a day at the Playmobil Funpark. It was a huge hit.

playmobil-funpark.de

Connections from Nürnberg to Munich and beyond are great. We stayed in Füssen- (I’d prepurchased Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein tickets online). We ate pizza, walked around, had ice cream. The next morning we headed to Schwangau (7 minute or so bus ride), picked up our tickets and saw castles at appointed times. The lake there is beautiful place to rest a few minutes and snack. Back in Füssen we ate and walked to Lech waterfalls nearby. Just my opinion, but Neuschwanstein is a must see. She loved the whole trip.
All the info is in Ricks book.
Blessings and safe travels!

and saw the castles at the appointed times

Russ - I’m so sorry if I misread your message. I was reading on phone vs iPad/laptop. I’ll definitely re-read. Grateful for your insight!!!

Sharon - Thank you for sharing. Your insight is welcomed as my daughter will be 11.

I’d forget Fussen and Salzburg. I love them both but you aren’t devoting enough time to them. Also I think there is too much train travel for the kids.

Stephen - From the top rope (wrestling term) with the kibosh on Salzburg/Fussen. Thanks for the insight.

And I appreciate all the feedback. Still working through stuff of course, but I am grateful for all the participation.