Where To Stay In Bavaria

Andrea - Consider staying in smaller towns like Kempten Germany, Ulm, Landsberg am Lech, Augsburg, or Bad Reichenhall. You will be close to the Garmish-Partenkirchen & Mittenwald area from there. Landsberg am Lech and Augsburg are just around 50 minutes from Munich. Ulm and Kempten are 90 minutes from Munich. Bad Reichenhall is 1 hr 50 min away from Munich.

Thank you RJean. I was planning on spending approximately 4 nights in Bavaria, then another 4 nights in Austria, probably in the Innsbruck area. From there we go to Switzerland.

Andrea - Once you head to Austria, look into staying in Seefeld Austria as it is just above Innsbruck. It's a great base to explore Innsbruck area and surrounding villages.

https://www.bestofthealps.com/en/d/seefeld/

My experience is that hotels as far away as Nuremberg will be affected come Octoberfest time. If you've seen southern Bavaria I recommend moving up into either Frankonia or the Rhineland. Nuremberg is a great travel hub and an easy train ride to Munich. It's also very central to most of the regions major cities (Amberg, Bamberg, Bayreuth, Wurzburg, Rothenberg odT, Ingolstadt, and Regensburg). It's also a really nice place to hang out in, and usually less expensive than Munich. You do want to make sure there's nothing going on at the Messecentrum (convention center), or hotel rates go up considerably. Further north I suggest Bayreuth if you want to stay on that side, or Mainz if you want to do the Rhine.

Another vote for Nuremberg and another for Seefeld in Tirol.

Just south of Nuremberg we actually stay at a Holiday Inn Express in Schwabach. Just 5 minute walk (10 with a bad leg) from the station (frequent fast trains the few minutes to Nuremberg Hbf), great bakery/restaurant/pizza next door - Bäcker Schmidt - and customer washers and dryers in the basement. Great staff, and if you ever need the emergency hospital they help wonderfully. I've lost track of how many times we've stayed there.

In Seefeld in Tirol we have stayed several times (including when Austria hosted the World Cup and the place was over-run in Russians) at the Hotel Eden. Nice little spa, great breakfast, excellent half board dinners, cake and coffee in the afternoons, apples in the room and at the desk - green ones, very tasty. Huge rooms for Europe.

RJean, Seefeld is where I was leaning towards. I'm happy to hear you liked it.

Maybe it will be helpful if I elaborate on our expected travel plans after Oktoberfest. We plan to pick up a car in Munich when we arrive, which will be more desirable with 4 people and we will be mostly spending time in smaller towns. After Bavaria we will go to the Tirol. Then to Switzerland, where we will stay in the B.O. From there I am planning a week in the Alsace, where we can explore both there and the Black Forest. After that I think we will be heading to the Mosel. When finished there our friends will probably fly home from Frankfurt, after we spend a couple of days there. We will go on to Hannover and Cologne to visit with family for an undetermined period of time.

I'm not even telling our friends about Rothenburg, Neuschwanstein, the Rhine, or other places we have already been. As it is we will be going back to some places we have been before. I have considered making our Bavaria base be further south, around Chiemsee. We could day trip to Hallstatt and St. Gilgen from there. I don't know if they would be interested in Salzburg, which is okay. We have been there over 3 other trips.

So train to Munich for the Oktoberfest, but you have a car? Nuremberg comes to mind with trips to the Franken Schweiz and the Franken Wine region along the Main River. Nuremberg Has many places to stay and good public transportation. You can probably find a reasonable place with parking around the city.

We stayed in Mittenwad in early April and Day tripped to Garmisch,Ettal Monestary,Oberammergau,Wieskirche and the Zugspitze and it was a great location for access to Innsbruck.One of the locations we stayed in Austria was Kufstein which is on a river and our hotel was on the river in the old town,Riedel Glass factory is in Kufstein as well as the Castle and it is a good base for other towns.We also stayed in Zell am See and that gives access to Krimmel Water Falls and and Gifflwelt 3000 with great mountain views, museum and Restaurant.There is also the castle at Werfen with a Falconry show on a mountain top with views of the Valley.That whole region is very nice.
Mike

Thanks again everyone for your suggestions. We will probably be looking for Airbnb or other rental homes for our lodgings. Hubby and I spent a week in St. Johann im Pongau (Austria) a few years ago. It's about 70 km south of Salzburg. We explored that area extensively. It's a really nice area with plenty to do. I'm just looking for new experiences.

@Mike, I'm looking forward to hearing all about your trip.