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Please review my itinerary for Germany, Austria, and Italy May 2025

Posted by on

Hello, my husband and I are in our early 30s and planning a trip to Europe for May 2025 and do NOT plan on renting a car. We prefer to use trains and the occasional bus. It is an open jaw trip and we will be flying into Munich on May 11 and plan to use it as a homebase through the 15th, seeing Dachau and a day trip to Salzburg. We then plan to take a train to Innsbrook for one night and we’re planning to then take another train the following day to Bolzano and bus in to Ortisei to stay in the Dolomites from May 16-20. We would love to hike to Seceda (with the use of cable cars if possible) and Alpe di Siusi. We then plan to take a high-speed train from Bolzano to Florence from the 20th to the 24th and enjoy the Tuscany region. On the 24th we will train to Milan for an overnight stay and then fly home the next day.

Does this seem do-able? From my initial research it appears as though the Dolomites shut down during the month of May. We are worried that there may not be much to do/restaurants to eat at if the weather doesn’t cooperate. It also appears as though the cable cars/ lifts close too. Is there another region we could easily replace it with that is accessible via train?
I’m trying to make the travel between cities as easy as possible.

Thank you! Happy travels!

Posted by
6583 posts

Have you checked weather averages for May? It probably takes a while for snow to melt there. We were in the Dolomites the second week of September and expected it to be 50-60F and thought we'd see grass, even in the higher elevations. But, they'd just gotten heavy snow fall. It's was really cold in the Alpe di Siusi and icy. The Dolomites are stunning, but we decided that the weather is so erratic, that if we return we'd probably go during June thru August.

Posted by
8322 posts

I don't recommend doing a day trip from Munich to Salzburg, then take the train from Munich to Innsbrook.

First of all, Salzburg deserves far more than a fraction of a day. Plan of spending more time there.

Second, take the train to Salzburg, after touring that wonderful city, take the train to Innsbruck.

Posted by
2603 posts

I agree. - Salzburg deserves more than a day trip from Munich

Posted by
3 posts

So would you guys recommend cancelling the Dolomites portion of the trip since it’s too early in the season and instead spend a few days in Salzburg? How many days are needed to see Salzburg and Innsbruck?
Thank you for your help!

Posted by
96 posts

You will have to do the research, but is Switzerland an option if you were considering the Dolomites? I also have done Salzburg as a day trip from Munich. You can't see everything, but you can still see most of the highlights, and a bus tour might be better so that you can see some of the local castles. The trick gardens actually were the highlight for me, with Mozart's museum at second.

Posted by
3 posts

So based on research and some of your advice, I have decided that May may not be the best time to visit the Dolomites (even though it was a convenient stop on the way to Italy). Let me know what your thoughts are on this revised itinerary and if all places are worth the time given! We want to have a somewhat moderate pace.

We will be taking trains between all locations.

May 11-15: based in Munich, 1/2 day trip to Dachau
May 15-18: based in Salzburg, day for a Sound of Music tour (please let me know your favorite things to do in Salzburg)
May 18-20: based in Innsbruck, take the Nordkettenbahnen for part of the day.
May 20-24: based in Florence, thinking about a day trip to Siena as we would love to see part of Tuscany
May 24-25: night in Milan, fly out of MXP the next afternoon.

Thanks for all the advice!

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