Here is our rough car-based itinerary that I have come up with the help of Gemini (after lots of iterations) but wanted a real person feedback on the feasibility of it or advisability of it - please advise.
My wife and I will be picking up car at Zurich airport after morning landing and drop it off at Munich airport on the way back. I know that most people recommend using trains in Switzerland and a car in the Austria leg. In fact, Gemini was strongly suggesting not to use car in the Swiss leg.
But, I checked the possibility of having the rental car for only 5 days after Innsbruck and drop off in Munich - and the cost was not much more for the entire 15+ days. Also, since I will be having a camera backpack with a few lenses and a tripod, a car will make carrying luggage to the hotels easier, even if in some of the places the car just sits in the hotel parking lot. The focus of this trip would be more landscape photography but also enjoying ourselves (and photography is our method of enjoyment).
Zermatt (2 nights):
Park at Täsch garage, 12-min shuttle train. Early Gornergrat cogwheel train for sunrise Matterhorn reflection at Riffelsee, village stroll, Kirchbrücke dusk viewpoint.
Lauterbrunnen (4 nights):
Valley hotel with parking. Staubbach and Trümmelbach falls, Mürren/Gimmelwald cable car, Männlichen-to-Kleine Scheidegg ridgewalk, Lake Brienz / Giessbach drive.
Lake Lucerne (2 nights):
Lakeside base with parking. Evening walk in Lucerne (Chapel Bridge). Mount Rigi cogwheel/cable car.
Innsbruck (2 nights):
Drive via Arlberg highway. Old town walk (Golden Roof), Nordkette cable car to Hafelekar summit (2,300 m).
Hallstatt (2 nights):
Early dawn postcard viewpoint shoot, lake strolls, 20-min drive to Lake Gosau for Dachstein reflections.
Salzburg (3 nights):
Base outside city with parking. Full day for Altstadt, Mirabell Gardens, and Hohensalzburg fortress views; morning trip to Lake Königssee / Obersee. Drive 1h 45m to Munich Airport for afternoon departure.
Additional notes:
In the above itinerary, most places have cancellable reservations. Also, Rick Steves mentioned in his book to skip Zermatt if the weather is bad. But since I want nice Matterhorn photos, I decided to have alternate reservations for Zermatt.
If before leaving home, we see weather forecast is bad in Zermatt on our days 1-3, we will first do Lucerne and do Zermatt on days 7-9 instead of Lucerne. If 2 days before reaching Zermatt, the weather forecast is still bad on days 7-9, we will switch Zermatt with Appenzell.