3 Nights in Munich with 2 Day Trips

Suggestion: Since you can't check into most hotels until at least 3 PM, use the arrival morning to travel to Salzburg and spend 1 night there, then return to Munich for the last 2 nights. If you buy a Bayern Ticket at the Munich airport (one for 2+ people, cost only € 29) it will get you all the way to Salzburg. It's about 40 minutes on the U-bahn to the Munich train station, then about 2 hours on a regional train to Salzburg. Heidelberg is too far away and there's not much to see in Bad Tolz. If you decide you'd rather see Neuschwanstein (train to Füssen) or the Zugspitz (train to Garmisch), the Bayern ticket also works for either destination.

Definitely some advantages with the plan that you suggest although we may have an additional piece of luggage in addition to carry-on's since we are headed for a 12 night cruise out of Barcelona. Would we be able to take a non-carryon sized piece of luggage on the train? If we only did one destination outside of Munich, I would like to hear your suggestions about what to choose.

I've been to all the places you've mentioned and if I could only go to one it would be Salzburg. Shouldn't be a problem with the luggage as trains don't have the rules that airlines have. There are spaces for larger pieces at each end of the rail cars.

You're not really spending any time in Munich. Going down to the castle is an all day ordeal and expensive. Ditto with your Zugspitze idea. I'd just stay in Munich, drink some great beer and enjoy their food. But that's me.

"Going down to the castle is an all day ordeal and expensive." That's only if you take one of those overpriced tours. With a Bayern-Ticket, two people can travel by train to Füssen and the bus to Hohenschwangau and back to Munich for €29. Castle admission is €12/adult. Visit my webpage.

We did the following day trip by car: In the morning leave Munich for Prien on Lake Chiemsee. Do Herrenchiemsee island and castle (chateau) by boat. Then drive to Berchtesgaden via Inzell and Ramsau (just a beautiful, scenic route). Have a coffee at the Intercontinental hotel which is on Obersalzberg where Hitler had his house. Then drive to Salzburg for a nice walk through the old town and dinner. Drive back to Munich is about 2 hours. Your rental car needs an Austrian toll sticker or you have a GPS system where you can exclude toll roads.

Last May, we took three day trips from Munich, Dachua, the castles and Salzburg. We enjoyed all of them but we had six days in Munich so we took in the English Garden, the museums, the beer gardens and the other sights of Munich. It's our favorite city.

Thank you for everyone for their input. With your help, we have come up with a plan. As suggested, we plan to take the train to Salzburg the first day and spend a night there. We will then return to Munich for 2 nights and explore there. All in all, I think this simplifies things a bit and we are very excited about this "bonus" stopover in Bavaria.

With a Bayern-Ticket, two people can travel by train to Füssen and the bus to Hohenschwangau and back to Munich for €29. Castle admission is €12/adult. Lee is right, just make SURE you buy the RIGHT train ticket unlike us. That's why it cost so much.

Another quick question for someone experienced in train travel in Bavaria. I think it looks like the group pass ticket will be good for travel from the airport to the main train station and from there to Salzburg. Right?? Would you suggest buying the ticket online before we leave the US or waiting to buy it at the airport in Munich? Thanks.

By "group pass ticket" I would assume you mean the Bayern-Ticket. And yes, that would be the best way to get to Salzburg from the Munich airport. One exception would be if you could get to the S-Bahn before 9 AM on a workday and wanted to get to Salzburg ASAP. But then you probably wouldn't be using the Bayern-Ticket anyway. Check with the schedule on the German Rail (Bahn) website, but in all likelyhood, your best route is the S8 to Muenchen Ost and from there by Regional Express (RE) to Salzburg. You can buy the Bayern-Ticket from the automat on the airport station platform, and the price there is always €29. If you go upstair to the Bahn counter, it will cost you €31.

Am I correct that a credit card from the US (with a chip but no PIN) will not work for an automated ticket purchase. We ran into that in the airport in Barcelona a couple of years ago so thinking our choices are : --use euros for an automated purchase --buy ahead of time online --pay a few additional euros for a service counter purchase Probably not a big deal which option we choose.
Thanks for your help!

Salzburg is wonderful. I would try and spend at least one night. Very pretty. Regensburg is another great day trip from Munich. If you go to www.flickr.com you can get a great idea of what the different cities look like. Also put in the search Salzburg night.