Car for the Bavarian Alps?

RS?

For Bavaria and Austria, especially if you're rather into small places, I'd definitely recommend you drive. There are so many wonderful roads and sites both in Bavaria and Austria, the list would be endless. One of my favorite in Bavaria is Chiemsee for its lake and for Herrenchiemsee castle. Salzburg is a really lovely place - go and see the old town up there + the Wasserspiele in Hellbrunn summer palace. In Bavaria don't miss Mittenwald, one of the most beautiful villages you can find there (with beautifully painted little houses). There is also Ettal for its 14th century abbey and its painted houses. Near Innsbruck, there are many small places well worth visiting (Mittelgebirge villages).

RS = Rick Steves

He's suggesting you consult the Rick Steves guides for the area.

Thanks Nancy, I was thinking RS was an abbreviation for the name of some place I should know about.

Someone suggested we park outside Salzberg and use public transportation to get around in the city. I assume we would park at a bus or train station? Does this sound like a good idea?

I'm going to recommend against using Rick Steves to explore this area. There are simply too many great destinations within driving distance of Garmsich that he omits.

And yes, for the places you want to visit, a car would be very convenient. Plus, your guest house may be a considerable distance from the train station.

Depends on if you have money to waste on a car. I am about (1 wk) to go over to exactly that area. I already have all of my connections (rail and bus) scheduled, and I know how much, €193 ($272) it will cost with public transportation. Gas (ViaMichelin estimate), tolls and road taxes for the same route would cost me $280, plus the best car rental quote, without any CDW, was $383. So, $663 for a car without insurance vs. $272 by public transportation - not even close.

Incidently, this will be my third trip to Germany, second to Bavaria, in the last two years, and I always do this kind of comparison, and I always find that a car would cost 2 to 3 times as much.

For 10 of the 14 nights I will stay in small towns, Freilassing, Hallstatt, Hall, Osterhofen, Mittenwald, & Pfronten.

There is extensive bus service in that area provided by Regional Verkehr Oberbayern (www.rvo-bus.de). An all day pass (Tagesticket) is €9 pP.

Innsbruck is just a short trip from Garmisch by train via Mittenwald.

You can get to Fuessen by RVO bus via Oberammergau, or you can go by train to Reutte or Pfronten and take a half hour bus from there.

So, a car would be unnecessary for touring around the GaP area.

Salzburg might be a little more problematic. It takes 3½-4 hours one way by regional train, for which you could use a €28 Bayern-Ticket for both of you. A car could do it in as little as 2 hours each way (if you don't get lost or stuck in traffic), but fuel and road tax for one way is almost as much as the Bayern-Ticket for RT, and that doesn't include the cost of car rental. I wouldn't rent a car, even for just the day, certainly not for the entire time, just for the Salzburg trip.

BTW, there are some great areas around there, Oberammergau, Linderhof, Kochel, Bad Toelz, Schliersee, all easily accessible by bus (and some trains).

I have read many posts by people that are strickly against renting a car. I have noticed that some of the harshest critics are the ones who are the most fluent in German. If you can read German and research your connections from here, then by all means, use the train. I spent two weeks in Germany and Scotland in 2008 and had a car the whole time. I am planning a trip back to Germany, France, and Austria in Spring 2010 and will have a car then. No question about it. The ones that complain the most about renting a car, fail to take into account the wait at the bus station, the wait at the train station, the research involved to do public transportation, and the inabitlity to stop wherever and whenever they want. You can see the countryside from a train, but can you stop and smell the flowers. Can you stop at that small town with cobblestone streets and buy a warm danish along the way. I much prefer the freedom allowed by renting a car. I will concede that a smart combination of train and rental is a good option, but strickly public transportation is a poor choice, in my opinion.

Thanks for all the input. We will be staying in Garmisch for the whole time we are in Germany except for possibly a night or two away on an excursion. My daughter lives there and works for the Dept. of Defense. She has found us a small apartment to rent for 50 euro/night. I am not sure if we will rent a car for the whole time but it seems like a good idea for some of the day trips. I will have to investigate the daily rental charge vs. the weekly. Is a Bayern ticket good for the whole day on multiple trips or just one ride? Could my daughter buy 1 and take the train to Munich to meet us at the airport and we all return on the same ticket?

Based on what you plan to see while in Bavaria, I would take a car. Does your daughter have a spare car you could borrow for a couple of day trips? When my parents visited the would drop me off at work, take the car for a day and pick me up in the afternoon. Most of the places near Garmish you can see by car in a half of a day or a bit more. My dad loved driving through Bavaria. Very little traffic and pretty easy to get to where you're going. You could rent a car for a few days, then train in to Munich for a day for something to do. have fun!

"Could my daughter buy 1 [Bayern-Ticket] and take the train to Munich to meet us at the airport and we all return on the same ticket?" Yes.

The Bayern-Ticket is valid for unlimited rides all day long (from 9 AM workdays, midnight weekends and holiday) until 3 AM the following morning on regional trains in Bavaria for up to five people. It is also valid for unlimited rides in the same time period on all transport (S-Bahn, U-Bahn, buses, trams) in the MVV (Munich metro).

Depending on when your flight is due to arrive, your daughter could leave GaP on the 9:04 RB, change in Pasing to the S8 S-Bahn, and get to the airport at 11:17. Then you could all come back on the S-Bahn and regional trains - All for €28. There's a connection every hour. Feel free to PM me for a specific schedule.

One person in the group (your daughter, obviously) has to sign the Bayern-Ticket and be with the group the whole time. If you need a bus in GaP, that might be covered (will be if it is an RVO bus).

There is also an offer called the Werdenfels Ticket. For €10,50 pP, the Werdenfels Ticket provides unlimited travel for a day on the transportation network shown here.

If you only want to use the bus routes shown on that map (plus a lot more routes), you could get an RVO Tageskarte (all day pass) for only €9, but if you want to include the train lines shown, the Werdenfels Ticket is less for two people than a Bayern-Ticket.

Here is the map of all of the bus lines in southern Bavaria (Oberbayern) run by Regional Verkehr Oberbayern. It's a big PDF file, 2.5 MB; unless you have broadband, it might take a long time to load.

Here is a sample schedule. This one is for bus 9606, that runs between GaP and Fuessen via Oberammergau and Wieskirche. Note that it arrives in Hohenschwangau, site of the castles, shortly before getting to the Fuessen Bahnhof.

To see the schedule for any other line on the map, substitute the number from the map for 9606 in this URL.

And here (smaller file) is the rail map of southern Bavaria. Lines in red have hourly service on weekdays.

If you plan on going city to city, a train is a better option for two people.

If you are going small town to small town, a car is much more convenient than the local trains.

The nice part about a car is it goes on your schedule and there are no connections. Driving in Germany and Austria are great but remember you need a sticker for your car and a safety vest for driving in Austria. Pick them up at truck stops where you cross the border.

I would expect the weather to be nice in the beginning of October with comfortable days and cool nights. Somewhere around the middle of October, it gets colder. It's variable, so it may turn cold earlier or later when you're there. Altitude also makes a difference. It will be colder in the hills than in the valleys.