Germany,Salzburg & Prague

How are you travelling--train or car? Is day 1 your arrival day and day 10 your departure day?

Yes. Day 1 - In and Day 10 - Out.
15 year driving experience in US. Never drove in Europe. So kind of nervous. Is it cost effective to rent a car?

Flying and traveling with a 5 year old, I would think about not doing more traveling on the day you arrive in Germany! Stay overnight in Frankfurt and move on the next day, otherwise you are going to be one very tired and miserable family.

Pull out a map and make a circle of the towns and places you would like to visit that interest you. There are tons of them here. You might want to pick two places to base yourself so that your child will enjoy this trip too. Perhaps drop Prague since your time here is so short? There is a lot of information on these forums about good base cities, which makes it very easy to take day trips on the trains, usually using the Laender tickets which will cover your whole group all day long. This way you can go to castles, open air museums (which are great for you childs age) and so on. Think about setting aside some time to go to a pool too.

We took our (then) 3-year-old to Salzburg and the Salzkammergut region a few years ago, and it was the best vacation we've had. We stayed in a farmhouse on the Moosstrasse in Salzburg, can't remember the name of it, but it's in Rick's book. It was an easy bus ride into town.

For kid stuff in Salzburg, make sure you do the fortress, our son loved it. There's also a nice playground right next to the gardens at Mirabelle. Definitely don't miss Hellbrun -- the fountain tour is a lot of fun, and they have a great playground there, too.

From Salzburg, we stayed for a week in St. Wolfgang, which is about an hour outside of Salzburg. The region is full of little towns sitting on lakes. If the weather's nice, there's some "beaches" by the lakes where you can swim. There was also a petting zoo in the area with deer, mountain goats, and elk. Plus there's tons of hiking in the area.

We stayed at a farmhouse there. I'd definitely recommend a farmhouse stay if you're renting a car. The farmhouse had cows, ponies, chickens, and ducks. There were 4 other families staying there, so there were lots of other kids to play with. It was great -- after dinner, we'd sit with the adults and drink beer and play cards while our son played with all the German and Austrian kids there. Many farmhouses rent out apartments, so you can eat in if you want.

I didn't think there was much for kids to do in Hallstatt, outside of the ice caves (ours was too little for the salt mines). They have a playground there, but it was right on the lake with no fence around it.

"Is it cost effective to rent a car?

Not in my experience. I've analyzed the comparison before each of my last four trips, and a car was always 2½-3 times more expensive. That was traveling alone, so trains for me were less then for you three but more than half what you'd spend, and the cars quoted for me would be too small for you.

Many small towns have rail service and a lot more have buses.

Your five year old will always travel free on Geman Rail. For regional rail travel in Germany there are Länder-Tickets, all day passes for up to five people for around €30.

It might be more difficult getting around by public transportation (on/off, luggage, etc), but traveling by train would give him the chance to get out of his seat.

If you are coming from Frankfurt, you might want to see some things closer to Frankfurt, like the Rhein castles, Rothenburg, Würzburg.

Just one suggestion--with a 5 year-old in tow, check out the toy museum in Salzburg if you go there. It's a delight for children of all ages. Also the fortress, Hohensalzburg simply because it's like a fanciful world all its own and you can look down on the city (awesome for a child).

Thanks everyone.