Great Capitals of Central Europe

Taking into consideration jet lag upon arrival in Munich and driving times to these cities, I think you might need to drop either Prague or Budapest. Use Kent's post,"Help with Itinerary Planning and Travel Times" to estimate your driving time. Also, is day 1 your arrival day into Munich and day 13 your flight home? When arranging for your rental car, tell them you will be taking the car into Prague/Budapest. They only let certain cars go over there. Here’s a possible itinerary. I put in some possible side trips--not sure if you’ve been to these areas before.

Day 1 & 2 Munich
Day 3 & 4 Drive to Salzburg; Salzburg
Day 5, 6, 7 Drive to Vienna; Vienna
Day 8, 9, 10 Drive to Prague; Prague
Day 11 Drive to Regensburg or Rothenburg
Day 12 Drive to Munich
Day 13 If not flying home, day trip to
Fussen or ?

Have fun planning.

?

Thanks Denise. The 13 days do not include arrival and departure days. I'm surprised you suggested so many days for Salzburg. I was thinking just one day/one night in Salzburg. Have not been to any of these places before and am looking to hit major sites and get a flavor for the cities...e.g. bathhouse in Budapest. Am interested to hear what you might consider to be essential in each location.

If you only visit the actual cities you're missing the best parts of your trip. The city of Salzburg itself may be worth a day but you'd want to visit the lake district and probably Berchtesgarden, Lake Königsee, St. Bartholomew, Hallstadt etc etc. as day trips wich takes up a couple of days. Between Vienna and Budapest you might want to visit Bratislava, pretty much the party capital of that part of Europe (very young, highly educated people with lots of disposable income)...

Eric, the way my reply was formatted might be a bit confusing (I didn't type it in that way). I thought that by the time you drive to Salzburg, get your bearings, etc., it might be early afternoon. An extra full day would give you time to take a Sound of Music bus tour which would get you out into the Salzkammergut area. We enjoyed seeing Mozart's birth house and museum in Salzburg and took a tour of the castle overlooking the town. It's a beautiful city to walk around and shop. The cathedrals often have concerts in the evening. On the way to Vienna, we stopped at Mauthausen (concentration camp) and Melk Abbey. Check out Rick Steves' tour books for more highlights of the cities you want to see. By the way, we took the train from Vienna to Prague, but then on the way back we ended up backtracking.