Help with Driving Vacation Itinerary for Summer travel

That is a toughie. Not sure how many days you have but trying to read between the lines based on how long you want to stay in each area I am guessing you have a couple of weeks. Please Correct me if I am wrong about that. I think you should consider priortizing your must sees and start culling based on geographical locations. Murren on one extreme to Salzburg/Hallstatt on the other makes this trip really spread out. If you had a month it would be different and doable but still not ideal. Maybe you should consider doing away with the Switzerland part and save it for another time. If you have your heart set on Switzerland, and that particular area is beautiful, then you could think about doing it with the southern and western part of Germany and eliminate the Austria part. Still a lot in a short time. A better thought would be to fly into Stuttgart or Frankfurt and do a driving vacation in the Bavarian Alps to include Salzburg and back around to the King Ludwig's castles working your way back to Stuttgart or Frankfurt. Flying into and/or out of Munich could also work as well as flying open jaw. I understand from what you wrote that you want to drive but Murren does not allow cars plus if you pick up and drop off in different countries there is a significant drop off charge for the car. Also, keep in mind that this is the year for the Passion Play in Oberammergau so it will be overly crowded. Also, Dinkelsbuhl and Rothenburg ob der tauber are somewhat similar with Rothenberg being more touristy but I preferred it over Dinkesbuhl. Maybe drop one of those. I know I haven't helped much with your itinerary but just wanted to give you some things to think about. I would definitely take a GPS and also a good map. You can go to google maps (http://maps.google.com/) for driving times to help you. Also viamichelin works too.

One other issue with a car. If you rent in one country and return in another you will pay a hefty surcharge. I am not trying to discourage you, as I like the freedom of a car myself. If you will need a car for at least 17 days you might want to look into a lease. See autoeurope.com for details.

With 2 kids I'd first suggest flying non-stop to avoid the problems involved with connections. From Boston this would indicate 'Lufthansa' which goes non-stop to both Frankfurt & Munich. Cheapest is to FRA, plus going in Sept will be less than in the summer. Here's a 'sort of' circle route from FRA: Go first to Rothenburg o.t. for the 1st 2 nights, Then south on the Romantik Rd, via Dinkelsbuhl, to the A8 autobahn and head east to the Salzburg area for 3 nights. Gives you one full day each for Hallstatt & Salzburg. Suggest staying in the lake district east of Salzburg: I like St. Gilgen. Next head back on the A8 - A93-A12 to Innsbruck, north from there to Mittenwald for the night. Next day visit Linderhof Castle near Oberammergau, the Wies Kirche near Steingaden and spend the night near the Royal Castles. Next morning visit Neuschwanstein Castle then head down to Lake Constance, via Isny, to Lindau - spend night in Lindau or nearby Wasserburg. Next day drive along the north shore of the lake to Meersburg, then take car ferry over to Constance. Here is where I agree with a previous post that it may be best to save the Bernese Oberland for a future trip, however, I would suggest going to Lucerne for a couple nights. From there, head back to Germany via Basel where you'll end up driving on the west side of the Black Forest en route to Frankfurt. A night in Heidelberg is an option for your last night.
I've done this route a couple times - it's easy driving and the scenery is fantastic.

Thank you all for your help. After studying the map I was thinking that the trip is too widespread. I am not sure what to do as all I have read about Murren and that area, it seems to be the stuff magic moments are made of and on the other hand, we wanted to see the Sound of music sights and Hallstatt. So I may have to re think this as the map has this at opposite ends. That is exactly what I needed to hear as I was not sure what the actual distances really are. Also I don't know which to leave out. We wanted to experience an Alpine village with the Alps looming all around us with green grass, flowers pouring out of window boxes and cows and that level of simple beauty. I don't know if we will get to return again given life as it is and I have to really think about Austria vs. Switzerland. Good to know there are so many wonderful people out there., I have the RS books and movies but this is a big life time trip for us and it is hard sorting through the must do lists!!! You are all great.

Hi Carol,

Driving Trip Planning. This ViaMichelin site should help you estimate driving times.