Honeymoon Itinerary - Bavaria & Salzburg

Thanks for your input Michael! I appreciate it. We were going back to Frankfurt so we could take direct flights both ways. I will probably take your advice about the Swarovski Tour. I have been reading up on it and it seems everyone is pretty disappointed with it. I will look into staying outside of Innsbruck. It seemed like a good halfway point between Fussen and Salzburg and several tours stopped there overnight so that's why I picked it but I'm willing to look into other things. I was told the Tauber Valley had great Riesling wines so I may have to do a bit more research there but we're definitely going to try some beer while we're over there as well. :)

The main wine producing regions of Germany are to the west of your route, and Germans really aren't into "wine tasting". It's generally cheap, unpretentious stuff that you buy at the supermarket... and I love it!

...Continued from above. Day 5: Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau Castles in the AM. Explore Fussen in the PM. Cable Car up mountains (or would this be better to do in Innsbruck?) Stay in Fussen. Day 6: Linderhof Palace. Oberammergau. Drive to Innsbruck. Cable Car up mountains (or is this better to do in Fussen?) Sightsee around Innsbruck. Stay in Innsbruck. Day 7: Ambras Castle, Hofburg Palace. Swarovski Crystal Tour. Drive to Salzburg. Mozart related sightseeing. Stay in Salzburg. Day 8: Sound of Music Tour in AM. Salzburg Palaces in PM. Stay in Salzburg. Day 9: Bavarian Mountains & Salt Mines Tour in AM. Drive back to Frankfurt. Drop off car. Stay at airport hotel. Day 10: Fly home. Thoughts?

Erynn It is Frankf urt. If you go to Frankf ort you will be in Kentucky. When you are searching on the interweb it helps to get it right....

Noted and fixed Nigel. Just an oversight. All my other itineraries have it spelled correctly.

Erynn, Day 1 is really busy for just flying into Germany from Michigan that morning. Don't forget about jet lag. For Day 6, following Oberramergau (also see the Monastary in Ettal), drive thru Garmisch (maybe stop to see the town if you want) and then continue to Ehrwald, Austria and take the cable car up to the Zugspitze. Just make sure it's a clear afternoon on the top of the mountain before you spend your money. Clouds tend to build up in the p.m. Otherwise, go early the next morning. After the Zugspitze, stay in Lermoos, Austria. This is known as the Zugspitze arena and it's absolutely gorgeous. Lots of hiking and lodging available. You could also try the sommerroldelbahn (luge) in Biberwier for some honeymoon thrills. Just don't go so fast down the mountain that you injure yourself, lol. PM me for suggestions on accommodations in Lermoos. Then, as others mentioned, I would stop in Innsbruck and continue on to Salzburg. On your Day 9, (if I'm remembering correctly) you want to see a salt mine or something in Bavaria in the a.m. and then drive to Frankfurt airport to return the car. This is a really long drive. If you are returning the car really late in the evening and you drive crazy fast, this may work. I, personally, prefer to stay outside of Frankfurt airport and drive in the next morning. However, some flights are really early and it wouldn't make sense. Have a great trip!

Thanks Denise! I'm really looking forward to our trip. Maybe for our first day we'll only do one tour and then the other one the next morning before heading down to Rothenburg since it's not a long drive. I guess we'll play it by ear and see how we feel that day. I'll take a look at the alternatives to Innsbruck. I've gotten some good ideas. For our last day, I saw that there was a tour in Salzburg that we could do and be on our way to Frankfurt by 13:30 or so. Google maps said it takes about 5 hours from Salzburg to Frankfurt so we'd be there by 19:00 accounting for some delays. I'm not set on the tour though so maybe we'll just drive back in the morning and explore Frankfurt that night. We can play that by ear too. Thanks for the input!

I am not familiar with Wurzburg area wines (except I hear they have great ones and there's obviously a lot of vineyards in the region that I could see from the train/car) but in Baden-Wurttemberg wine country, touring/tasting at wineries is a 'thing' here. It is definitely very countrified and unpretentious, but that's how it is in lots of wine areas in the U.S. too - after all, wine growers are farmers! While a lot of German wines don't reach the astronomical prices that Californian, French, and Italian wines can, there are still higher-end Franconian wines, usually they come in a specially shaped round-ish bottle. The few Franconian wines I've sampled (bought in local stores, not at the wineries themselves) are delicious dry whites, which is right up my alley. So you're definately in a great wine country and there are at least 4 major respected wineries in the Wurzburg area worth checking out, according to my brief research.

Hi Erynn, If you have a clear day on the drive from Fuessen to the Innsbruck area, stop and take the Zugspitze cable car from Ehrwald, Austria (as mentioned above). We did this on the drive from Innsbruck area to Fuessen. A mile or so from Neuschwanstein is the Tegelberg cable car and luge ride (Sommerrodelbahn). Even if you don't take the cable car trip, ride the luge a few times. It's a lot of fun! We stayed twice ('01 and '03) at the Hotel zum Hechten in Fuessen. www.hotel-hechten.com Instead of staying in Innsbruck, look into the Gasthof Badl in nearby (6 miles away) Hall in Tirol. We've stayed here on 4 seperate trips (so far!) in '01, '03, '05 and '10. Nice place, fantastic views of the Alps, simply the best/friendliest host (Sonja), terrific buffet breakfast and a very good and reasonable restaurant. You can easily walk to the old town pedestrian zone of Hall in Tirol from here. Plus, our favorite restaurant in the area is just across the footbridge from the Badl... the Burg Tavern in Burg Hasegg. They also have a courtyard beer garden. www.badl.at I agree with skipping the Swarovski Crytal Tour. We were very disappointed, and my wife loves Swarovski crystal. We have photo's of these places at: www.worldisround.com/home/pja1/index.html Paul

Thanks for the wine info Sarah. I'm going to do a bit more research on that since that day seems fairly relaxed right now. Thanks for the input Paul. I'll definitely look into the Zugspitze cable car and maybe the luge as well. I think I'm going to cut out the Swarovski tour and that should give us more time for other things. Thanks for sharing your pictures, makes me very excited to go!

Erynn: You've really done your homework, and you look good to go. The Swarovski factory trip is not what it once was, before they went Disney with the place. It's just a fancy store now. There are great villages to stay up and down the valley around Innsbruck. We especially like to stay at Kranebritten, which is at the western end of the airport runway on the north side of the valley. You can sit, drink beer and watch the hang gliders come down at dark and land on the grass beside the runway. I've been eating at the Innrain Cafe for 42 years; one block down the street from the University of Innsbruck. I just love their outside dining garden on a Summer afternoon. It's good, authentic food at inexpensive prices.

Hi Erynn, Your itinerary looks great, as you're not really going great distances between stops. I would stay somewhere outside of Innsbruck, as it isn't really anything special (it's best viewed from the air). Mae sure to leave yourself some extra time at Linderhof, since the grounds there are almost as great as the palace itself. Also, on my way from Munich to Salzburg, we stopped off at Herren Chiemsee (Ludwig's 4th castle), and it was worth the stop. My main concern for you is the drive from Salzburg to Frankfurt. While Munich would be a better option for departure (I heard your reason for this), I would dump the car in Salzburg and take the train to Frankfurt. Much simpler, no tolls or gas, and you both can relax and plan your next trip while poring over the map together...