Munich,Berlin,Salzburg,Vienna in 15 days?

That is a 100% doable trip. In fact, if you limit your time in Salzburg to maybe a day and Vienna or Munich to 2 days, you can add on Budapest, which is absolutely worthwhile. Budapest, Vienna, Salzburg, and Munich are all on the same train line. If you start logically at one end of the line and then fly to Berlin from the other end, you will have plenty of time to fit everything in. I would devote the most time to Berlin, as the sheer size and history of the city really deserves at least 3 or 4 days.
You'll have a wonderful time. PM me with any questions!

I agree with Emily, you should have plenty of time. Her routing strategy seems good too. Salzburg is good for a day only unless you're deeply into the Julie Andrews thing. Vienna should be 3-4 days I'd say. You could probably fit in Budapest OR Prague as well, but both would be rushing it.

Making the same trip you've described this fall. I have a couple extra days so I've included Prague in my trip. Running loop starting in Berlin thru Prague, then Vienna, then Munich.

You should have no problems. I did a similar trip. My only advice would be to develop an itinerary of everything you want to see, print out a city metro map so you don't waste time going back and forth and you'll be fine. Some museums/government buildings require advance purchase.

Hi, Just for these four cities, your trip is very doable, even more so if Salzburg is a day from Munich. It's a toss up as to which place deserves the most time, Vienna or Berlin. If this is your first visit, then I would pick Berlin. More ideal would be omitting Salzburg and just focus on Berlin, Vienna, and Munich in that order. Which city are you starting from?

We're not sure yet where we'd be starting. Since my initial posting, we decided to move the trip to fall 2013 so we're really in the very preliminary planning stages. Trying to decide if we want to focus on Germany only or add Austria too.

Hey Ralph: Interesting to see that you're from Heidelberg. Rick seems to dismiss Heidelberg completely and says it's not worth a visit. Your thoughts?

I thought his comments were odd. The other guidebooks I have all seem to think there is a lot to see in Heidelberg. So many places and never enough time!

I would take Ralph's words with a grain of salt (although I do enjoy Heidelberg, I would only see if you're already going to be near it, which based on your itinerary so far, you're not.) Salzburg isn't overrated, but the town itself is rather small. You can see everything in Salzburg in a long day or day and a half at a leisurely pace. The thing is, Salzburg is the gate to Berchtesgadener land, with the salt mines, Eagle's Nest, beautiful hiking, the Koeningsee, etc. That's why people tend to stay in Salzburg for a few days, they use it as a base to see the beautiful countryside around it. As for Berlin, well, you could have a month in Berlin and not take it all in, it's really one of the most important art and music cities in the world right now. Whether you'd want to is another matter, for the average tourist though 3 days is a good introduction to the city, but you won't be bored adding more. Ditto for Vienna.

Patricia, If you were to focus only on Germany, as you are considering in this fall of 2013 trip, then I would suggest setting aside five to six days just for Berlin with a day trip in Potsdam included. This I say will give you more than a mere survey of some of the important and significant sights. The rest of the time you can see Hamburg or Frankfurt or Munich. Of course, the ideal trip given the two weeks is to focus on both Vienna and Berlin, easily done.