Rick's Favorite Itinerary

We spent a week in Bavaria last fall and made side trips over into Austria and used RS as one of our sources of information. A lot of what he says in his books is great - but we stayed in Mittenwald and visited some other areas he doesn't mention. You might want to pick up at least one other guide book on the area - he is rather selective and some times leaves out places I find to be wonderful. I have also read on this - or another forum that his Germany book leaves out more than other countries.
Bavaria and Austria were lovely -

As much as I like Rick Steves' books, his Germany edition is one of the weakest in the series. As another poster mentioned, he skips over far too much (all of northern Germany, Garmisch_-Partenkirchen, Obersdorf, the Bodensee, Stuttgart, etc) and highlights too many ho-hum locations (Hall in Tryol, Reutte, Beilstein, Baden-Baden). Go with a more comprehensive guidebook for these two countries.

... but using only Rick's guide, you end up transiting much further than necessary to see various sites, when there might be something very similar much closer. Hence, the need for a more comprehensive guidebook to supplement your research. Examples that I have seen on this website: A traveler who was staying near Geilenkirchen and thought he needed to travel all the way to Baden-Baden to visit a spa, not realizing that nearby Aachen also has a huge collection of mineral baths. Or another, who was staying in Frankfurt, and thought he needed to go to distant Erhenberg to see a castle ruin, not realizing that the Rhineland Pfaltz is littered with castle ruins. I like Rick's books, they definitely have their strengths, but they have their weaknesses as well, and the lack of scope is a big one.

Hi,

I wouldn't follow Rick's itinerary. I agree with Tom's post. You'll do a lot of unnecessary traveling. Also, some of his recommendations, such as Reutte and Beilstein, I'll never understand. While Rick Steves does a good job covering what he includes, he really covers just a small part of Bavaria and Austria. While we like his books, he leaves out so much. For instance, we'd never know about some of the most beautiful area's of Austria, such as Zell am See, the Zillertal and the Oetztal, by reading just HIS books or following HIS itinerary. Do some research, decide what you'd like to see and where you'd like to go, and then use some of his suggestions that fit into your itinerary. The "Helpline" is a great way to get suggestions and first hand information.