Shall we stay in Reutte or Garmisch?

Easy, Garmisch-Partenkirchen all the way, particularly if you have a rental car. Ga-P is more centrally located for visits to various locales throughout the region, such as Linderhof, Oberamergau, Mittenwald, the Zugspitze, and Innsbruck. Plus, it's an easy base for some of the best hiking in Bavaria. If you prefer more of a small town atmosphere, stay in the older Partenkirchen section of town. Garmisch has more of a modern jet-setting feel to it.

The only reason to stay in Reutte is the convenience to the castles, and if that is the chief concern, Fuessen is better placed than Reutte. Quite frankly, given all the other omissions from his Germany guidebook, I can't for the life of me figure out why Rick Steves focuses in on this otherwise perfectly ordinary Alpine town.

Hi Dave,

Garmish, IMO, is a pretty big, pretty busy town. Reutte is a small, nondescript (at best) village.

I'd suggest Fuessen or Schwangau.

If you're looking to stay in the Garmisch area, I'd stay in Mittenwald.

Paul

On several occasions, I have traveled on the bus from the Illertal (near Oberstdorf) to Füssen to the castles. The bus always stopped in a beautiful area called Pfronten, about ½ hr by bus from Füssen. I thought Pfronten was so beautiful, I spent 2 nights there last September, and it was great. There are lots of things to see in Pfronten, itself, and it's very convenient by bus to Füssen. I stopped for lunch in Reutte, on the way to Pfronten, and I would much prefer Pfronten.

Another place to stay when visiting Füssen, is Oberammergau. It's near Linderhof, and there are regular buses to Füssen. It's also convenient by bus to Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

True, in September of this year, Oberammergau would be a difficult venue, but the Passion Play is only every 10 years, for any other time, Oberammergau is a very convenient and scenic place to stay.

I was in Bavaria in Aug/Sept 2000, in the Allgäu, Munich, and Salzburg, and there was no difficulty finding accommodations due to the Passion Play.

We stayed at Gutshof zum Schluxen. It's expensive by my standards but a very nice hotel - beautiful rooms, great service.

We were somewhat disappointed because we chose it as a treat for our youngest daughter because it's a "working farm". There were raindeer across the street you could feed through the chain link fence but the managers got upset when the kids even looked at the cages in the back.

Choose it as a really nice hotel splurge, not as a working farm.

The potential hike to the castles also didn't seem at all easy due to both the steepness of the terrain and the lack of clearly marked trails to get you there. We were there in mid October and the weather was unseasonably cold, so we made the short drive to the castles first thing in the morning and visited the Ehrenburg ruins in the afternoon.

We hiked up past Marienbrueke from the castles. It's a neat trail but there are definitely dangerous (deadly) drops if you aren't careful. Ehrenburg (to the top) may be the steepest trail I've been on without ropes.