Suggestions on Itinerary Germany and Austria

Fly into Vienna and do the tourism thing there. Take a train over to Salzburg for a couple of days. Take a train over to Munich and do the tourism thing for a few days. Rent a car there and drive through South Bavaria to Fussen. Drive over the border into Tirol, and go west to Innsbruck. If the roads are clear, go east to Zell-am-zee. Take the Grossglockner Alpine Highway south over the second highest mountains in Europe to the town of Lienz. It's easily the most beautiful place I've ever seen. Go back west to Cortina, Italy and come over the Brenner Pass into Innsbruck. Drive back to Munich and fly home. I too don't do too many museums, but the two palaces in Vienna and Munich are must see's. Everyone needs to see Dachau at least once. I'm more of the beerhall kind'a guy. And this area really has'em.
Augustiner beer hall in Salzburg is a favorite. I also have a small beer garden/restaurant in Innsbruck that I've been visiting since 1970. Needless to say how much fun the Munich beer gardens are, especially if you go to the ones without any tourists there. The English Gardens in Munich can be special.

Rent bikes in Vienna from Pedalpower, take the train to Passau and ride back down along the Danube to Vienna. Excellent scenery, nice little villages, castles, along the way. Outstanding wine as well. The Austrians cater to bicyclists wonderfully. About 5 days to do it. 7 is better. If biking is not for you, wander Vienna for 2 days take the train to Salzburg or if you really love the outdoors train up to Mayerhofen or Lech for fantastic scenery and excellent hiking. Save Germany for another visit. 2 weeks can be so easy to spend in Austria alone.

Thank you both so much for your suggestions! I am going to spend some time checking them out.

Hi Jane, My husband and I spent two weeks in Sept. in Germany and Austria and had a great time with our itinerary, if you have similar interests it could give you some ideas. Flew in to Munich, stayed for three nights saw: Linderhof, tour of Munich, tour of BMW factory (highlight), visited friends Fussen for two nights Rented car in Munich, drove to Stuttgart, saw Porsche Museum, Mercedes Benz museum, drove to Fussen Saw castles, hiked Pollat Gorge, saw Oberammergau and Weiskirche Salzburg for 3 nights Many Salzburg sites and Berchtesgarten Gosau (near Hallstadt) for two nights Saw Hallstadt, hiked at Gosau See (highlight) Vienna for four nights Saw Melk Abbey,Vienna sites I loved our pace and the amount of time we spent in each place. Enjoy planning your trip, that's one of my favorite parts of travel.
Janelle

If you do consider Alex's suggestion, the website is www.pedalpower.at For one person's experience with this company and the ride along the Danube
www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?o=1&doc_id=9292&v=2U

Stephen,
Wow that guy did a very fast trip down. We took the train to Linz and biked up to Aschach an der Donau for an overnight. We spent about 6 days coming back to Vienna, stopping in various villages for a day or two to explore each area. We went in May and caught a few light showers, but weather was mostly quite nice. It is a great trip. We hope to do a similar one, but this time start in Salzburg. Rick at Pedalpower is an ex-pat american and really easy to deal with...very helpful and knowledgable as well.

If you will be in Munich before the 5th, be sure to stop by the Munchener Fruhlingsfest. You can have dinner in one of the beer halls with what will be 1,500 or so of your new best German friends, and have a few after dinner beers standing on the beer carousel. Prost!

Jane - I hope you don't mind if I jump on your thread as we are planning a similar trip in September and would greatly appreciate input. Our thoughts are to fly into Munich, train to Salzburg for 3 nights, return to Munich, rent a car for 3 nights based in the Garmisch-P area (opinons please?), return car and spend 3 nights in Munich. We're hoping this is a nice mix of exploring Bavaria for a few days at our own pace, and enjoying the German train system as well. Can anyone tell me if we will be able to easily do some side trips from Salzburg (Berchtesgaden, Hallstatt) using public transportation or small tour groups? With a car, will we be able to hit all the obvious not-to-miss spots - Oberamergau, Ettal, Weiskirche, Neuschwantstein, Linderhof & Zugspitze south of Munich? And lastly, we also love hiking (moderate) and would love some suggestions on that. Thanks!

Mil, your ideas make sense to me (admittedly I haven't visited or hiked in the GP area but I'm fairly well read about it, just haven't bothered to go yet). From Salzburg it's pretty easy to get to Berchtesgaden via public transit, but considerably more difficult to impossible to do the salt mine tours or to see the Eagle's Nest. No need to rent a car, though, you can do a small tour like Bob's - we used them for a half day tour and they were great. Lee here has some great info about how to get around that area via public transit, too. It is easier and faster (though not totally necessary) to see a variety of those sights in the GP area with a car as far as my understanding goes.

Mil, my father and I had a car for a couple of days in the Garmisch area on our trip. We were based at the Eibsee Hotel, at the foot of the Zugspitze on the German side. On our one car travel day, we went to Neuschwanstein, Linderhof, Oberamergau and drove the German Alpine Highway along Plansee. The Eibsee Hotel was magnificent, right on the lake, but can be pricey. They are online and you can look up the room rates. We did the Zugspitze after we turned in the car in Garmisch. Took the rack railway up and then the gondola back down to the train. On our trip, we then departed for Innsbruck from Garmisch. Have a good time.