Timing for Vienna, Salzburg, Munich

I'd leave 3 full days for Vienna. You are correct; there is a LOT to see and do there, so with less than 3, you may feel like you are running youself ragged. But I'm also very biased towards Vienna; it IS 1 of my favorite cities in Europe. What you may want to do is cut a night in Prague and/or Budapest. THAT would enable you to spend a night in Salzburg and/or give you more time in Munich, a TERRIFIC city. Alternatively; I loved Salzburg, but that said, it is somewhat compact and COULD be done in a single day, w/o spending the night there. You may not get to see everything, including the lakes district/Hallstat (VERY pretty area!), outside of Salzburg, but you would get to walk across the bridge to the old town, take the funicular up to the fortress, etc. and feel like you've seen the highlights. In fact, many people do Salzburg as a side day trip from Munich (as, by train, it's only 1.5 hrs). I was glad to spend 2 nights in Salzburg, but I had a pretty long time for my trip, so was able to afford the time. Fact is, one can never do it ALL on any 1 trip, so almost all trips like this involve some compromise, SOME leaving other cities for the NEXT trip, etc. As Rick always says; "Assume you WILL return!" Good luck w/ the planning; regardless of what you cut, sounds like you have a fantastic trip coming up; enjoy.

That's really a tough call. Vienna is full of life and there was always something to do when we visited. If you are interested in the arts at all you could spend a lifetime there, let alone 3 days (even if not do take in a show at the State Operahouse! Spectacular!). However Salzburg is just charming. Beautiful architecture, fascinating little nooks and crannies around every corner. One of my favorite things there was walking through the ancient cemetery near the bottom of the fortress lift entrance - just fascinating! However Munich is also a great stop. Definitely more of a city-like feel but still so much to do. We loved walking through the royal palaces and museums - the opulence was overwhelming and yet confirmed a part of old Europe we were expecting to see. And beer gardens, and walking to the top of the cathedral and looking down on the central square...very tough call! I'd say the above poster has a good plan - try to do all 3!

Let me throw a monkey wrench in your plan... it would have you doing far too much backtracking. Look on a map. If you start in Budapest, then go to Prague, going to Vienna next takes you about 2/3 of the way back in the direction of Budapest. A better overall flow would be Budapest-Vienna-Prague-Munich. Or better yet, Budapest-Vienna-Salzburg-Munich.

Salzberg is a great city, but the city itself can be seen in a day if you're energetic (as I've done twice now). Vienna on the other hand is amazing and worth all the time you can afford on it. Munich is pretty cool too (don't like it as much as Vienna personally) but one day in Munich is really short. I just stayed two nights in Budapest and felt that was pretty sufficient for a good "basic" introduction to the city. Can't speak to Prague as I haven't been there yet. If I were you, I'd cut out a night from Budapest, spend 3 nights in Vienna, leave early from Vienna, stop in Salzberg on your WAY to Munich, but the intention of arriving in Munich that evening for 2 nights. Are you taking the train or driving?

Thank you for the advice so far! To Tom: We did originally plan to go from Budapest to Vienna to Prague to Munich. This was the obvious choice based on geography. However, we are doing our entire trip by train and found that the schedules from Prague to either Salzburg or Munich were incredibly limited. I believe there were only two trains going from Prague to Munich, both leaving in the morning. This would have used up all of the daylight hours. Due to having only 11 days and fewer daylight hours, we have decided to take most of our trains in the evening (with the exception of the trip from Vienna to Salzburg, which we would do in the morning). We found much better options for trains from Budapest to Prague and Prague to Vienna so we opted for this route instead. We also realize that Prague is the outlier in terms of being so far North, but Prague is the original reason that we booked this trip and we cannot eliminate it. To Lawrence: We aren't able to spend a night in Salzburg because we are doing our entire trip using Hilton points, and there are no Hilton hotels in Salzburg. So we would only be able to spend the day there, coming from Vienna. We thought about cutting time from Prague or Budapest but there is so much to see, it is hard to make that sacrifice. We know there is much to see in Munich as well but we did have to make sacrifices and determined that Munich might deserve less time on this trip. We aren't planning on partaking much in the Biergarten culture or doing museums so we're hoping that a day (two nights) would give us enough time to see some highlights.

"I believe there were only two trains going from Prague to Munich, both leaving in the morning." Sounds like you're using Rail Europe (calling Lee to tell you why not to use that website). I checked real quick on Deutsche Bahn's website and I found 11 options between the times of 8 in the morning and 12 at night.

I think your plan sounds great, then. I think you are doing what almost everyone does on such a trip; making a compromise, in your case, Munich. Good thing is that you can really dive into Munich and see it all on a future trip! If you have not done so already, get Rick's current Germany guidebook (or even check if your local library has it). In each of his books, up front in each chapter, he has a section on "Planning Your Time," in which he suggests itinerraries based on # of days you have. Bottom line, with 1 day in Munich, you can just wander around the Marienplatz, xmas markets, ritzy Maximiilian Strasse, go into the Frauenkirshe (sorry if my spelling is off there!), and walk up to the top for an amazing view of the city. In fact, if you intend not to do any museums, then it can be a great day of just wandering around outside, taking in the architecture (old looking, but actually pretty "new!"), the atmosphere, etc. IF you have the time in the afternoon and would like to get ONE museum in, you may want to consider the Alte Pinakothek (sp!) , which houses 1 of the great collections of old masters in the world, OR the Neue Pinkotheck, which has an amazing collection of 19th century art. Alternatively, for a different type of museum, there is also the Deutches Museum, an AMAZING science/tech museum. The display of cars and trains; spectacular. I love art museums and the like, but just when I thought I was getting a little "art museumed-out!," the Deutches Museum was a welcome alternative. Net-net, sounds like you have thought this through and have chosen destinations based on YOUR family's tastes/preferences, as well as alloted time. Fact is, you can drive yourself bananas listening to EVERYONE's opinions on where you should/should not go., etc. My vote; stick w/ your well-thought out plan...and have a blast.