Upcoming trip to Germany...HELP!!

I would suggest Rothenburg am Tauber (see http://www.rothenburg.de/index.php?get=121) and go to Kathy Wolfart's Christmas shops. https://shop.wohlfahrt.com Incredible. Also, if traveling with a laptop computer, you could consider "winging it" and booking hotels as needed on Expedia.com or other web site of your choice.

I've done Europe both ways. From a center of operations, and by jumping from place to place. I like booking as you go, but with a 3 year old, you might want to cut your days short and book early.

With a 3 year old, I would think about using the train and bring a small umbrella stroller rather than a car seat. Once you land in Munich, use this possibly as a base and visit the small towns around this area, or go on down to Garmisch and Salzburg. Using the Bavaria Laender tickets, you can travel very cheaply. Your daughter will LOVE riding the trains, all kids do.

Snow and black ice can be a very real possibility during December. Not something that I would want to drive in during a vacation. Any accidents will cause traffic back-ups for miles and cost you precious hours of your short vacation.

From either Garmisch or Oberamergau, you can use public transportation to visit most of the places you have mentioned, but a rental car would save a lot of time. If you decide on the car, get it as you leave Munich, not while staying there (very little parking and difficult to navigate by auto). As for road conditions: if a snow storm hits, you're out of luck, but once the snow stops, the roads are usually cleared fairly quickly.

Skip Switzerland this time. It is too far away for a daytrip. Oberamergau and Garmisch are both in the Alps, so you won't gain that much in scenery. Also, the short days of December don't leave you with much time to actually enjoy the scenery (which may be obscurred with cloud cover anyway).

Thank you for all the responses so far!! Keep them coming! They are helping very much! We might do 3 days near Garmisch and the other three over towards Salzburg since we want to go to Hallstat (sp?), south of Salzburg.

What's the consensus?

I really wasn't going to bring a stroller...just another thing to carry. We don't use one with her anyway. And, the car seat...still don't really know if my car seat will fit in a European car...Any thoughts?

Thank you all!!!

Hi JR,

My first bit of advice would be to skip Switzerland. Sorry. I think with what you want to see I'd pick 2 places to stay. I'd suggest (if you have a car) Ramsau, Germany and maybe Fuessen. Ramsau is less than 2 hours from Munich.

Ramsau is a cute village10 minutes from Berchtesgaden, 15 minutes from Konigsee, about 20 minutes from Salzburg and 1:30 from Hallstatt and 1:30 from Zell am See. What we really love about Ramsau (besides the mountain scenery and it's good location) is staying at the Pension Mayringerlehen. The owners (Johann and Sabine Grassl) are simply wonderful, friendly people. They run an organic farm and have cows, goats, chickens, guinea pigs, a horse and a llama. Nice rooms, great prices, good buffet breakfasts and beautiful mountain scenery. From Munich to Ramsau you could possibly stop and see "Mad" King Ludwig's Neues Schloss (Herrenchiemsee).

Based in Fuessen, Ludwig's Neuschwanstein, Hohenschwangau and Linderhof plus the Tegelberg cable car are easy to see. Neuschwanstein, Hohenschwangau and the Tegelberg cable car are about 10 munites from Fuessen. Some don't care for Fuessen but we love it. It's a very pretty old town very convenient to the castles.

We have photo's that may be of interest at:

www.worldisround.com/home/pja1/index.html

www.worldisround.com/home/pja1/travel15.html

Paul

forgot,

The website for the Pension Mayringerlehen (we stayed here in '06, '07 and '09) is:

www.mayringerlehen.de

In Fuessen we liked the Hotel zum Hechten (we stayed here in "01 and again in '03):

www.hotel-hechten.com

Paul

Regarding your question about the car seat: I don't know all the details of how various car seats attach. But I can tell you about my family situation. My brother in law, an American, is married to a German woman, they have toddler twins, and they live in the US. They travel fairly often to visit family here in Germany and always bring their American car seats to use in German cars. As far as I know, they have no problems with it. Hope this helps.

Looked thru the posts and would suggest Nuremburg/Nurnberg for a christmas market, trainride away from Munich. Just saw the Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau in Switzerland and Garmisch has the wonderful Zugspitz, tallest point in Germany. Switzerland and the Bernese Oberland is more beautiful in the fall and can be a hectic drive the time that you are going. Trains are not hard to navigate and the info office personnel speak english very well.

If you're renting a car, bring your car seat. It'll cost about as much to rent one as it would to buy a new one. And you can use it on the plane on the way over, too. It's a long flight, and for my kids, I liked to be able to strap them in somewhere for a while. It's safer for them and gives you a little while without a squirmy kid. My kids were also comfortable with the idea of sleeping in their car seats.

We took my son to Salzburg and the Salzkammergut when he was 3. It's a great area for kids. I'm not sure what things are like there in December, though. We were there in the summer, and there was tons of stuff for kids to do.

If you do stay outside of the cities, find a farmhouse to stay in. You can either find one that operates as a B&B or one that has apartments. There's not much difference in the cost between the 2. We stayed in farmhouses there and absolutely loved it. It was one of the best vacations we've ever had. The one in Salzburg we found in the Rick Steve's book, and if you PM me, I can give you contact information for the one in the Salzkammergut where we stayed.

This doesn't really answer your questions - maybe it will make it more complicated for you. But I was just in Munich and Switzerland in March and found driving at that time of the year was fairly easy. It should be no trouble for you to get where you want to go. I wanted to recommend a few places that might be nice for you and your daughter. First, Fussen Germany has two beautiful castles, including Sleeping Beauty's Castle. There is also a small town in Switzerland called Interlaken (between lakes) which is beautiful and from this you can easily access the Jungfrau - near the Eiger. You can take a train to the top of the Jungfrau and also walk inside an ice-cave. Your daughter and husband mike like this. Munich is also very beautiful and there is a lot to do. I would recommend going to the Marian Platz to see the Glockenspiel at noon- and there you can catch a hop-on-hop-off city tour bus which will take you to all the major sites (including the BWM museum). I hope that you and your family have a great trip!

I'm from Hoptown too! First, Great spontaneity and adventurous spirit, you'll have a blast. But, one warning...knowing the driving conditions in Hopkinsville, I'm leery about recommending you jump in a car in Germany in the winter. Driving can be a little, OK a lot, different from what you may be use too. And, It's already snowing in Garmisch. For the long trips, I recommend the train.
Also, I agree with other posters, I wouldn't try to make the Eiger. Save it for the next trip:) Plus, the German Alps are beautiful!
If you need more accommodation recommendations, shoot me a PM.
Good luck!