Rental car and GPS in Germany

Yes there is a setting to give directions in English. Since you aren't bringing your own, be sure to have the rental agent explain how to use the GPS before you leave the lot.

Brad brings up a good point about having someone show you how to use the GPS before you leave. Go ahead and enter your first destination and as you travel you can play around with it for familiarity. I have used TomTom's, Garmins and the one built into our car and they are all a little different but being familiar with one does somewhat help with another. I much prefer the portable ones to the one built into our car. In addition to the GPS it is advisable to take a good map. Don't forget to stop before entering Austria to purcahse the vignette sticker. There are some great small towns in those areas. Many in the Lake District to include Hallstatt. Close to Salzburg is Berchtesgaden. Hall is close to Innsbruck and Mittenwald would not be too far either. With only 4 days a good plan would be to maybe plan a circular route if you are returning the car back to Munich. Trying to do all of the places you mention in 4 days would be very rushed so you just need to decide which to eliminate. That is a beautiful area to drive.

Thanks so much. As for the car vs the train - we are traveling by train for the rest of our trip (flying in to Frankfurt - Paris for 4 days, Florence for 4 days). We just wanted to have a little more freedom for hiking and driving in the Alps for a couple of days. (And honestly, my husband felt like he couldn't go to Germany/Austria and not drive at least a little bit!) We are thinking of doing a circular route either from Munich to Innsbruck or Munich to Salzburg with maybe Lake District included if we do the Salzburg route. We are then planning to spend a few days in Munich before taking the train back to Frankfurt to fly home.

Any preferences out there between doing Innsbruck and Tyrol region vs. Salzburg and Lake District?

What??? Nobody is going tell her to cancel the car rental and take the train????

You guys are slipping....

Our GPS worked flawlessly and there was a language setting.

James - yes, we do love mountain scenery. We are really looking forward to comparing Alps to Alaska and getting in some great hikes.

I am currently leaning toward doing a trip from Munich to Salzburg then on to Hallstadt area, on to Saint Wolfgang im Salzkammergut (I hope I am getting the names correct) and then back to Munich - possibly follow a route that takes us north of Salzburg for different scenery.

We will then have a couple of days in Munich before heading back to Frankfurt for our flight home.

After visiting Innsbruck several times, staying in the wonderful mountain village of Seefeld im Tirol I thought nothing would beat it. Then we visited Salzburg last year and loved it!! We will have 4 days there later this month. We drive, and the Blobergerhof can't be beat for drivers. We love it. RS has it in the book, and last time I looked it was #1 in Tripadvisor.

Happy trails.