traveling from munich to bavaria to Salzburg

With a Bayern-Ticket, you can go from Munich to Salzburg by regional train in 2 hours for €29. You'll pay almost that much for gas and tolls for a rental car. Plus, with the car you have a big train coach to walk around in rather than be couped up in a car.

And you wouldn't want to rent in Munich and drop in Salzburg anyway, because you'll get hit with a big fee applied to car rentals when you drop in a country different form the one you rented in. Lee can give you the details, but you can also just take the train from Munich to Füssen...it's quite easy, cheap, and convenient. Unless you intend to do some pleasure driving in southern Bavaria, think about skipping the car altogether and taking the train for the itinerary you've mentioned.

The Bayern-Ticket will also get you from Munich to Füssen and then to the castles. It's an unbelieveable deal for only 29Euro. We never stay in Füssen but rather in the little village of Horn about 3 minutes driving from Füssen. It's kind of nice to have a car in this area, but definitely not necessary as there are plenty of bike and walking paths and taxis.

Would it make sense to purchase this pass if we also wanted to take a day trip on the Rhine? Or should we base ourselves in Horn for part of the trip and somewhere closer to the Rhine for the rest? Our ultimate goal is to take the train to Prague for the rest of our trip and, if I don't need to rent a car, I'm fine using public transport. I just want the four of us to be able to get around easily.

"Would it make sense to purchase this pass if we also wanted to take a day trip on the Rhine? Or should we base ourselves in Horn for part of the trip and somewhere closer to the Rhine for the rest?" Horn?? The village of 300 people near Simmern? I've never heard of anyone making that a destination. Maybe you have family there or something? Anyway, you can't use a Bayern Ticket (Bavaria Ticket) as you're nowhere near Bavaria. But there is a similar daypass for your region (Rheinland-Pfalz) called the Rheinland-Pfalz ticket which lets you use trains and some buses. It's 21 Euros per day for one, add 3 Euros for additional travelers up to 5. Use it anytime on Sat or Sun, afte 9 am weekdays, on the regional trains. It's about an hour from Simmern to Boppard by bus (no trains in that area anymore) so you could get to the river, but it's better to stay in Boppard or one of the other villages - lots of atmosphere, and you can save some travel time. Trains serve almost every village along the river on both sides between Mainz and Koblenz, the area of prime interest. From the Rhine to Munich, look into the advance-purchase tickets at cheap prices at http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en

We're talking about two different Horns here. There is also a Horn just outside of Füssen. It's a stop on the bus route to Hohenschwangau, right where the road makes a right turn to go straight to the Hohenschwangau Hst. Some people find less expensive accommodations there than in Füssen. Simmern is close to the world famous Frankfurt-Hahn airport.

Yes, we're talking about Horn-Schwangau. No, day trips to the Rhine are not practical from there.