My wife and I just returned from an amazing two weeks on the Alpine My Way tour for our anniversary. The hands off pace of the tour was perfect for us, James was our wonderful tour leader, and we had the most pleasant and interesting tour mates - we really ended up feeling like a family by the end of the week.
Salzburg: We arrive a day early which is recommended, which also gave us our only sunny day there. We took Bob's Tours' combination SOM and Hallstatt excursion, and really appreciated the small group size and personalized attention from our tour guide, who even dropped us off at our respective hotels since it was raining. Hallstatt is gorgeous but absolutely packed with tour groups, more than any other town we visited. In Salzburg don't miss the daily noon organ recital at the Salzburg Dom (cathedral), during which a guest organist played on 5 of the 7 organs! We had two days of off and on rain but pleasant temps.
Dolomites: We drove south into Italy to the colorful city of Bolzano, which exceeded my expectations as a picturesque, walkable, and very pleasant city with the best food on the trip. Our hotel was right on the main piazza and we were serenaded by a calypso band outside our window one evening that had folks dancing in the street! We rode the local bus 45 minutes through jaw dropping valleys to the Suisi Alm gondola lift that took us up to the stunning Alpe du Suisi for a perfect hiking day.
Germany: Leaving Bolzano we drove due north to Fussen, stopping at the Zugspitze on a sunny day. The views on top were the best of the trip, though especially the German side was packed. Continuing on to Fussen I was again pleasantly surprised by the town, which is sold as just a convenient place to stay for the castles. Be sure and explore the town as well as Newschuanstein. Both castles are stunning of course, and I was pleasantly surprised by the detail of both tours.
Switzerland: What can I say. Magical, unreal, beyond our wildest dreams! We stayed at the historic Staubbach hotel with a balcony view of the waterfall. Getting around the valley was easy. (though food, gondolas and trains were pricey)
Chamonix: Very charming town, if a bit more commercialized than the others. We did both the Aguille du Midi and Brevent lifts, and the Mer de Glace. All were spectacular - and if it's a cloudy day atop the Midi just wait for the clouds to part. The day we went it was cloudy in the valley but sunny on top.
The bus transportation was perfect. Lots of room to spread out, and the rest stops were all clean, modern, well stocked, and far beyond any gas station stops we're used to back home. Typically restrooms require a Euro or Franc, but you get a ticket back that can be refunded with a purchase. James provided basic information at each stop, as well as a short orientation at each town, but for the most part his role was to answer questions and provide advise and he had "office hours" each morning. All in all, it was a great way for us to celebrate our anniversary.