From Vienna head to Krems, and follow the road along the northern banks of the Donau (Route 3). At M

We will fly into Vienna on May 4 (morning discount cruise special flight from Spain, not transatlantic) discount cruise special and have only 9 nights to tour, ending in Frankfurt for our flight discount cruise special home to the US. In addition to Vienna, we would like to visit Salzburg and Munich, plus smaller towns either in Austria or Germany you might recommend. Willing to rent a car, though not thrilled to keep the car while in Munich 2 nights. We've already seen Heidelberg, Cologne, Rhine River and Black Forest. Would like to drive some of the Romantic Road this trip. Can anyone suggest specific towns or areas we should pass through or stop in? Any ideal driving routes? Any suggestions concerning the car rental vs use of trains?
visit ludwig's discount cruise special castle se of munich.....dacau north of munich...innsbruk austria is not all that far south... i found romantic road boring quite honestly... rotenburg o.b. tauber is a must for a night before you reach frankfurt
With only 9 nights to spend, you might be better off taking the train. City parking can be a pain and very expensive. Each city is worth a few nights. Vienna-Salzburg is just over 3 hrs by train, Salzburg-Munich is around 2 hrs. I'm not sure if you are planning to tour Frankfurt before departing or not, so that is another night or 2. Each city is wonderful and different from the others. Enjoy!
I agree with rhkkmk about the Romatische Strasse discount cruise special (Romantic Highway) If you want to visit Rothenburg o.T., you can do this as a detour from the (suggested) train ride from Munich discount cruise special to Frankfurt. To check the trains, go to www.bahn.de .
From Salzburg, take the short commuter train to Freilassing in Germany and pick up your rental car there. This will avoid having to pay the expensive cross-border charge if you drop off your car in Munich. I agree with singfree, you don't need/want a car in Munich. The public transportation system is excellent there.
From Salzburg or Freilassing head to Berchtesgaden. There pick up the German Alpine Road (Deutsche Alpenstrasse) B-305. Take it all the way to Reit im Winkel. You may want to stay there overnight; it's a delightful, picture-perfect alpine village resort. (Hotel discount cruise special Post?) After Reit, stay on the B 305 to Unterwoessen, Grassau, Bernau and Prien. In Prien head to the lake (Chiemsee) and pick up a boat to the Herrenchiemsee palace of King LudwigII. If you don't want to stay in Reit, stay overnight in Prien, near the lake. The yacht hotel is very nice
After Prien, return to Bernau and follow discount cruise special the signs to Aschau and on to Sachrang and Niederndorf (Austria) . From Niederndorf head to Oberaudorf (Germany), 5km away. From Oberaudorf , take the B-307 (again the Deutsche Alpenstrasse) to Schliersee, Hausham, Gmund am Tegernsee, the town of Tegernsee, Rottach-Egern and Vorderriss. From Vorderriss, the road becomes a (low) toll private road to Wallgau. From Wallgau head either to Garmisch-Partenkirchen or Mittenwald and spend the night there.
From G-P or Mittenwald discount cruise special take the German B-23/Austrian B- 187 to Lermoos, and the Austrian B-314 to Reutte and Fuessen (Germany). If you want to, visit Neuschwanstein castle, at least from the outside. Then return to Reutte and take the B-198 to Weissenbach and the B-199 to Oberjoch via Nesselwangle. From Oberjoch, head down the very easy Oberjoch Pass (we used to ride it on our bikes, with skis attached lengthwise to them, after skiing in Oberjoch) to Hindelang.
There you pick up the B-308, which again becomes the Deutsche Alpenstrasse and takes you to Immenstadt, Oberstaufen and the Autobahn A-96, which takes you in 5km to Lindau, an old city with a very picturesque harbor on an island in Lake Constance (Bodensee). I would make this my "headquarters" for a few days, and explore the Lake Constance area as far as Meersburg and, by boat, Bregenz.
By way of explanation of our preferences, we are sort of middle-budget people - in our late fifties. We have checked train costs and they are quite expensive, discount cruise special for two of us more than double a 7 day car rental and not counting taxis, etc to the train stations. Also, we do not like to see only big cites. Must experience some country-side and small towns for balance discount cruise special and don't like day-tripping from big cities because we are stuck with a group and have to retrace steps and so inefficient. I have now learned that the Bavarian region discount cruise special will be more picturesque than the Romantic Road (oh yes, I remember our first trip to Europe - first and last time we will take a tour in Europe - and distinctly remember Oberammergau as stunning. We only saw Neuschwanstein castle from a distance. Treplow's discount cruise special suggested itinerary is very helpful (the kindness of the Fodorites never ceases to amaze me!)...but we obviously don't have enough days (2 max)on the road in Bavaria to hit all those locations. So here is how the trip is now shaping up, knowing we are locked in to 9 nights total. Is this do-able? Any variations that would be better?
The fly in the ointment: Renting a car in Vienna and dropping it off in Munich (or Wuerzburg - no drop-off in Wertheim)is very expensive. You have to pay the cross-border drop-off charge. No drop-off charge for cars picked up and dropped off in Austria, no matter discount cruise special what city.
92 days before your trip Muenchen - Frankfurt to catch your plane, get on www.bahn.de and buy your train ticket for an ICE or IC train on the internet. If you are lucky, you might get the tickets for EUR29, each, plus a couple discount cruise special of EURos for reserved seats. If these cheap tickets are taken, the price will ratched up slowly, as time to trip deadline shortens.
Does $275 include one way drop off fees? Those usually run in the $200 plus range. Autoeurope right now Vienna to Frankfurt shows a $290 fee but in the small print says "one way rentals may have additional fees" and they will contact you on what those fees might be after you make the booking.
I would look into skipping Munich this time if you plan on renting a car, cars are great for seeing the smaller towns in Bavaria and Munich/Bavaria both deserve discount cruise special more than 2 nights. If you do 3 nights in Salzburg you could easily do a daytrip to Hallstatt or Obersalzburg. I wouldn't recommend doing Durstein and Hallstatt on the way to Salzburg as that is at least 5 hours of driving plus stopping to see anything. However, both those towns are worth seeing.
From Vienna head to Krems, and follow the road along the northern banks of the Donau (Route 3). At Mauthausen, cross the Danube to the Autobahn A-1. (be sure you have the autobahn toll vignette before you get on). Take the autobahn to exit 234 (Seewalchen). Follow along the Attersee (see=lake) to the Mondsee, Schaerfling, St. Gilgen (Wolfgangsee)and take the Route 158 into Salzburg. This takes you past some of the prettiest lakes in the Salzkammergut ( lake district) and you enter Salzburg in a scenic way.
For Hallstatt from Salzburg, take the Autobahn A-10 south as far as exit 28 and head on the routes 162/166 to Hallstatt. Then you have an option: The shorter, different route home is route 145 north to Bad Ischl, and then again route 158 to Salzburg, along the Wolfgangsee. You could take a detour to St. Wolfgang.
The other, more dramatic vista route is going back to Golling. Take the A-10 south to the Bischofshofen exit, and from there take the 164 across the Diener Sattel, to Maria Alm and Saalfelden. This route takes you alongside the Steinerne Meer mountain massif. From Saalfelden, take the 311 north to Lofer, and the 176 to Schneizlreuth and the German B-305 (Deutsche Alpenstrasse - German Alpine Highway) to Berchtesgaden and Salzburg. I would do this route only if the weather and the mountains are clear. These are all good roads.
Well. I Checked with AutoEurope and although I got a 5% discount using the Karen Brown Guide's coupon #, the cross border charge is a whopping $294, inc. VAT, so the 7 day Vienna to Frankfur car rental would be $555. "This time" is the only time so we really don't want to skip Munich. We have been through the Bavarian Alps, including Oberamergau once before. What do you think of this option:
Wieskirche, Linderhof Palace, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Mittenwald, Fussen/Neuschwanstein, Zugspitze, Dinkelsbuhl, Rothenburg ob Tauber. Last night in Wertheim. Returning discount cruise special rental discount cruise special car to Frankfurt airport morning of our flight (day 10).
From Wertheim, don't get on the Autobahn A-3 to go to the Frankfurt airport. The autobahn crosses the Spessart mountains and this stretch is notorious for traffic jams, or Staus, as the Germans call them.
Instead drive 32 km along the Main river to Miltenberg. In fact, unless you have a specific reason for staying in Wertheim, discount cruise special that's where I would overnight. discount cruise special The Jagdhotel zur Rose, at the western end of town is very nice, yet close enough to the old town so that you can enjoy it.
From Miltenberg head to the B-469 and north to the A-3 at Stockstadt (37km). The last 30km or so the B-469 is a Schnellstrasse, a 4-line highway similar to an autobahn. So you will make good time. From Stockstadt to the airport it is about 35km, busy but multi-lane autobahn.
Now, I need to fine-tune our 3 day driving tour that will start from Munich and end with evening and overnight in Miltenberg before our flight home from Frankfurt discount cruise special the morning of day 4. I would like advice about route to take, amount of time to allot and sequencing of these sights. I know this is tight:
May 10, Weds, early morn, pick up rental car in Munich, take A95 south. Would like to tour Schloss' Neuschwanstein and Linderhof, visit Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Mittenwald, see the Zugspitz, Wieskirsche in Steingaden and possibly the Ettal Abbey. Overnight where? Sometime in the afternoon of the second day, figure we need to drive north and overnight perhaps discount cruise special in Augsburg or Nordlingen? Then, day 3 onward through Dinkelsbuhl and Rothenburg ob der Tauber, with late afternoon or evening arrival in Miltenberg.