Austrian Itinery and trains help please

Seems to me you're pushing yourselves very hard there...you'll be in a different bed every night for 4 days and a lot of travelling as well...your alternative of 2 consecutive nights in each city in #7 might make more sense...unless your intention is to punish your husband for turning 50, of course!...

If you stayed 2 nights in Munich you can still go to Fuessen on the first day as with the Bayern group ticket the 2 of you can go all the way from the airport to Fuessen and use Munich public transport all day for €28...day 2 you can explore Munich...day 3 to Salzburg and depending on how you're feeling on day 4 you could strike out for Hallstatt or Berchtesgaden nearer to Salzburg...day 5 back to Munich and airport, all covered by another Bayern group ticket for €28...

That's what I would do in your situation anyway...seeing as you've never been to Munich it would be waste in my opinion not to dedicate one of your days to it...and lack of German won't be too much of a disadvantage...

Hi Jack
If you think that's pushing it, we are also considering as follows:
1 night Munich, 1 night Hallstatt, 1 night salzburg and 1 night Vienna (flying home from Vienna). Maybe this is too much?
I know we wouldn't have loads of time in each city, but we'd get to see lots of places in the time we have - we're both relatively fit, but don't want to kill ourselves though :)
I feel if there was anything we could leave, it would be Vienna, since I feel that can be a weekend break destination on its own.

I'm feeling that with flying into Munich, its a good chance to see Neuchwanstein - (I don't know when we'd get to see it again as it seems easiest to get there from Munich).
As I recently considered Chamonix for this trip (with outdoor activites such as hiking /cycling), I feel visiting Berchtesgaden or Hallsatt would still allow us to do something active. It seems my husband wants the city and I want more mountains - hence the trip trying to accommodate both. And then I feel I couldn't go so close to Salzburg without visiting it. Hence the idea of at least getting in Munich, Hallstatt/Berchtesgaden, Salburg.
I don't know what to do now, as we need to make a decision.

It's not really possible to advise you further but as you say Vienna is expendable in this plan...you really need a decent amount of time there...but if you decide to do that then probably better going Munich-Salzburg-Hallstatt-Vienna...

You can also fly from UK to Salzburg with Ryanair which would give you a breathing space and might even sometimes work out cheaper than changing your flights with Easyjet...

Would prefer to fly from Gatwick as its a trek to get to Stansted for us, so Easyjet better. I have decided to fly in to Munich, then out of Vienna 4 nights/5 days later. I plan 1 night Munich, 2 nights Salzburg (so we can have a day in the mountains) and 1 night Vienna, but this is totally flexible and could change - at least with the flights booked I can breathe and take my time now :) We may leave Hallstatt and stay the 2 nights in Salzburg and use it as a base to visit the Berchtesgaden national park instead, as its closer.

I know it seems we're not giving each place enough time, but we're very time poor this year so we have no choice but to try and squeeze as much in as possible. I hope we could come back at some point not too far to try skiing.

Can't help chuckling at the notion that it's a trek out to Stansted but you're going to flog yourself through 4 nights from Munich to Vienna...))

Best of luck with all this...maybe we'll hear back from you when it's done...

:):):)
You must think I'm mad - crazy English
It's either going to be fabulous or an arduous exhausting episode that leaves us wondering what the h*ll were we thinking! I will let you know how it goes late October.....:)

Thanks for all the advice

Well I thought I'd update you all on how the trip went! Flight to Munich no problems, and got a Bayern ticket & OBB ticket at the airport which covered us all the way to Vienna.

We checked in first as our room was ready, then headed off to Fussen. It was a fine trip on the first train (an hour) but the second train also took an hour, which was due to it be older, slower and stopping at many stations. On arrival in Fussen we took the bus to the town below Neuchwanstein, but had long wait for the bus to take us up to the castle. We managed to catch the 6ish train back to Munich and arrived back after 9 - it was a long trip and not sure if it was worth it, although the castle is lovely and we got to see plenty of countryside on the way :) We ate the best meal ever in Munich - I am sure that's the case despite how hungry we were....

We spent the next morning in Munich instead of heading straight off to Salzburg. I am glad we did as Munich is a lovely city, and the U-Bahn was so easy to use. We visited the Saturday market at Marienplatz before heading back to catch the 12.25 train to Salzburg.

The train to Salzburg was great - fast and warm and we stayed in the suburbs outside Salzburg in a lovely chalet-style hotel. It was only 20 mins bus journey to the hotel, but for the money was well worth it. Unfortunately it rained a lot that evening which was a bit miserable but we managed to walk around Salzburg and have a lovely meal.

The Sunday, the weather was very poor with mist on the mountains, and we undecided for ages about whether to head out to the Berchesgaten and Eagles Nest, before eventually giving it a miss due to the weather. This bit I am sad about, and there wasn't lots to do in Salzburg on a Sunday with everything closed. But there was a nice food/crafts market and we went up the funicular to the fortress and the Mirabelle gardens. Everything seemed expensive in Salzburg and we decided against paying in to see Mozart's house! To be honest, in the short space of time we had for our trip, we could have got away with just one night, instead of two, in Salzburg.

We got the train to Vienna on the Monday arriving just after lunch. We headed out straight away and saw the Schonbrunn palace, and then back to the city to see everything else. We spent a lot of time in the delicious coffee shops, and have fantastic meal of a massive schnitzel at Figlmueller restaurant. We had drinks and next morning breakfast at Cafe Central. We loved Vienna and spent the next morning sightseeing before catching the CAT train to the airport for the flight home.

All in all, we will go back to both Munich and Vienna at some point, as feel there's plenty more to see in both places. I wouldn't go back to Salzburg as we feel we've done it now.

Its a shame we didn't get out into the Berchesgaten (prob spelt wrong sorry) and after the Fussen trip we wouldn't have been up for heading out to Hallstatt. But the trip has given us a real taste of this part of Europe, as we'd never been before, and most importantly my husband thoroughly enjoyed it, although he was happy to leave Salzburg. The people everywhere were really helpful and friendly and we can't wait ot go back with more time on the next trip hopefully.

my husband thoroughly enjoyed it, although he was happy to leave Salzburg.

sc, glad it all worked out for you...pity about the weather in Salzburg but you probably did the right thing by staying in the city...think you might be a bit harsh on Sgb though...if conditions were better and you could explore the centre and environs a little more I'd say you'd have a different and more favourable perspective, perhaps...