Munich to Murren in June. Car or Train? Family of four on first trip.

Just checked Eurail.com for the 5-Day SelectPass (France, Switzerland, Austria, Germany ) and it shows $820 for a pass covering 2adults and 2 kids traveling together at all times. (you get a fifteen percent discount when you travel together on the same itinerary- whether it's bought from RailEurope or Eurail)

Travel insurance companies are on the site InsureMyTrip.com. I use CSA based in San Diego.

For the Loire Valley- you can rent cars in Amboise or Blois, and avoid dealing with metro Paris traffic. I rented a car in Amboise and saw Chenonceaux, Cheverny and Chambord all in one day. TGV trains go from Paris to St.
Pierre des Corps (1 hr) then transfer for short ride to Amboise.
About a 30-minute drive south of Amboise is the medieval walled-town of LOCHES. It looks like a movie set, but it's real- complete with its own Castle. Kids love this place.

I see the difference. I kept wondering how you were getting a lower price on train passes! The difference is that our oldest will be 15 and is considered an adult on Eurail. Kids are 4-11 according to the website. :(

I will add that movie to our list of movies to see before we go. Thanks! We will end up getting a Swiss Pass. Looks like it might be worth it. I'm going to go check out that CarRentals.com site now.

I just looked at CarRentals.com and couldn't find a drop off in Interlaken. Closest was Thun and we will probably be getting in a bit late - don't want to hassle with getting back to Interlaken from Thun that night. Ugh. So I went back to EuropCar and looks like the car rental for June 15-17 is $614. That inludes a border crossing fee from what I can see. I didn't check into the insurance. Hertz was $922!! Holy cow! Avis doesn't rent in Interlaken. Looks like EurpCar and Herts are my only two options. Best deal is $614. I know it's a lot of money. It is going to be so difficult not to do it for two reasons:
1. We save one hour on the trip from Salzburg to Fussen. Drive from door to door.

2. We save about 4 hours on the trip from Fussen to Interlaken. And I can spend that time seeing Lucerne.

As much as I don't want to spend a ton of money on a car, we just might not be able to say no. Any money saving tips from anyone?

" Any money saving tips from anyone?"
You got enough information and links (in this thread oand in your previous one) in order to optimize your trips.

Nevertheless; timetables and fares (for the whole family):

June 13th:
trains at least every hr
Fare: 33 EUR (Bayern Ticket)

June 15th:
Salzburg dp 8. 15 - Hohenschwangau castles ar 13.10, change at Munich, Buchloe and Fuessen
Fare: 33 EUR (Bayern Ticket)

June 16th:
Hohenschwangau castles dp 7.15 - Lindau ar 10.03, change at Fuessen and Kempten
Fare: 33 EUR (Bayern Ticket)
Lindau dp 10.31 - Lucerne ar 14.20, change at Bregenz, St. Margrethen and St. Gallen
Fare with Swiss half Fare Card/Family Card: 60 EUR
2xSwiss half Fare Card: 220 EUR
Lucerne dp 18.05 - Muerren ar 20.55, change at Interlaken Ost, Lauterbrunen and Gruetschalp
Fare with Swiss half Fare Card/Family Card: 45 EUR

June 20th:
Muerren - Basel: Fare with Swiss half Fare Card/Family Card: 70 EUR

Basel - Paris: web fares start at 68 EUR

there's one flaw, merckerdv, namely that the Bavaria ticket is valid only from 9am on weekdays - so one would have to tweak the travel times a little bit. (and be aware, chrissiepen, that for Munich-Salzburg on a Bavaria-Ticket you'll have to stick to regional trains, labelled 'M' or 'RE' at the www.bahn.com schedules, i.e. no 'EC' or 'RJ')

personally, I'd still rent a car from Salzburg to Bregenz, from where I'd follow up meckerdv's suggestion above. if you cannot make it to Murren anyway, why not spend the night in Luzern instead ifyou're so eager to see it? a drawback with Austrian rental cars is that very likely they won't come with a Swiss motorway vignette, so that'd be another ~ 40 Euro.

a trick to reduce rail travel costs into/out of Switzerland could be to use German DB saving fares (and only to use the necessary bits), however this would inolve some tiresome research and I'm not convinced it would add up to that much significant.

Thanks Nautiker, I should have thought about it. So we get:
Salzburg dp 9.15 - Fuessen ar 13.58, visit the castle, Fuessen dp 19.05 - Lindau ar 22.01;
Lindau dp 8.31 - St. Gallen - Voralpen Express - Lucerne ar 12-20

"a trick to reduce rail travel costs into/out of Switzerland could be to use German DB saving fares (and only to use the necessary bits), however this would inolve some tiresome research and I'm not convinced it would add up to that much significant"
That would be the most economic solution indeed, but only as long as they stay all the time at Muerren, without any day trip to Lakes or mountains. That's rather hard to believe.

Thanks for all that info!
Still trying to hash this out.

I can't seem to find a sixt or europcar in bregenz. Any help?

I might want to rent the car in Salzburg and drop in Bregenz then take the train on to Lucerne.