How many nights in: Prague > Salzburg > Hallstatt > Munich?

[more adventurous]

I'm trying to work out the itinerary for our fall trip. We have 12 nights total to work with. Originally, I was thinking we would do: 4 nights in Prague, 3 in Salzburg, 2 in Hallstatt, 3 in Munich. But, after realizing that it's a little bit of a pain to get to Hallstatt, I'm not really sure if it would be wise to essentially have a partial travel day to Hallstatt, 1 full day, and then a travel day the next. I'm considering splitting up all of the time evenly and switching to a full 3 nights in each location.

Any insight from those who have traveled to these cities before? Is 3 nights enough in Prague to get a full feel of the city? Where would you recommend spending the most time? Our dates of travel to Munich will be during Oktoberfest, if that makes a difference. 

[mdgirl]

I think 2 nights in Hallstatt is plenty unless you're going there for some specific reason like a big hike. We had an even longer travel day to get there (we were coming from Viena) and two nights was fine. The train to and from Hallstatt isn't "hard" travel, either. It was practically empty when we took it and the views are beautiful.

[wise_rita]

I've never been to Hallstatt, but have been to the others, so I will work off PP's recommendation of 2 nights:

Prague 4
Slazburg 2
Hallsatt 2
Munich 4

This isn't factoring in travel times, but given these 4 cities and 12 nights that's how I'd divvy them up.

[more adventurous]

mdgirl That's really good to know. Thank you. I guess I meant it might be a bit of a pain in that we'll have to take a ferry across the lake from the train station. I also thought we had to switch trains somewhere between Salzburg and Hallstatt but I might be remembering that incorrectly. We are also considering staying at a place in Osbourne which would be a little bit out of the way to get to, so that will just tack a little extra time onto anything we want to do, but hopefully not significantly.

wise_rita Any particular reason why you would suggest double the time in Prague/Munich than Salzburg? Just less big sights to see in Salzburg? Just curious.

[mdgirl]

The ferry is super quick! And maybe you do have to switch trains between Salzburg and Halstatt, but I really don't remember it being annoying. Other than seeing the bone house the only thing to do in Hallstatt is see the salt mine, so it's not like your time there will be jam packed.

[wise_rita]

more adventurous, because Salzburg is way smaller. And I LOVED Salzburg, but I'd still recommend less time there than Munich/Prague.

[sillygoosegirl]

Here's what we did. We were able to pack and unpack our bags in 10 minutes flat by this point in our RTW trip, so we went ahead and made a lot of stops in smaller places between the big ones, so we wouldn't have to travel so far on any one day.

- 2 nights in Halstatt (but basically just one day, which included the mine tour and a long hike, and felt like enough; since we had a car at that point we drove the following day on our way out of town to a place where we could take a gondola way up into the mountains for more hiking, it was pretty amazing, though I think you can go somewhere similar within city bus distance of Salzburg)
... like a week and a half traveling to Croatia and back ...
- 1 night in Salzburg (spent more like a day and a half, but really would have liked more time in Salzburg)
- 2 night Munich (but really only one day, and it rained... didn't like it so much, though that might have been because everyone was going crazy about the world cup right then)
Day trip to Fussen on the way to 1 night Regensburg (loved Fussen, in spite of it being rather contrived and touristy, and the area was lovely and we wished we could have stuck around for some hiking)
- 2 nights Prague (by far my *least* favorite of all the cities on this list, very touristy and I didn't like the stuff to see nearly as much)
- 1 night in the middle of no where in the Czech Republic
- 2 nights in Vienna (I know this isn't on your list, but it was my second favorite after Salzburg and I'd try to fit it in)

[sillygoosegirl]

Also, you've reminded me how much I want to go back to the Alps for a trip of primarily hut-to-hut hiking...

[KKD]

We spent two nights in Salzburg; we arrived late afternoon, walked around the city and had a late dinner, then spent the next day in Berchtesgaden/Eagle's Nest/Konigsee, returned to our hotel in the evening, and left the next morning for Munich. We spent just one day/night in Munich; we walked around the Marienplatz (and caught the glockenspiel) and Englischer Garten. However, before Salzburg, we spent two nights in Oberammergau, just south of Munich, which we used as a base for day trips to Neuschwanstein and Zugspitze.

I think one day was enough for Salzburg (and like wise_rita, I loved it too), and we actually felt like we were able to walk most of it in just an afternoon (though it didn't allow us time to tour the fortress or anything else). Two nights would allow you to visit the surrounding area like we did. We absolutely could have used another night or two in Munich, but because we had our two young daughters with us, we weren't interested in any of the museums and chose to spend more time elsewhere. I think two nights would be good for the city itself, and another two nights would allow you to visit other towns or attractions nearby.

[dutchgirl678]

We didn't stay in Salzburg but were at a small b&b in St Gilgen. From there we drove to Salzburg for a day trip, Hallstatt for another day and Berchtesgade for 1/2 including a boat trip on the Konigsee. Salzburg was fairly small and we felt that we saw plenty in one day.

The stop before we were south of Munich at a lake and visited Munich for a day, Garmisch Partenkirchen for another day and Neuschwanstein another day.

[sm12]

May 27, 2014 5:12:24 GMT -5 RockNVoll said:

We just left Prague after three nights and it felt like the right amount of time to see everything.

Agreed.  I thought 3 nights was plenty in Prague.