I am planning the Switzerland portion of our(2 adults) June trip.
We fly into Munich on 05/30 pm and plan to stay in Munich for 2 nights.
For the 1 day, we plan to visit the BMW museum and the modern art museum.
06/1, we plan to pick up a rental at the Munich main train station from hertz.
We like to visit Salzburg(3 nights) and Garmisch-Partenkirchen area(2 nights). Then drive to
Bernese Oberland and would like to stay for a few days(6/7 nights). The
apartment in Brienz/Grindelwald is not available on the dates we like to
have, so I plan to stay in two different hotels. We have been to Lausanne,
Bern, Basel, Zerich, Lucerne, Interlaken,Jungfrau, Gruyeres and Zermatt.We enjoy
walking (easy) in scenic area and my husband loves art(painting/sculpture) museum.
Here are my questions:

1) Is Hertz located inside of the Munich main train station?
Have anyone rented a bmw-3 from Hertz? Does it come with GPS
or you have to pay the $50.00 per week fee?

2) Driving from Garmisch, Germany to Interlaken, where should we
stop for 1 night - any interesting village?


3) Which are your two favorite villages in Bernese Oberland?
We prefer driving to the village hotel instead of arriving by train
unless the village is exceptional.

4) Would you drive back to Munich to return the car or drop off
at Geneva, then fly out? We need to fly to Ireland to visit friends.

Thanks for your help!

Good trip.

1 I am not sure. Roads sign are good enough that you might not need GPS.

2 Many to choose from. Travel without a reservation, and stop by 5 and you should not have an great issues. Random village stopping usually leads to some of the best unplanned moments.

3 Wengen and/or Murran come to mind as supurb choices but you need to take a short train ride. Perhaps Lauterbrunnen is a good choice.

4 Me, I prefer not to back track, try a new airport. However the drop off fee will probably higher.

Hi Betty,

Your trip sounds great-- you've picked some beautiful areas of Europe to explore.

We have picked up rental cars at the Munich Hauptbahnhof a couple of times, though I don't remember which agency. There are offices right there in the station (on the second floor) and then you walk across the street to a garage. I looked at the Hertz website and could not tell if the Hertz office was right there in the station or in the square nearby. I think you'd have to e-mail to Hertz for specifics.

You would not need a car in Salzburg for just a few days, and may find it expensive to park. Another possibility would be to take the train to Salzburg and pick up your car as you leave there. On the drive to Garmisch, consider stopping at either Herrenchimsee or Berchtesgaden/Lake Konigsee.

We visited many beautiful villages in Switzerland on our two week walk in the Swiss Alps a few years ago: Engleberg, Meringen, Grindelwald, Lauterbrunnen, Kandersteg, Lenk, Adelboden, Saanen. (I'm sure I have misspelled a few of those village names!) We walked through Wengen and Murren but didn't stay overnight there. I think Wengen and Murren are both pedestrian-only-- they are on opposite sides of a valley, with Lauterbrunnen (where we stayed) down below. We enjoyed Lauterbrunnen very much and it's a good touring base, though some people think it is too dark. I really liked Grindelwald-- actually I liked every place we stopped. I was going to suggest Lucerne as a stop-off point for you, but since you've been there maybe Engleberg is an option if it's on your route to wherever you are headed.

Please share more about your trip as your plans develop. We are hoping to be near Garmisch and also near Salzburg this summer.

Kathy

For your last question, I'd look into flights before deciding where to drop off the car, especially if you're looking to fly cheaply. As examples - Aer Lingus flies out of Zurich and Geneva, but RyanAir doesn't (but I think it flies out of Basel, as do several other low-cost carriers).

Tom & Judy, We used to just booked our 1st and last night of hotel, but not any more because now we are older and we prefer to have a definite place to go to for the night. We used to drive 6/7 hours a day, now we(my husband) only drive 3/4 hours to our next destination.

Kathy, I enjoyed reading all your blogs, reviews, forum replies......My husband refused to take trains because of carrying luggage up/down. Actually last year we trained from Paris to Aix and it worked out great!

Jul, I read somewhere people end up paying more because of the weight limit of luggages while flying via some cheaper airlines, so I decided to fly Aerlingus from Geneva.

Thanks for your help!

This is my latest trip detail. I only got my round trip airline tickets from sfo.

1) 5/30,31 - Munich(The Charles Hotel);like to visit beer hall and BMW museum(my husband).

2) 6/1,2,3 - pick up rental car at Munich train station->St. Gilgen(hotel Gasthof zur post); like to visit Mondsee, Fuschl, St. Wolfgang, Bad Ischl and Hallstatt.

3) 6/4,5 - Salzburg(Hotel Golden Hirsch); will follow Kaydee's forum replies.

4) 6/6 - Bregenz(Hotel Germania).

5) 6/7,8,9 - Grindelwald(Hotel Gletschergarten); will follow Pauline's hiking notes.

6) 6/10,11,12 - Gstaad(Hotel Steigenberger) - I am not sure about this area. I pick this place because We need to fly out from Geneva.

7) 6/13 - Evian Les Bains(Hilton hotel).

8) 6/14 - return car and fly to Dublin from Geneva airport around 3pm.

I checked 2007 weather for Salzburg area(20 rainy days in June) and Grindelwald(16 rainy days in June).
I understand weather is unpredictable especically in the mountain area.
We were in Austria many years ago and on our way back to Switzerland from Vienna, we skipped Salzburg because of the terrible weather. This time, I plan to make all my hotel reservations before leaving home. Here are my questions:

a) Do you just stay around the hotel if weather is horrible? For the 1 night stay or city stay, it will be fine. But for the 3 night stay in a small village, it will not be fun. Sorry, this is not a very good question!
b) Better to stay in Grindelwald for 6 nights? I like to, but my husband may not like it.
c) Your favorite village between Grindelwald and Geneva?
d) Your favorite art(tradition/modern) museum in Switzerland?

Thank you for all your help!

Betty, I've read that the s'Herzl (attached to your hotel in Salzburg) is a wonderful place to pick up a meal -- casual, but great food. We're planning to stop there for our day trip to Salzburg in June.

Laura

I checked all the Switzerland villages listed by Kaydee and decided to stay in Adelboden for 2 nights. I don't research for restaurants any more because I seldom get to go. We usually eat near where we stay. Thanks Laura for letting me know about restaurant Herzl in Salzburg.

I just checked Hertz web site. They charge 300euro for returning rental in Geneva airport. I thought it is 150euro - may be this is returning in Vienna(our original plan was train to Prague). Somehow I don't want to pay 300euro. If I spend 5 days in Grindelwald and Adelboden, then head back to Munich direction. For 3 nights, where should I stop for sightseeing? Munich to Cork flight is around 3pm on a Saturday. Thanks for your help!

quote:

Originally posted by betty ng:
If I spend 5 days in Grindelwald and Adelboden, then head back to Munich direction. For 3 nights, where should I stop for sightseeing?

3 days is perfect for visiting the castles built by Ludwig II of Bavaria: Neuschwanstein, Linderhof, Herrenchiemsee.
They are not far from Munich but are best visited by car.
A pretty town that is near them all is Bad Tölz. Would make a good base.