6 Days From Munich: Bavaria Day Trips
Six days is our 5-day plan , Munich, Neuschwanstein, Dachau, Salzburg and the Zugspitze, plus a sixth day on the ICE to Nuremberg. Book the Neuschwanstein ticket before you land, not on the day; the official ticket center opens reservations up to 8 weeks out and the summer slots sell out weeks ahead. Want Regensburg too? See the 7-day version .
Book these before you go:
- Neuschwanstein day tour by train : the timed slot is the real bottleneck
- Dachau Memorial tour from Munich : free entry, worth booking for the context
- Salzburg day trip by train : handles the cross-border rail connection
- Zugspitze full-day tour : book for a clear-forecast day
- Nuremberg day trip by train : frequent ICE service, easy to add on
| Day | Focus | Distance/time from Munich |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Munich orientation, beer garden dinner | Home base |
| 2 | Neuschwanstein Castle | ~3h door to door |
| 3 | Dachau Memorial | ~50-60 min door to door |
| 4 | Salzburg, Austria | ~1h42 by train |
| 5 | Zugspitze/Garmisch-Partenkirchen | ~1h15-1h30 by train |
| 6 | Nuremberg | ~1h11-1h16 by ICE |
Day 1: Land, get your bearings, find the right beer hall
The S1 or S8 covers the 40-45 minutes from the airport into the Hauptbahnhof for EUR 13.60; skip the EUR 80-110 metered taxi unless you enjoy paying for traffic. For six days, run the Deutschland-Ticket math yourself: EUR 63 a month, worth it only if you’re stacking heavy day-tripping on top of city transit every single day, which this itinerary mostly doesn’t, since the day trips run on regional and ICE trains it doesn’t cover anyway.
Walk Marienplatz, catch the Glockenspiel only if the 11am, noon or 5pm timing happens to line up, and don’t plan around a twelve-minute mechanical show. Skip Hofbrauhaus for dinner. It’s been a tourist stop since 1589 and trades entirely on that history, not on quality; Augustiner-Keller and Hirschgarten, Europe’s largest beer garden at around 8,000 seats, both pour better and cost less hassle. Chestnut trees over the tables mean you can bring your own food and just buy drinks there. Carry cash regardless, and if it’s Sunday, the shops are shut by law.
Day 2: Neuschwanstein
Book weeks ahead through the official Hohenschwangau ticket center ; there’s no walk-up option, only a fixed-time, 35-minute guided tour, and the 10am-2pm summer slots go first. The castle sits near Fussen, about 2h10 from Munich by train plus a short bus. Do the tour, climb to Marienbrucke for the actual postcard view, have lunch in Hohenschwangau, and head back; nothing left to do once the tour’s done.
Day 3: Dachau
S2 to Dachau, 20-25 minutes, then bus 726 to KZ-Gedenkstatte, or walk it in half an hour. Free entry, the memorial runs daily 9:00-17:00 with last entry 16:30, closed only December 24, not Mondays. English tours run around 11am and 1pm. It’s a memorial , not an attraction, and deserves a full half day on its own, kept off the same calendar square as Neuschwanstein.
Day 4: Salzburg
About 1h42 by train, into Austria, ID required even inside Schengen. Compact UNESCO Altstadt : Mozart’s birthplace, the Getreidegasse, Hohensalzburg Fortress by funicular. Skip the packaged Sound of Music tours; walking the old town covers the same ground.
Day 5: The Zugspitze
About 1h15-1h30 by train to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, then the cogwheel train and cable car combination to the summit of Germany’s highest peak. The round trip runs EUR 78 in 2026, one-way EUR 46. Book a day ahead on clear-weather weekends; valley-station queues start by 9am in summer.
Is the Zugspitze worth it if the forecast looks marginal?
Not really. The entire point is the summit view across four countries, and cloud cover erases that completely while still costing the full EUR 78. Check the mountain’s own webcams the morning of, and if the forecast is genuinely bad, swap this day for extra time in Garmisch-Partenkirchen itself or push it to a later day in the trip if your schedule allows.
Day 6: Nuremberg, the real day trip
ICE trains run about every half hour and take just over an hour, one of the more frequent long-distance connections out of Munich. Nuremberg’s Kaiserburg imperial castle sits above the old town, and the Documentation Center at the former Nazi Party Rally Grounds pairs with the Nuremberg Trials Courtroom 600 to cover more of Germany’s WWII history than Dachau alone, one showing the machinery of the trials, the other the site of the crime. Treat the castle and the history sites as two separate halves of the day; folding them into one continuous walk flattens both. If you’re here in winter, Nuremberg is also home to one of Germany’s most famous Christkindlesmarkt Christmas markets. Eat Nurnberger Bratwurst, small grilled sausages sold “drei im Weckla,” three in a bun, and take an evening train back to Munich for the last night.