7 Days From Munich: Bavaria Day Trips
Seven days is our 6-day plan , Munich, Neuschwanstein, Dachau, Salzburg, the Zugspitze and Nuremberg, plus a seventh day in Regensburg, the UNESCO old town most Munich-based trips skip entirely. Some older versions of this itinerary sent people to a “Neusammhof Farm” for a day of Bavarian agriculture; that place isn’t a real stop on any credible Munich day-trip list, so it’s gone.
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 added 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
- Regensburg rail day trip from Munich : the direct train alone beats Rothenburg’s connection
| 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 |
| 7 | Regensburg | ~1h22 by direct 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 a full week, run the Deutschland-Ticket math properly: EUR 63 a month in 2026, up from EUR 58 in 2025. It rarely pays off here regardless, since every day trip on this itinerary runs on regional or ICE trains it doesn’t cover; do the sum on your own transit use before buying.
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. 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. Check conditions and book a day ahead on clear-weather weekends; valley-station queues start by 9am in summer.
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, honestly, more of Germany’s WWII history than Dachau alone can, one showing the machinery of the trials, the other the site of the crime. Eat Nurnberger Bratwurst, the small grilled sausages sold “drei im Weckla,” three in a bun, and take an evening train back.
Day 7: Regensburg, the one most itineraries skip
A direct ICE covers Regensburg in about 1h22, no change required, for roughly EUR 20-30 each way in advance, cheaper and easier than the connection to Rothenburg ever manages. Regensburg is a UNESCO-listed, exceptionally well-preserved medieval old town built around the Old Stone Bridge and the cathedral quarter, and it’s the day trip that consistently loses out to “bigger name” options that actually take longer to reach. Wander it with no fixed plan; that’s the entire appeal after six days of timed tickets and train schedules.
Why Regensburg instead of the Romantic Road on the last day?
Because the arithmetic doesn’t work for Rothenburg on a single day. There’s no direct train, the fastest connection with a change still runs 2h29, and the town fills with bus-tour crowds by mid-morning, eating a huge share of the day before you’ve seen much. Regensburg’s direct ICE removes that entire problem, which matters more on day seven than on day one, when patience for connections is thinnest.
Confirm your airport transfer against the S-Bahn schedule before you sleep, it’s the same 40-45 minute ride you took in on day one. After six days of trains, tickets and beer, cash still moved more of your money than cards did; that’s not a quirk of this one trip, that’s how Bavaria runs.