6 Days in Munich: The Bavaria Gateway Plan
Six days is a full Bavaria-and-beyond circuit: city, castle, memorial, mountain, Austria, then a fast train north into Franconia. This is the 5-day plan plus Nuremberg; add Regensburg for the full 7-day version.
Book these before you go:
- Neuschwanstein timed guided-tour ticket, released up to 8 weeks ahead; summer 10:00-14:00 slots sell out.
- A hotel near Munich Hauptbahnhof, five of your six days start with an early train.
- Advance ICE Sparpreis fare for Nuremberg, booked ahead it’s noticeably cheaper than a walk-up ticket.
| Day | Focus | Distance/time from Munich |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | Munich orientation, arrival | Home base |
| Day 2 | Neuschwanstein Castle | ~3h door to door |
| Day 3 | Dachau Memorial | ~50-60 min door to door |
| Day 4 | Zugspitze / Garmisch | ~1h15-1h30 to Garmisch |
| Day 5 | Salzburg, Austria | ~1h28-1h47 |
| Day 6 | Nuremberg | ~1h11-1h16 |
Day 1: Land and Get Oriented
Munich Airport sits nearly 30km out, so the S1 or S8 into Marienplatz takes 40 to 45 minutes; a single ticket is €13.60 in 2026. Spend the afternoon on Marienplatz and Viktualienmarkt, then dinner at a proper beer garden. Full in-town detail is in the Munich city guide . Confirm tomorrow’s Neuschwanstein ticket time before bed.
Day 2: Neuschwanstein Castle
Budget the entire day. Train to Füssen runs about 2h10, then a bus to Hohenschwangau, then a 20 to 40 minute uphill walk, roughly 3 hours door to door each way. Entry is a fixed-time guided tour only, €21 plus a €2.50 online booking fee (€23.50 total), through the official Hohenschwangau ticket center. Expect some interior scaffolding, and Marienbrücke is seasonally closed roughly November through March. A guided Neuschwanstein tour covers the logistics; the official visitor page has current rules.
Day 3: Dachau Memorial
This is not a sightseeing stop, it’s a memorial. Take the S2 to Dachau (20 to 25 minutes) plus bus 726. Entry is free, open daily 9:00-17:00, closed only December 24, English tours around 11:00 and 13:00. Full details are on the official KZ-Gedenkstätte Dachau site . Back in Munich by afternoon, ease in with BMW Welt or a decompression beer garden.
Day 4: Zugspitze and the Bavarian Alps
Garmisch-Partenkirchen is 1h15 to 1h30 from Munich by train, then a cogwheel train and cable car combo climbs to Zugspitze’s 2,962-meter summit. Round trip runs €78 (valid from May 23, 2026), one-way €46. Check webcams the night before. Current pricing is on zugspitze.de .
Day 5: Salzburg, Austria
Grab your ID, you’re crossing into Austria today. The Railjet does Munich to Salzburg in as little as 1h28 to 1h34; regular EC/IC/RE service runs 1h42 to 1h47. Mozart’s birthplace, an Alps-backed old town, and Hohensalzburg Fortress make this a genuinely different city, not a Munich add-on. Check salzburg.info for current hours, and a Salzburg day tour from Munich bundles transport if you want the logistics handled.
Day 6: Nuremberg
An hour and change on the ICE (1h11 to 1h16, roughly every 30 minutes) gets you to Bavaria’s second city and a completely different flavor of history: a medieval old town, an imperial castle, and the WWII Documentation Center at the former Nazi party rally grounds, a serious counterpart to your Dachau day earlier in the trip. Advance ICE Sparpreis fares run roughly €25-45 each way, noticeably cheaper than a same-day ticket. If you’re traveling in late November, check whether Nuremberg’s Christkindlesmarkt, one of Germany’s oldest Christmas markets, overlaps your dates. Nuremberg is also the place for Nürnberger Rostbratwurst, small, grilled, sold by the half-dozen, worth the comparison to a Munich Weisswurst before your last train back.
Should You Pair Nuremberg’s History Sites With Your Dachau Day?
They cover different chapters of the same era and are worth keeping mentally separate rather than combining into one heavy theme day. Visit Nuremberg’s Documentation Center in the morning while your focus is sharp, then spend the afternoon in the old town and imperial castle to close the day on a lighter note.
Is Six Days Too Much Train Time for One Trip?
Five of six days involve at least one train ride, which is real travel, not a lazy vacation. Keep one evening genuinely unplanned, ideally the night you return from Nuremberg, so the week doesn’t feel like a checklist of departures and arrivals.
Where to Stay
Meininger Munich City Center or Wombats City Hostel keep you close to the Hauptbahnhof, essential when four of your six days start with an early train. Compare Munich hotel rates on Booking.com before locking in dates.
Getting Around
A Zone M single day ticket runs €9.70 in 2026 on the MVV network. With this much day-tripping, price the Deutschland-Ticket, €63 a month in 2026, against your regional legs, it covers the Nuremberg train but not the Austria crossing, so you’ll likely still buy one separate ticket regardless. Full route planning is on mvv-muenchen.de .
Six days covers two countries and two Bavarian cities without anyone feeling rushed. Keep one evening free and unplanned, you’ll want it after this much train time.