7 Days in Munich: The Bavaria Gateway Plan
Seven days gets you every big swing Bavaria has to offer from a single Munich base: a fairy-tale castle, a memorial that matters, Germany’s highest peak, a foreign country by lunch, and two completely different Bavarian cities. This is the 6-day plan plus Regensburg, the most underrated stop on this whole list. Pace yourself, this is a full week of real travel, not a lazy vacation.
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, six of your seven days start with an early train.
- Advance ICE Sparpreis fares for Nuremberg and Regensburg, both are noticeably cheaper booked ahead.
| 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 7 | Regensburg | ~1h22-1h23, direct |
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, or €16.10 for the Airport-City-Day-Ticket. Spend the afternoon on Marienplatz and Viktualienmarkt, then dinner at a proper beer garden, Augustiner-Keller over Hofbräuhaus. 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 up to 8 weeks ahead. Expect some interior scaffolding from the ongoing restoration, 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, and it earns a different kind of attention than yesterday’s castle. Take the S2 to Dachau (20 to 25 minutes) plus bus 726, or walk about 30 minutes. Entry is free, open daily 9:00-17:00, closed only December 24, English tours around 11:00 and 13:00. Give it a genuine half day. Details are on the official KZ-Gedenkstätte Dachau site . Back in Munich by afternoon, ease in with BMW Welt or Hirschgarten, Europe’s largest beer garden at roughly 8,000 seats.
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 the webcams the night before, since the summit view is entirely weather-dependent. Current pricing and schedules are 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 for a genuinely different city, not a Munich add-on. Check salzburg.info for hours, and a Salzburg day tour from Munich bundles transport if you’d rather not plan it solo.
Day 6: Nuremberg
An hour and change on the ICE (1h11 to 1h16, roughly every 30 minutes) gets you to Bavaria’s second city: 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 week. Advance ICE Sparpreis fares run roughly €25-45 each way. Nuremberg is also the place for Nürnberger Rostbratwurst, small, grilled, sold by the half-dozen, a completely different animal from a Munich Weisswurst.
Day 7: Regensburg
Save the easiest day trip for last. A direct ICE gets you to Regensburg in 1h22 to 1h23, no change required, roughly €20-30 one-way on an advance Sparpreis fare. This UNESCO-listed medieval old town is genuinely underrated, most visitors chase Rothenburg or Berchtesgaden instead and skip the trip that needs the least effort to reach. Wander the Old Stone Bridge and the compact historic center, then catch a direct train back for a farewell dinner in Munich.
Why Regensburg Over Rothenburg for a Seventh Day?
Regensburg has a direct ICE connection at just over an hour; Rothenburg ob der Tauber needs 2.5 to 3.5 hours with a change, which eats too much of a single day this late in a packed week. Regensburg’s old town is just as well-preserved and far less crowded with bus tours, making it the lower-effort, higher-payoff choice for a last day trip.
Is Seven Days Too Ambitious for This Itinerary?
Six of seven days involve a day trip, which is genuinely demanding, not a relaxed vacation pace. If that sounds exhausting, cut Regensburg or Nuremberg and use that day as an unplanned Munich morning instead, the itinerary nests cleanly down to 5 or 6 days without losing its shape.
Where to Stay
Meininger Munich City Center or Wombats City Hostel keep you close to the Hauptbahnhof, essential when six of your seven 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. Over a full week of heavy day-tripping, the Deutschland-Ticket, €63 a month in 2026, starts to make real sense for the Nuremberg and Regensburg legs, though the Austria crossing still needs its own ticket regardless. Full network details are on mvv-muenchen.de .
Build in one genuinely empty day if you can spare it. Seven real day trips back to back is possible, but the trip is better if you let one afternoon just be a beer garden with nowhere to be.