Castles in Waltz Time
9 DAYS
Heidelberg 1 • Munich 2 • Garmisch-Partenkirchen 1 • Salzburg 2 • Munich 1
Basic Inclusions
Accommodations
Accommodations in centrally-located three-star or four-star hotels. Rooming on a triple basis. Double rooms: $50 per night, per person.
Meals
All breakfasts. All dinners.
Transportation
Round-trip transportation on scheduled airline. Deluxe touring motorcoach. All public transportation tickets included where applicable.
Guide
Services of a specially-trained passports Tour Director throughout. All tips are included in the Program Cost. Whisper headsets included.
Travel Protection
Passports provides and pays for a Post Departure Travel Protection Plan that includes coverage for Trip Interruption, Trip Delay, Medical Expense and Evacuation and more. Learn More
Tour Summary
Itinerary Includes
Unlimited public transportation
Days 1-2: Home - Heidelberg
Day 3: Heidelberg - Munich
Heidelberg Castle Courtyard, Wine Barrel and German Apothecary Museum: Heidelberg Castle Gardens
Tour director-led walking tour in Rothenburg ob der Tauber, The Romantische Strasse, Sightseeing stop in Dinkelsbühl
Day 4: Munich
Half-day city sightseeing in Munich: Local Guide, Visit to the Nymphenburg Palace and Gardens
Excursion to Dachau: Visit to the Dachau Memorial Concentration Camp
Day 5: Munich - Garmisch-Partenkirchen
Guided tour at Neuschwanstein Castle, Guided tour at Linderhof Castle
Day 6: Garmisch-Partenkirchen - Salzburg
Round-trip cable-car ascent to the Zugspitze summit
Day 7: Salzburg
Professionally guided walking tour in Salzburg: Visit to Mozart's Birthplace
Excursion to Hallein's Salt Mine: Visit to the Dürrnberg salt mine in Hallein
Day 8: Salzburg - Munich
Guided tour at Herrenchiemsee Castle
Day 9: Departure
UNPARALLELED STANDARD OF EXCELLENCE
Detailed Itinerary
Days 1-2: Arrival Frankfurt, Heidelberg
A dream comes true as your wide-bodied jet thunders off the airstrip, Europe-bound. Time for a meal, a movie, and a nap. Soon, it gets light again, first off the left-hand side of the airplane, then everywhere. It's morning over Europe! Your destination is Frankfurt, the largest city in the German state of Hesse.
Transfer to Heidelberg, the seat of the country's oldest university, founded in 1386.
Settle into your centrally located hotel and then set out to explore the city. Landmarks include the impressive ruined castle and the famous jail where rowdy students were detained.
Overnight: Heidelberg
Day 3: Heidelberg Castle Courtyard, Wine Barrel and German Apothecary Museum, Rothenburg, Dinkelsbühl, Munich
Pay a visit to the regal Schloss which overlooks Heidelberg and the Neckar Valley. Your visit includes the castle's courtyard, the German Pharmacy Museum housed in the castle, and the 50,000-gallon wine barrel!
Visit the Hortus Palatinus, which was once regarded as the Eighth Wonder of the World. Designed in 1614, with terraces, grottoes, fountains, water organs, heated baths and exotic plants, this park suffered the same fate as the castle during the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) and the War of Succession with France in the late 1680s. Nevertheless, the Castle Gardens, which overlook the town, remain a beautiful spot from which to take a close up look at the castle and enjoy a wonderful panorama of the Neckar River Valley.
Enjoying the comfort of the modern Autobahn, view little villages and farms as you travel to the unforgettable medieval city of Rothenburg, which peers down upon the River Tauber from behind 16th-century stone walls.
Enjoy the car-free Old Town as you step back to the 1500s on a stroll that includes feudal walls, towers, and the Street of the Nobles, Herrengasse. See comfortable burgher houses that mark the birth of the German middle class.
Board your coach to follow the Romantische Strasse, famous for its castle-topped hills and rural greenery.
Pause along the Romantic Road to view the ramparts and watchtowers of the enchanting town of Dinkelsbühl.
Journey on to Bavaria's capital city, Munich. You'll be struck by your first impression of the city and its landmarks, which have been beautifully restored to their pre-war conditions.
Overnight: Munich
Day 4: Munich City Sightseeing, Excursion to Dachau
A sightseeing tour in München takes you around the impressive Theresienwiese, site of the famous annual Oktoberfest. In the center of the city discover the grand set-piece boulevards of the Ludwigstrasse and Maximilianstrasse with their Neoclassical palaces, and the monumental Feldherrnhalle where, in 1923, Hitler failed in his attempt at the coup d'état known as the Munich Putsch. See the student area of Schwabing, Königsplatz, the Residenz, the Frauenkirche, whose 300-foot-high onion-domed towers symbolize the Munich skyline, and the historic Marienplatz. The tour ends with a performance of the red-coated mannequins in the Town Hall Glockenspiel.
A half-day local guide, well-educated and specially-trained on the history and culture of Munich, will accompany your group.
Visit Nymphenburg Palace, once the summer residence of the Bavarian sovereigns. See rooms decorated in their original Baroque style from the 17th century, as well as Rococo and Neoclassical decor. The gardens were landscaped in the 18th century by an employee of André Le Nôtre, who designed the gardens of Versailles.
Set out for a town located a mere twelve miles from Munich.
Enter KZ-Gedenkstätte Dachau, the Nazi concentration camp, which has been preserved as a memorial to the victims of the Holocaust.
The town of Dachau itself, paradoxically, has long been renowned for the beauty of its scenery and the gaiety of its summer festival.
Overnight: Munich
Day 5: Neuschwanstein, Oberammergau, Linderhof, Garmisch
Today, follow a scenic route into fantasyland.
Enter the dream castle built by Bavaria's "mad" King Ludwig II. About Neuschwanstein, the model for Walt Disney's Sleeping Beauty's castle, it is said that Ludwig employed a stage set designer rather than an architect. The result is pure theatrical fantasy, stimulated by the King's fancy for Wagnerian music: from artificial grottoes to ornate rooms to dazzling views of the Alps from the belvedere.
The "Passion Play" town surrounded by lofty Alpine summits is also renowned for its woodcarving industry. Landmarks include the Parish Church and the many ancient houses adorned with frescoes.
It's a short, but scenic ride to Ettal, the township nestled in the Ammergau Alps that King Ludwig chose for one of his dream castles.
Discover with your guide a 19th-century rococo palace with lavish apartments that reflect King Ludwig's longing for the opulence of the 18th century. Within the Linderhof Park, you'll come across pools, waterfalls, and terraced gardens inspired by the Italian Renaissance.
Overnight: Garmisch-Partenkirchen
Day 6: Zugspitze Ascent, Travel to Salzburg
Enjoy a cable-car ascent of the 9,718-foot-high summit of the Zugspitze, Germany's highest mountain, for a spectacular 360º panoramic view of four countries: Germany, Austria, Italy and even Switzerland!
A scenic ride will take you to Salzburg, Austria.
This evening, a stroll in town, or along the Salzach River, would be a nice way to cap the day.
Overnight: Salzburg
Day 7: Salzburg Guided Walking Tour, Excursion to Hallein
Get acquainted with the City of Bells (thus nicknamed for the innumerable church bells that regularly chime throughout the day) on a walking tour led by a local guide. Landmarks include Dom zu Salzburg, regarded as the first Baroque cathedral built north of the Alps, the unforgettable Getreidegasse, the Hohensalzburg Fortress, and the sculptured Horse Trough once reserved exclusively for the horses of the Archbishop of Salzburg.
Visit Mozart's Geburtshaus, the house in which he was born in 1756 and where he composed most of his child-prodigy works. See personal documents, pictures of his family and his childhood instruments.
Today, an excursion takes you to Hallein.
Have fun as you dress in miner's clothes and slide down a chute into the mine to explore its dark underground chambers and cross its subterranean lake. Multimedia installations complete the entertainment.
Overnight: Salzburg
Day 8: Herrenchiemsee, Munich
Travel to the Chiemsee, which is the largest lake in Bavaria. In the small town of Prien, take a boat to Herreninsel, the island where King Ludwig II built the most sumptuous of his Bavarian castles, Herrenchiemsee Schloss.
Enter the lovely castle set on its own tiny island. You'll visit the Hall of Mirrors (a dazzling gallery modeled on Versailles' Galerie des Glaces), Ludwig's ornate bedroom, and the formal gardens.
Travel on to Munich, Germany's third-largest city.
This evening, you may wish to stroll in the Old Town, seeing landmarks such as the Frauenkirche, whose 300-foot-high onion-domed towers symbolize the city skyline, and Karlsplatz with its 14th-century town gate, Karlstor.
Overnight: Munich
Day 9: Departure
Memories of clean cities and fast, sleek automobiles all blur together as you bid auf Wiedersehen to Germany at Munich's airport. Your suitcase filled with memorabilia, arrive home later today, eager to share your discoveries with family and friends.
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