Overnight transatlantic flight arriving Munich in the morning. Clear immigration, collect luggage, and take a taxi or S-Bahn from the airport to your hotel — most downtown hotels are clustered near Marienplatz, which is about 30 minutes from the airport by rail. Your room won't be ready on arrival; drop luggage at the front desk and head out.

The best tool against jet lag on arrival day is a Hop-on/Hop-off bus tour. Munich's Big Bus runs two routes — the green City Route (6 stops, 1 hour) and the orange Nymphenburg-Olympia Route (4 stops, 1 hour). The green line is easiest to pick up from central Munich; board near Marienplatz. Riding both routes takes about two hours of comfortable, low-effort reorientation. Use the day to find what you want to come back to on foot.

Evening suggestion: the Hofbräuhaus München is one minute from the Platzl area hotels — a 16th-century beer hall that still functions as one. The tourism is obvious and entirely beside the point. The food is authentic Bavarian, the beer is excellent, and the atmosphere is genuinely unlike anything else. Open 11 AM to midnight.

A full-day guided tour from Munich is the right way to do this — the logistics of getting to both castles independently are significantly more complicated, and the coach journey through the Bavarian Alps is part of the experience. Tours depart Munich early (around 8:30 AM) from the Karlsplatz area and return by 7 PM. Gray Line is the established operator.

Neuschwanstein is the castle that Walt Disney modeled Sleeping Beauty's castle after — which tells you something about how it looks perched above the gorge at Pöllat Falls. It was built by King Ludwig II in the 1880s and is one of the most visited buildings in Germany. The interior is extraordinary: Romanesque revival design with painted scenes from Wagner's operas across nearly every surface. Linderhof, Ludwig's smallest and only completed palace, is a more intimate study in obsession. The grotto alone — a man-made stalactite cave with a boating lake — is remarkable. Conclude with free time in Oberammergau, known for its woodcarving tradition and painted facades.

A small-group tour to the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site is the right way to approach this. Established in March 1933 — just weeks after Hitler became Chancellor — Dachau was the first of the Nazi concentration camps and served as the model for all that followed. It held over 188,000 prisoners in its 12 years of operation. The memorial includes reconstructed barracks, a permanent exhibition, and a documentary film. It is a sobering experience that deserves the full afternoon. Plan to arrive 20 minutes before your tour and bring your passport.

The tour returns with hours left in the afternoon. Munich's museum landscape is exceptional — more depth than most travelers expect. The Deutsches Museum is the world's largest science and technology museum; the Alte Pinakothek houses one of the finest collections of European Old Masters; the Munich Residenz (the former royal palace) spreads across 130 rooms and 10 courtyards and reflects every era of Bavarian history. Pick one and commit to it rather than rushing through two.

Take the BRB RE5 commuter train from Munich to Freilassing, then transfer to the BRB S4 to Berchtesgaden — about two and a half hours total, no advance booking needed. The transfer in Freilassing is six minutes, which is tighter than it sounds but workable: German commuter trains are reliably punctual and the platforms are adjacent. Have your luggage in hand as the train pulls in.

Berchtesgaden sits in a bowl of mountains at the southeastern corner of Bavaria, about 15 kilometers from the Austrian border. It is best known as a ski and spa resort, but it functions equally well in summer: the national park is excellent, the village is genuinely charming, and the density of significant sites within a short radius is unusual. Four nights here is not excessive.

The town itself rewards a full day of wandering. Consider a guided tour of the Berchtesgaden Salt Mine — mining has occurred here since the 12th century, and the underground experience involves miners' overalls, wooden slides, and a boat crossing on a subterranean lake. It is more fun than it sounds and genuinely interesting. Königssee, the alpine lake just south of town, is known for its extraordinary clarity and electric boat tours to St. Bartholomä island. The Rossfeldstraße panorama road — a 15-minute drive from the village center — offers some of the highest publicly accessible road views in Germany.

Bus 840 runs hourly from the Berchtesgaden train station directly to Salzburg — a 50-minute ride, €11.80 round trip. The crossing requires no immigration stop (both countries are Schengen). Return buses run until around 6:15 PM; trains run later if you want to stay for dinner, with service to Berchtesgaden via Freilassing until nearly 10:30 PM.

Salzburg is a compact UNESCO World Heritage city built on both banks of the Salzach River, with the medieval fortress Hohensalzburg looming above the old town from the south bank. It is best explored on foot. Start the morning at the Mirabell Palace Gardens — formal baroque gardens with views of the fortress — then work through the old town: Getreidegasse (the famous shopping street where Mozart was born), Mozart's Birthplace Museum, the Salzburg Cathedral (a 17th-century Baroque structure that dominates Domplatz), and St. Peter's Abbey with its cemetery, which dates to the 7th century.

In the afternoon, take the funicular up to Hohensalzburg Fortress for the best panoramic views in the city, then walk the Mönchsberg ridge west toward the Museum der Moderne for more skyline views. The fortress admission is around €15 and worth it. For the return, the evening train allows time for dinner in the old town — Café Tomaselli, one of the oldest coffeehouses in Austria, has been serving since 1705 and is a good last stop before the station.

Train from Berchtesgaden to Garmisch-Partenkirchen takes about four and a half hours with two transfers — at Freilassing and Munich Central. The Munich transfer involves a short walk between terminal wings (BRB trains arrive in a different wing than RB trains depart from) but you'll have 26 minutes, which is plenty. Taxi to the hotel from the Garmisch station.

Garmisch-Partenkirchen is two towns that were merged for the 1936 Winter Olympics and never quite merged in character. Garmisch has the bustle — shops, restaurants, the pedestrian Ludwigstraße; Partenkirchen preserves the quieter Bavarian village feel with painted facades and a slower pace. Together they sit at the foot of Germany's highest peak.

Afternoon in Garmisch: the Partnach Gorge (Partnachklamm) is a 700-meter ravine cut by the Partnach River, accessible by a 45-minute walk from the Ski Stadium. In winter the ice formations on the canyon walls are remarkable; in summer the cool air alone makes the walk worthwhile. The gorge entrance fee is modest. From the Ski Stadium, Bus 2 returns to central Garmisch. The Olympic Ski Jump is visible from below and the views from the jump area are worth a brief stop. Wind down with a stroll through the Kurpark.

Train from Garmisch to Baden-Baden requires a change at Munich-Pasing onto an ICE high-speed train — buy ICE tickets in advance. The fastest routing (departing around 8:07 AM) reaches Baden-Baden in about 5 hours 20 minutes. Baden-Baden is the northern terminus of the Black Forest; the hotel district sits amid vineyards on the western slopes, and the town has been a destination for European aristocracy, artists, and gamblers since the Romans discovered the thermal springs here.

Baden-Baden is built around two thermal bath traditions and a casino, and the combination has defined its personality for centuries. Friedrichsbad is the historic one: a 19th-century Roman-Irish bath that involves 17 prescribed stages of hot and cold immersion, ending with a full-body soap-and-brush massage. No phones, no swimwear permitted. It takes around two hours and is genuinely restorative. The Caracalla Therme next door is the modern alternative — pools, whirlpools, steam rooms, and a large outdoor area, swimwear required. Both are worth a half-day of your time here.

Beyond the baths: the Lichtentaler Allee is a 2-kilometer park running along the Oos River, lined with over 300 tree species and connecting the town center to the rose gardens. The Museum Frieder Burda houses a serious collection of modern and contemporary art in a Richard Meier building — Picasso, Baselitz, Richter. The Merkur Mountain funicular is Europe's steepest rack railway and reaches a summit restaurant with views over the Rhine plain.

ICE train from Baden-Baden to Cologne — take the 8:32 AM departure via Mannheim for a total journey of just over two hours. Buy this ticket in advance. Taxi from Cologne Hauptbahnhof to the hotel; the Cathedral is visible from the train station exit.

Cologne's Altstadt (old town) is compact enough to cover almost entirely on foot, centered on one of the finest Gothic buildings in existence. The Cologne Cathedral took 632 years to build — construction began in 1248, stalled for 300 years, and was finally completed in 1880. It remains the largest Gothic church in Northern Europe and for four years in the 1880s was the tallest building in the world. Spend time on the exterior before going in; the facade rewards close looking. The towers are open for a climb. Nearby: St. Maria Himmelfahrt (a Baroque church that makes a striking counterpoint to the Cathedral's Gothic), the Roman-German Museum, and the Hohenzollern Bridge over the Rhine — covered in love locks and offering the best river view of the Cathedral.

The Roman-German Museum is worth particular attention: Cologne was one of the most important cities in the Roman Empire (founded as Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium in 50 AD), and the museum sits directly above a Roman road and mosaic floor discovered during World War II bomb damage clearing. The Heumarkt and Alter Markt are the historic market squares; the Praetorium, accessible from beneath the city hall, preserves the Roman governor's palace underground. Museum Ludwig, a five-minute walk from the Cathedral, houses one of the most important 20th-century collections in Germany — Picasso, Warhol, Lichtenstein, and a comprehensive German expressionist holding.

Direct ICE from Cologne to Berlin — trains depart at 8:45, 9:45, and 10:45 AM, arriving just over four hours later. Book in advance. Taxi from the Hauptbahnhof to the hotel. A Flexpreis ticket for this leg also covers any RE trains on the same day, which is useful if your schedule shifts.

Berlin is the most historically dense major city in Europe. It was nearly completely destroyed in World War II — an estimated 80% of the city was in rubble by 1945 — and then divided by a wall for 28 years. The reunification in 1989 was only the beginning of a process that is still visibly incomplete in places and deliberately preserved in others. The city rewards multiple days and still holds back.

The Big Bus hop-on tour (Red Route, 17 stops; Blue Route, 4 stops along the East Side Gallery) covers the essential circuit on day one and anchors the geography: Alexanderplatz, Museum Island, Unter den Linden, Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, Bellevue Palace, the Victory Column, Ku'Damm, Checkpoint Charlie, Gendarmenmarkt, and the Berliner Mauer. Ride the Red Route first without stopping, then return to what matters. The Blue Route's East Side Gallery is the longest remaining section of the Berlin Wall — 1.3 kilometers of preserved concrete painted by 105 artists from 21 countries in 1990.

From the hop-on survey, prioritize based on your interests. The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (Holocaust Memorial) — 2,711 concrete stelae in a grid between Brandenburg Gate and Potsdamer Platz — is not optional. The underground information center beneath it is modest in size and devastating in content. The Topography of Terror, built on the excavated foundations of the Gestapo and SS headquarters, is free admission and one of the most important documentation sites in Germany. Museum Island houses five world-class museums on a Spree island — the Pergamon Museum alone (with the reconstructed Ishtar Gate and Pergamon Altar) justifies the entry.