Neuschwanstein lies roughly 120 kilometres south-west of Munich, high above the village of Hohenschwangau. Two hours through the Alpine foothills, and then it is suddenly there, white against green slopes. It is one of very few destinations that genuinely looks the way it does in the photographs.
Salzburg lies an hour and a half from Munich, and that is the real argument for it. You set off after breakfast, are in the old town before eleven and have the entire day ahead of you, without anybody breathing down your neck about the journey back. The drive itself runs along Lake Chiemsee and the Alps.
The Eagle's Nest stands at 1,834 metres above Berchtesgaden, roughly two hours from Munich. From the terrace you look down on the Königssee, across to the Watzmann and, in clear weather, as far as Salzburg. It is one of very few places where the view genuinely delivers what the photographs promise beforehand.
Linderhof lies a good hour and a half from Munich, in the Graswang valley behind Oberammergau. It is the smallest of the three royal palaces, the only one Ludwig II ever saw completed, and the only one in which he actually lived. Anyone who knows <a href="/en/day-tours-munich/neuschwanstein-castle/">Neuschwanstein</a> finds the opposite here: no crowds, no crush, no time slots.
The red buses drive a fixed loop, stop at fixed points and play a commentary from a recording. That works when you are seeing the city for the first time and have nothing particular in mind. The moment you have wishes it becomes impractical: you wanted to stay longer in the Nymphenburg park, but the bus is leaving.
Our chauffeurs know Munich very well. They know where to stop, how to reach the Allianz Arena and which street is quicker when there is traffic. What they do not do is tell you why the Frauenkirche has two unequal towers or what exactly happened in the Olympic Park in 1972. That is what guides are for.
Garmisch-Partenkirchen lies ninety minutes from Munich, and from there the cog railway or the cable car takes you up the Zugspitze, 2,962 metres up. It is the simplest way of getting from a major city onto the highest mountain in Germany in a single day and being back at your hotel that evening.
Lake Tegernsee lies just under an hour from Munich and is the nearest place at which you feel genuinely far from everything. Mountains all around, clear water and villages along the shore in which very little has changed in a hundred years. For half a day the time is ample, and for a full one it repays you.
