Hi All - looking for someone to validate my thought process or tell me I've got it all wrong...
We're flying into MUC on the 26th at 4pm. We want to go to Garmisch that night and take the cogtrain/cablecar to the Zugspite the next morning. While in the Munich area, we also want to see Schloss Neuschwanstein/Linderhof and Oberammergau. We've got from Wednesday at 4pm until Saturday morning at 7am free to do all of this.
Given the time constraints, I was thinking it would be wiser to rent a car (especially as most of those are grouped faily close together) as opposed to taking a train back and forth to Garmisch and then just doing a guided tour to the castles/Oberammergau (e.g. Grayline) from Munich. Would you agree?
FWIW, it's cheaper (slightly) for us to rent the car and overnight two nights in Garmisch than to take the train back and forth, pay for the guided tour, and have one hotel night in MUC and one in Garmisch. We could even overnight in Oberammergau as I've not yet done that.
Finally, if it makes sense to drive, can you answer a few other questions:
1. Do I need to bring or do anything special? I understand some of the basic etiquette - left lane only to pass, never on right, don't hog the left, etc.
2. What about the international driver's license - is this necessary and/or recommended?
3. Is a permit or license needed to drive on certain roads in Germany, or is that only in Austria (read that in another thread here on FT)?
FWIW, I have reviewed the information on the following links:
http://www.german-way.com/driving.html
http://german.about.com/library/blauto_traf.htm
http://germany.usembassy.gov/germany...n_germany.html
And I realize this is OT for this forum, but does anyone have experience driving in Switzerland (okay, probably a dumb question)? Specifically, I'd be renting a car in Zurich for the day and driving to Champerey near the French border. I guess I'm not sure if the roadsigns will be in German, French, or both. I can probably get by with German, but French word signs will cause me problems (unless of course they're just place names). We might also drive over to Liechtenstein just to say we did it (and maybe send a postcard).
Thanks in advance for any help you can provide!
Sean