Better drive?

I will be in Frankfurt and Munich and needed some advice on what would be the better experience for a side trip; driving to Salzburg then Vienna from Munich or driving to Zurich from Frankfurt? Any advice would be greatly appreciated, Thank you.

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Give us some details:

What%26#39;s %26quot;experience%26quot; to you? What are you interested in?

How much time do you have? Munich - Salzburg - Vienna are faster by train. So is Frankfurt - Zuerich.

Allowing for the fact that -if you drive and don%26#39;t return to the country where you picked up the car - there is a pretty steep drop-off charge, going by train is also cheaper.

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I%26#39;ll copy and paste what I wrote last night for someone wanting to make this trip in the opposite direction, just substitute Frankfurt for Wiesbaden in it:

The German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg ( www.baden-wuerttemberg.de ; www.tourismus-bw.de ; www.schloesser-und-gaerten.de for the excellent castles, palaces, monasteries and gardens operated by this state) borders both Switzerland and France, and the most direct way from Switzerland to Wiesbaden will pass through it.

Below is my reply to a similar recent thread:

%26quot;Some nice places:

the falls of the Rhine at Schaffhausen

Hohentwiel (in www.schloesser-und-gaerten.de ), the largest castle (fortress) ruin in Germany set atop a former volcano near Singen

Tuebingen ( www.tuebingen.de ) our favorite place to repeatedly visit in Germany, with its hilly cobblestone streets, half-timbered houses, castle, interesting nontourist shops, and one of Europe%26#39;s oldest universities

Bebenhausen Monastery (in www.schloesser-und-gaerten.de ) just north of Tuebingen, a very well preserved medieval monastery, very pleasant

Bad Urach ( www.badurach.de ), a pleasant valley spa town of the Swabian Alb ( www.schwaebischealb.de )

Metzingen ( www.metzingen.de ) if you want to do some inexpensive shopping, it has the most factory outlets in Germany

Esslingen ( www.esslingen.de ) with its well preserved medieval center

Stuttgart ( www.stuttgart-tourist.de ) with the world%26#39;s second largest beer festival, the Cannstatter Volksfest ( www.cannstatter-volksfest.de ) from 25Sept to 11Oct, and excellent big city sights such as the Mercedes Benz and Porsche Museums, after all, Stuttgart is where the automobile was invented. It also has extensive vineyards ( www.stuttgarter-weinwanderweg.de ) and world reknown ballet, Germany%26#39;s opera house of the year 6 out of the last 11 years, plus three large mineral baths associated with western Europe%26#39;s largest mineral waters.

Ludwigsburg ( www.ludwigsburg.de ) which has Germany%26#39;s largest perfectly preserved Baroque palace (in www.schloesser-und-gaerten.de ), the Swabian Versailles, with the longest and best palace tour that I%26#39;ve been on in Europe, extensive gardens (there will be the special pumpkin exhbition at that time with Europe%26#39;s largest pumpkins and squash, and large themed sculptures made from these vegetables) plus the nice fairytale one, four excellent museums, porcellan sales and manufacture, and two smaller associated palaces set near a deer park (several days to see it all).

Bad Wimpfen (probably www.badwimpfen.de ), a pleasant medieval town

the Neckar River, with castles, vineyards and pleasant towns along it

Heidelberg ( www.heidelberg.de ) with its famous castle

That%26#39;s plenty to see and do along this route with places listed from south to north, I just listed some highlights. All of the places mentioned can be reached using the Baden-Wuerttemberg group (2-5 people) day train ticket for 28€ which covers all transportation within this state except the fast long distance IC, EC and ICE trains. There is one other restriction, no travel before 9AM on a weekday.%26quot;

If you are driving, you could also add a few other places such as the two fairytale-like castles Burg Hohenzollern ( www.burg-hohenzollern.com ) and Schloss Lichtenstein ( www.schloss-lichtenstein.de only in German) where they just finished filming Sleeping Beauty. A detour along the Danube River heading toward Sigmaringen ( www.sigmaringen.de , nice castle/palace too) is nice, the Danube Gorge through the Swabian Alb ( www.schwaebischealb.de ) is idyllic, with many castles and palaces perched atop the cliffs.