Germany in 10 days: Munich, the Alps and Berlin

Day 2 — Munich old town, properly

• 09:30 — Climb St Peter’s tower (~€5, 306 steps) for the red-roof-and-Alps panorama, positioned for the 11:00 Glockenspiel performance on Marienplatz below (also 12:00; it’s charmingly clunky — knights joust, coopers dance, tourists film).
• 11:30 — Frauenkirche’s twin onion domes, the Residenz (~€10 — the Wittelsbachs’ 130-room palace; the Antiquarium hall alone justifies it) or the tiny rococo explosion of the Asamkirche.
• 13:30 — Viktualienmarkt lunch: leberkäse semmel or cheese stalls, a shady beer-garden table in the middle (~€10–18).
• 15:30 — The English Garden: bigger than Central Park — watch the Eisbach river surfers at the south entrance (surfing, in a city park, in Bavaria), then walk north to the Chinesischer Turm beer garden for the full self-service ritual (you may even bring your own picnic food; buying the beer is the rent).
• 19:30 — Dinner in Glockenbach or Haidhausen — modern Munich beyond the halls (~€20–35).

Day 3 — Neuschwanstein: the fairy-tale day

• 07:00 — Regional train toward Füssen (~2 h; a Bayern-Ticket covers both of you + the bus), bus 73/78 to Hohenschwangau village.
• The ticket truth: castle interiors are timed guided tours only — €21 adult + €2.50 booking fee, under-18s free — and slots sell out days-to-weeks ahead (same-day tickets exist in theory, disappear by mid-morning in practice). Book on the official Hohenschwangau shop the day your dates fix.
• 10:30 — Walk up (30–40 min, or shared horse-carriage/ shuttle) to Neuschwanstein — Ludwig II’s 1869 opera-set castle, all turrets and Wagner murals, unfinished when the king died mysteriously in a lake. The 30-minute interior tour is honestly the lesser half —
• 12:00 — — because the prize is the Marienbrücke bridge view: the castle floating over the gorge, the Alpsee behind. Queue for the bridge photo, then take the path 100 m past it for the same shot minus forty elbows.
• 14:00 — Lakeside hour at the Alpsee (swans, swimming in summer) or the yellow Hohenschwangau castle where Ludwig actually grew up.
• 18:30 — Back in Munich; easy dinner near the hotel.

Day 4 — Top of Germany, or Mozart’s Salzburg

Two brilliant days; pick by weather (webcams decide):

• The Alps day: train to Garmisch (Bayern-Ticket), then the Zugspitze — cogwheel train + record-breaking cable car to Germany’s summit at 2,962 m: €78 adult / €39 child round trip (2026 summer rate), glacier terrace, 400 peaks on a clear day. Descend via the Eibsee cable car and walk part of that impossibly turquoise lake before the train home.
• The Austria day: regional train to Salzburg (~1h50 — and yes, your Schengen visa crosses this border without blinking): Getreidegasse and Mozart’s birthplace, the fortress funicular, Mirabell’s Sound of Music gardens, apfelstrudel. Cheaper than the mountain, heavier on charm.
• 19:30 — Either way: back for a Munich beer-garden evening if the weather holds.

Day 5 — Dachau, then a gentler afternoon

• 09:00 — Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial (S2 + bus, ~45 min; free, audio guide ~€4.50): the first camp, 1933, and the template. Three hours of heavy, necessary history — the “Arbeit macht frei” gate, the barracks, the memorial chapels. With kids: the site advises 12+; families with younger children should swap this for Nymphenburg Palace and read together instead.
• 14:00 — Deliberately light afternoon: Nymphenburg Palace gardens, or Olympiapark + BMW Welt (the showroom is free and the building alone earns it).
• 19:00 — Farewell-Bavaria dinner: schweinshaxe or käsespätzle done properly (~€20–35). Pack for the north.

Day 6 — The ICE to Berlin, the Gate at dusk

• 09:00 — Munich Hbf → Berlin Hbf, ~4 h (Sparpreis from ~€20–40 booked early). Germany scrolls by at 300 km/h: Franconia, Thuringia’s forests, the flat north.
• 14:00 — Check in, then walk the axis: Brandenburg Gate → the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (walk into the stelae field; it’s designed to disorient) → Pariser Platz.
• 17:30 — The Reichstag dome — free, but register online weeks ahead (passport details required; same-day slots exist at the service centre with 2+ hours’ notice, originals-only ID): Norman Foster’s glass spiral over the Bundestag chamber, sunset over the city. The best €0 in Germany.
• 20:00 — Dinner initiation: currywurst at a proper Imbiss (~€5) as starter, Berlin’s world-food scene as the main (~€15–30).

Where to stay in Berlin (four nights)

• Luxury: Hotel Adlon Kempinski — 4.6/5 (~5,200 reviews), the address beside the Brandenburg Gate since 1907. ~€400+.
• Mid-range: Meliá Berlin — 4.5/5 (~7,300 reviews), riverside between Friedrichstraße and Museum Island; TripAdvisor’s #1 value here. ~€150–220.
• Value: Holiday Inn Express Alexanderplatz — 4.3/5, breakfast included, U-Bahn on the doorstep. ~€100–140.

Day 7 — The Wall day

• 09:30 — Berlin Wall Memorial, Bernauer Straße (free): the last complete stretch — wall, death strip, watchtower — with the documentation centre’s viewing platform. This, not Checkpoint Charlie, is where the Wall makes sense.
• 12:00 — Tränenpalast (free — the “Palace of Tears” border hall at Friedrichstraße) and lunch nearby.
• 14:00 — Topography of Terror (free, on the Gestapo site) and a walk past Checkpoint Charlie (photo, ignore the actors) — then U-Bahn east.
• 16:00 — East Side Gallery: 1.3 km of the Wall turned into murals — the Fraternal Kiss, the Trabant bursting through — golden light on the Spree side.
• 19:30 — Kreuzberg evening: Berlin invented the döner kebab and Kreuzberg perfected it — from €5 masterpieces to Turkish grills, this is also the trip’s halal home turf. Finish with a canal-side bar (~€15–25 all-in).

Day 8 — Museum Island and the East

• 09:30 — Museum Island (€24 day ticket covers all four open museums + the Pergamon Panorama; single museums €14): start at the Neues Museum before 11:30 — Nefertiti holds court alone in the North Dome — then the Alte Nationalgalerie’s Romantics or the Bode’s sculpture rotunda. Honesty: the Pergamonmuseum itself is closed until June 2027; the “Das Panorama” rotunda across the canal (included) shows 80 originals with a 360° reconstruction — good, not the same, and this guide won’t pretend otherwise.
• 13:30 — Lunch at Hackescher Markt’s courtyards (Hackesche Höfe street art through the back gates).
• 15:30 — Pick your east: the DDR Museum (~€13 — hands-on Ostalgie: drive a Trabi simulator, open the listening devices) or the TV Tower at Alexanderplatz (~€25, book a slot) for the full-city sweep.
• 19:30 — Dinner in Prenzlauer Berg — leafy, stroller- thick, excellent kitchens (~€20–35).

Day 9 — Potsdam: the palace day

• 09:00 — Regional train to Potsdam (~40 min, covered by a Berlin ABC day ticket): Sanssouci — Frederick the Great’s “without worries” vineyard palace (~€22 with the park’s palaces; timed entry, book morning slots) — the terraced gardens alone are worth the trip, and they’re free.
• 13:00 — Lunch in the Dutch Quarter’s red-brick lanes.
• 14:30 — Cecilienhof (where Truman, Stalin and Churchill carved up 1945) for the history-completists, or simply more park.
• 17:30 — Back for the last Berlin evening: rooftop hour (Klunkerkranich if queues allow), then the dinner you’ve been saving — Michelin-bistro Berlin runs cheaper than anywhere comparable in Europe (~€35–60).

Day 10 — Home from BER

• Morning — Airport Express from Hbf (~30 min). Direct flights home. Two Germanys, one train line, zero rental cars.