September ED Itinerary -- Looking for suggestions

[Two24Seven]

This is my preliminary itinerary for our ED trip this September. Any suggestions or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Thursday - Arrive in Munich around noon. Planning to spend the day recovering and exploring the city.
Friday - Oktoberfest!
Saturday - Delivery @ the Welt. Planning to drive to Salzburg after delivery.
Sunday - Drive from Salzburg to Venice. Appears to be about a 4-5hr drive as far as I can tell. Any route suggestions?
Monday - Planning to spend the day in Venice.
Tuesday - Drive from Venice to Lake Garda (2-3hr drive).
Wednesday - Big driving day from Lake Garda to Davos through Stelvio. (~5hrs). Should hit the Fluela Pass.
Thursday - Drive from Davos to Neuschwanstein (~3hrs). Any suggestions on lodging near Neuschwanstein?
Friday - Return to Munich to drop off car. Prepare to fly out Saturday afternoon.

We picked Salzburg because it seemed to be as good a stopping point as any on the way down to Venice. I think the drive is comparable to going though Innsbruck and we found some good hotel deals. The Munich and Salzburg hotels are already booked so that part of the trip is set, but we are still trying to plan the rest of the route from Venice back up to Munich (return flight out of Munich has already been booked). I'd like to hit some good alpine driving routes, hence the Stelvio-Davos leg. I'd love to hear any other Venice-Munich route suggestions.

Picking up a LMB 135i Coupe.

Thanks!

[Dackelone]

Dackel's European Delivery Museum Guide...

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=494657

[MikeVictor]

Originally Posted by Dackelone

Dackel's European Delivery Museum Guide...

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=494657

Nice one, D

[theshiningnova]

Originally Posted by Two24Seven

Saturday - Delivery @ the Welt. Planning to drive to Salzburg after delivery.

Picking up a LMB 135i Coupe.

LMB? Btw, I thought ED is only between Monday and Friday! That was why my CA was telling me

[m_thompson]

The best place for euro delivery information and recommendations is:
http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=25

[Dackelone]

OP some tips for you...

You realize you can not drive into Venice. There is a BIG garage at the end of the bridge/road to Venice. AND I would not park my new car in there! There is also a HUGE bus station there... and this is where all the trucks go to drop stuff off for the shops in Venice. It is a mad house there.

In the past I have stayed at "Lido di Jesolo". It is an island just 10km from Venice. You can drive there, and park at the hotel of your choice. Then IF you want to go into Venice... you can either take a medium sized boat direct from the islands beach... or drive to the end of the island (Jesolo) and use the public transport "water busses". It costs only 6 euros to park your can at the end of the island. Then you can pruchase a 24 hour boat ride ticket (water bus). The ships run around the clock. They bring you RIGHT into the center of Venice at San Marco Square. It is really THE BEST way to arrive in Venice.

Everyone goes to Venice for the day... but no one stays there at night. Sometimes it is nice to walk around in Venice by night. No crowds either.

IF you want I can give you a hotel info where I have stayed before. It is nothing special... just a clean and decent sized small family hotel in Jesolo. Its called: Hotel Lido (but then again there are a ton of hotels by that name! lol). Jesolo is about five hours drive from Munich. The Italian border via the Brenner Pass is about 1.3 hours from Munich. The tolls going down(Autrian autobahn pass, Brenner Bridges and tunnels and then he Autostrada) will be about 50 euros each way!

Also... August 18th is the Italians national birthday. Its kind of like our 4th of July. So... the country is PACKED on that day. I know you said Sept... but I just thought I would give you a heads up.

When you drive down to Venice... DO NOT drive down the Salzburg way, thru Udine and down that way. I would HIGHLY reccomend you to drive down thru Innsbruck and GardaSee on the Autostrda A1. Driving this way you go down via the Brenner (Brenno) Pass. It is MUCH nicer drive. When you drive down via Salzburg thru Udine... it is a really boring and LONG drive.

IF you wanted to you could also head over to Marenello to go visit Ferrari Musuem.

Actually there is a new website promoting the Italian car inductry and small auto & motorcycle museums. www.motorvalley.com

In Italy they also have MANY B&B's run on wine farms. It would be also a very nice detour for your stay in Italy. Just google: Agritourism and the city or area where you want to visit.

Here is a website to find B&B's in Tuscany.

http://www.tuscany.net/amina/

I would also say to stay a night or two down South in Germany or Austria. It is VERY nice in and around the Garmisch area or near the Neuschwanstein Castle.

http://www.neuschwanstein.de/

YOU must get there very early to buy your tickets to get inside the Castle. There are literally ppl arriving there ALL day long via buses. This place is such a tourist trap - but everyone wants to come here! lol I would say to stay the night near the castle the night before.


Any other Q's - just ask.


Dackel

[Two24Seven]

Thanks for the responses guys!

theshiningnova: According to the materials posted on the U.S. European Delivery homepage, the Welt is open for customer deliveries Monday-Saturday between 7:30am to 4:00pm. You can find this info in the European Delivery Program Guide. I have already received my date confirmation from the European Delivery office so I will assume that this information is accurate. By LMB I meant Le Mans Blue.

m_thompson: Thanks for the link. I have found the forums and wiki over at Bimmerfest to be a fantastic resource. (I actually posted my itinerary there as well).

Dackel: I've spent a great deal of time digging through your albums...very inspiring! I was looking for some suggestions for parking near Venice, but your advice sounds like a great alternative. Thanks for the suggestions. As far as the drive down to Venice, we already have the hotel booked in Salzburg so that part is locked in, but I got what seems to be a good suggestion on Bimmerfest to hit the Grossglockner High Alpine Road on the way down to liven things up. We're thinking we may go that route. Any suggestions for lodging near Neuschwanstein?

[Dackelone]

Here are some more links for planning your ED trip...

You can not go wrong with a side trip to the Gross Glockner Pass – Hoch Strasse! Also in Gmund there is a nice (small) private Porsche museum (Helmut Pfeifhofer - www.porschemuseum.at ) and just down the street is the old original saw mill werk where Porsche built the first 48 gmund (356)coupes.

Gross Glockner Pass – Hoch Strasse

http://www.1addicts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=406468


When I drove down to Gmund I stayed a few villages away in town of Rennweg at Gasthof Post (hotel).

http://www.gasthofpost-rennweg.at/

Click on the lower right of the screen(above web link page): Weiter (means next in German) The hotel was really cheap (35 euros) but really clean and nice! Such a nice area too.

As for hotels in the Neuschwanstein area - I always stayed kind of out of that area. But just driving down there and finding a hotel or gasthaus should be not problem. Even without reservations. When traveling without a hotel reservation... just remember that these small hotels are mostly family run and close up after 9pm or so. I always try to find a hotel by 8pm for that night. Most Hotels will give you a key to the hotel room - which also doubles as the key to the front of the hotel's door!

I like Garmisch area alot. Also near Garmisch is Mittenwald (where the violins are made). I have stayed at the Alte Post Hotel in Mittenwald (actually there are a bunch of Alte Post Hotels thru out Germany - this goes back to the old stage couch days of mail delivery!) before. It is a nice, clean and not too expensive hotel.

http://www.posthotel-mittenwald.de/

Mittenwald is about a half hours drive from Fussen. Last time I drove from Mittenwald down thru Austria and back up to Fussen on the "Fernpass Strasse B179". Its about an hours drive but man was it nice!

http://maps.google.de/maps?q=Neuschw...N&hl=de&tab=wl


Let me know what you think.

Dackel

[m_thompson]

Originally Posted by Two24Seven

Thursday - Any suggestions on lodging near Neuschwanstein?

Most ED people stay at the Hotel Müller in Hohenschwangau. See: http://www.hotelmueller.com/

The traffic in Hohenschwangau is insane until about 6:00 PM. By then most of the tour buses and tourists have left and the place is quiet and deserted, and you can actually park right next to the hotel. We had a nice dinner on the patio and walked around the town to get our bearings. Not much there other than the castles.

We reserved our castle tours in advance so we could get early times. The hotel manager picked up our tickets while we had breakfast. We finished the tours by noon, had lunch at the hotel and were on our way.

[Dackelone]

One other thing... I often use Google Maps to find myself a nice hotel. What I do is enter the city's name... then pull up that map. THEN... type in the word HOTELS into the search window, Google Maps will then show you every hotel in that area as a red dot. You can then click on their websites for more info and photos.

That Hotel Mueller place looks nice - but it is right there by the Castle... on the hill that leads up to the Schloss... and it is PACKED with tourists. You will have all the tour buses and people walking all around you. For me... I prefer a quiet hotel off the beaten path. I am sure you could find a nice decent hotel in that area (15min drive) for maybe 1/3 the price of Hotel Mueller. Then again... your only in Germany once.

[Dackelone]

Two24Seven - you probably have seen my photos of the Ferrari Museum in Maranello. But just incase you haven't here is the link:

http://www.1addicts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=492605


Also... their is a nice Italian website that has all of the famous Italian car museums and flavors of Italy in one place. Take a look at this website. They even have hotel packages for the various auto museums like Ferarri, Pagani, Maseratti, Lambo, ect...

www.motorvalley.com


Dackel