London, Innsbruck, Salzburg, Munich

I would highly recommend checking out the Ice Cave by Salzburg. There's also the Salt Mines.

We did the Sound of Music bike tour and I thought it was a good way to see the city and some parts you wouldn't normally see.

How are you getting around? I'd recommend a car rental in the Alps it will really help

Debating car rental. We were primarily getting around by train.

Private car/driver for exploring outside of Salzburg is a good option. Ours was through the hotel so I don't remember what company, but it was basically a local guy from one of the alpine towns who knows everything and just spends a full day driving you round in a 7 series.

Hallstatt is a highlight, but it's better if you can move from place to place easily (either you driving or someone else). Our driver timed the lighting with the stops for the best photographs, it was awesome. He knew pretty much everything from the various tours (third reich info, sound of music), but we appreciated not being tied to one of those themes specifically.

Good views from the fortress as well.

Driving that area is extremely easy. I would highly recommend a car rental, there's so much to see and do there outside of the cities. i would spend half your nights outside of the cities, there's some great small town B&bs and what not.

Munich: the Hofbrauhaus is a tourist Mecca—skip it except for a walk thru. Go instead to the Augustiner Keller or Zum Augustiner, where actual locals go to drink and eat.

The Viktualienmarkt area is fun, full of food shops and stalls, with a nearby Hacker-Pschorr beer halll/Restaurant, der Pschorr. Also worth a visit are Dallmayr, an incredible deli/speciality food store. The department store Manufactum is in the same general area and offers some interesting made in Germany items, with a focus on handmade and utility items, plus it has a bakery inside,

Munich has a very interesting museum on the Nazis rise to power, located on the site of the former party HQ. Worth a visit, esp as it examines the systematic undermining of freedom of the press and control of media as a key factor in the consolidation of power.

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Munich: the Hofbrauhaus is a tourist Mecca—skip it except for a walk thru. Go instead to the Augustiner Keller or Zum Augustiner, where actual locals go to drink and eat.

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Hofbrauhaus is still cool IMO, although I agree you have to go to others.

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Munich has a very interesting museum on the Nazis rise to power, located on the site of the former party HQ. Worth a visit, esp as it examines the systematic undermining of freedom of the press and control of media as a key factor in the consolidation of power.

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Is the "Documentation Center" or whatever it's called? We didn't get to go even though we had planned on it.

Yes...Documentation Center is the neutral name used rather than “museum”, so that it is clear that the past is not being glorified or celebrated, but is simply being documented. How the Germans deal with their awful recent past is very interesting. In Austria, specifically in Salzburg, we noticed bronze squares set into sidewalks. They’re called “stumbling blocks”, and each documents where a citizen was arrested or seized who ultimately perished at the hands of the Third Reich. Short text explains why the person was targeted (ie, labor activism, religion, political resistance, race, etc). Read more here: LINK

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