Country Roads of Bavaria, Switzerland & Austria

Choose your setting for a Dine-Around evening from a selection of restaurants in Innsbruck. Enjoy a three-course dinner with drinks while experiencing the Tyrolean capital through its dining scene.

Innsbruck’s restaurants offer a convivial way to spend an evening in a city framed by Alpine peaks. The choice of venue gives this included experience a personal touch, while the hosted dinner makes it more than an ordinary meal between sightseeing visits.

• 6 Dinner (D)
• 11 Breakfast (B)

• See Feldherrnhalle in the Odeonsplatz, Palace of the Dukes of Wittelsbach, English Garden, Hofbräuhaus and Marienplatz in Munich • the church featured in ‘The Sound of Music’ in Mondsee • Hofburg Imperial Residence and Opera House in Vienna • Old Town, Imperial Palace and Golden Roof in Innsbruck • St. Moritz • Lion Monument and Chapel Bridge in Lucerne.

• Salzburg: Visit the house where Mozart was born in 1756. Enjoy a pianoforte demonstration and examine letters, memorabilia, and musical instruments of the great composer, plus a fascinating collection of portraits.

Insight Vacations

• Hand sanitizer is freely available on board for you to use throughout the day.

Meet your Travel Director and fellow travellers over a drink and dinner at a local restaurant in Vienna. Wine accompanies the meal, creating a relaxed setting for conversation and introductions.

Vienna’s restaurant culture offers a welcoming introduction to the Austrian capital, where dining has long been part of the city’s social life. This hosted evening is an opportunity to settle in and share the anticipation of the journey.

Explore Schonbrunn Palace on a private tour with a Local Expert, visiting the grand rooms and formal gardens of the Habsburgs’ former summer residence. See the Hall of Mirrors, where Mozart performed as a child, and the Great Gallery, once a setting for court functions.

Gilded Rococo decoration, frescoed ceilings and the private apartments of Emperor Franz Joseph and Empress Elisabeth reveal both the spectacle and daily rituals of imperial life.

Travel along Vienna’s Ring Road with your Travel Director to view the Hofburg Imperial Residence, Parliament Building, State Opera House and Karlskirche. This orientation brings the capital’s most prominent civic and cultural landmarks together in one revealing circuit.

The broad boulevard traces the line of Vienna’s former city walls. Its monumental buildings speak to the ambitions of the Habsburg era and the enduring importance of music, government and public life in the city.

Visit Melk Abbey, the commanding Benedictine monastery overlooking the Danube in Austria’s Wachau region. Discover a religious community where monks have lived and worked since 1089, within a landmark renowned for its Baroque architecture.

The abbey’s hilltop position gives it a striking presence above the town and river. Its long scholarly and spiritual tradition offers a perspective on Austrian heritage that reaches far beyond the grandeur of its 18th-century buildings.

Visit Basilica St Michael in the lakeside Austrian town of Mondsee. Film enthusiasts may recognise its interior as the setting for the wedding scene in The Sound of Music, giving this historic church a distinctive place in cinematic memory.

The basilica’s ornate interior also tells a story older than the film: it stands on a site associated with a Benedictine abbey founded in the eighth century. The visit connects local religious heritage with one of Austria’s best-known screen locations.

Explore Salzburg with a Local Expert, visiting the formal gardens of Mirabell Palace and Residenzplatz while seeing the cathedral and fortress that dominate the Old Town. The gardens and square also feature in The Sound of Music.

Salzburg’s compact historic centre brings together princely architecture, church towers and streets shaped by its centuries as an independent ecclesiastical city. Look out for Getreidegasse, the lively shopping street associated with its most famous native, Mozart.

Step inside Mozart’s birthplace on Salzburg’s Getreidegasse, where the composer was born in 1756. Examine letters, portraits, memorabilia and musical instruments, and enjoy a pianoforte demonstration that brings the sound of his era into focus.

The exhibits offer a personal view of Mozart beyond the concert hall, tracing his family life and early talent in the city where he grew up. The demonstration makes this a particularly engaging visit for music lovers.

Experience farm-to-table dining during your stay in Salzburg, with a hosted meal centred on a connection to local food and its origins. It is a chance to enjoy Austrian hospitality through a dining experience rather than a routine restaurant stop.

Salzburg sits between Alpine farming country and a city with deep culinary traditions. The meal offers a more grounded taste of the region, inviting you to consider the ingredients and producers behind what appears on the table.

Cross Lake Chiemsee by boat to visit Herrenchiemsee Palace, King Ludwig II’s lavish island homage to Versailles. Explore the palace and its gardens, and stop at nearby Fraueninsel, home to a Benedictine convent with eighth-century origins.

Built in the late 19th century, Herrenchiemsee expresses Ludwig’s fascination with absolute monarchy through opulent rooms, ornate fountains and a Hall of Mirrors longer than its French inspiration. The lake crossing frames the palace against Bavaria’s Alpine scenery.

Join a traditional Bavarian beer hall evening in Munich with your Travel Director and fellow travellers. Share dinner in a lively local setting associated with the city’s long-standing beer culture.

Munich’s beer halls are communal gathering places, not simply places to drink. Their convivial tables and hearty regional food make this hosted evening a way to encounter a recognisable part of Bavarian social life, in the city that hosts Oktoberfest.

Discover Munich’s central landmarks on an orientation that takes in the university, Victory Arch and Marienplatz. At the square, see the New Town Hall, where crowds gather to watch the figures of its famous Glockenspiel.

The route introduces Munich as both Bavaria’s historic capital and a living university city. Monumental avenues contrast with the busy heart of the Old Town, helping you place the city’s royal heritage and everyday rhythms in context.

Choose to visit the Munich Residenz, the former city palace of Bavaria’s Wittelsbach rulers. Explore a royal complex whose richly decorated interiors reflect centuries of changing tastes, political power and court ceremony.

The Residenz grew from a modest medieval residence into Germany’s largest inner-city palace. This included Insight Choice is an alternative to the Munich culinary walking tour, suited to travellers who want a closer look at the city’s dynastic history.

Choose a culinary walking tour through central Munich with a Local Expert. Explore the city on foot through the lens of its food culture, gaining insight into the flavours and traditions that shape Bavarian dining.

This included Insight Choice offers a different perspective on Munich’s streets and gathering places. It is an alternative to visiting the Residenz, making it a good fit for travellers who prefer to discover a destination through its culinary life.

Visit Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site with a Local Expert for a considered encounter with one of the defining histories of the 20th century. Take time to reflect on the people imprisoned here and the importance of preserving the site.

Dachau opened in 1933 and became a model for the Nazi concentration camp system. Guided-tour participants must be at least 14; younger guests may visit independently when accompanied by an adult.

Visit Neuschwanstein Castle with a local historian, subject to availability. Walk through the extravagantly decorated rooms of King Ludwig II’s mountain retreat, including the Throne Room, and take in views across the Bavarian Alpine landscape.

Built in the 19th century, the castle draws on medieval legend rather than medieval construction. Its turrets and dramatic hilltop setting helped make it the archetypal fairy-tale castle and a widely recognised inspiration for fantasy architecture.

Explore Oberammergau, the Bavarian village known for its Passion Play, a tradition dating to 1634. See the theatre associated with the production and admire the colourful painted facades of its Alpine houses.

The play has been performed by local residents for generations and remains central to the village’s identity. Oberammergau’s decorative house paintings, known as Luftlmalerei, add another layer of regional craftsmanship to a visit rooted in community tradition.

Walk Innsbruck’s Old Town with a Local Expert to see centuries-old houses, the Imperial Palace and the Golden Roof. Hear how the city developed at a meeting point of Alpine routes while taking in its Gothic and Baroque architecture.

The Golden Roof’s gilded copper tiles recall Emperor Maximilian I, who made Innsbruck an important centre of Habsburg power. Mountain slopes rise close behind the historic streets, giving the Tyrolean capital its distinctive blend of urban heritage and Alpine setting.

Visit Innsbruck’s Bergisel Ski Jump and meet a local ski jumper who shares an athlete’s perspective on the sport. Weather permitting, watch a demonstration jump against a backdrop of mountains and the city below.

Bergisel is closely linked to Innsbruck’s winter-sports identity and has hosted major ski-jumping competitions. Seeing the steep run-in at close range gives a vivid sense of the precision and nerve required, while the elevated setting opens up broad views across the valley.

Discover St. Moritz and take in its elegant spa quarter, clear mountain air and glacial lake. This Swiss resort offers a chance to experience the scenery and atmosphere that have drawn visitors to the Engadine for generations.

St. Moritz helped establish Alpine winter tourism in the 19th century and has hosted the Winter Olympics twice. Its polished streets and lakeside setting reveal the contrast at the heart of the resort: high-altitude glamour surrounded by rugged mountain landscapes.

Ride a regional train along the Glacier Express route through the Swiss Alps. Watch stone-built villages, mountain meadows and high valleys pass the windows as the railway curves through tunnels and across striking viaducts, including the Landwasser Viaduct.

This hydroelectric-powered rail journey reveals why Alpine railway engineering is celebrated in its own right. The looping track gains height through difficult terrain, offering changing views that would be hard to appreciate from the road.

See Lucerne’s Lion Monument with your Travel Director and discover the lakeside city’s best-known historic sights, including the Chapel Bridge and Jesuit Church. The covered wooden bridge and its painted gables are enduring symbols of Lucerne’s Old Town.

Carved into a limestone cliff, the wounded lion commemorates Swiss Guards killed during the French Revolution. Its quiet setting offers a moment of reflection, while the nearby riverfront and medieval architecture reveal a different, livelier side of the city.

Taste seasonal juice at a renovated former Capuchin monastery in Stans. Learn about its production using sustainably grown crops from the Alpine region as part of a MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® experience.

The setting links a historic community site with contemporary approaches to local food production. Your visit directly supports responsible consumption and production, offering a small but tangible connection to the people and practices behind the region’s ingredients.

Ascend Mount Stanserhorn by railway and panoramic open-top cable car for sweeping views over Lake Lucerne and the surrounding Alps. At the summit, enjoy dinner and a glass of sparkling wine in the slowly rotating Drehrestaurant Rondorama.

The revolving dining room changes your mountain outlook throughout the meal without leaving your seat. On a clear day, the panorama can stretch towards France’s Alsace region and Germany’s Black Forest, making the scenery an integral part of the evening.

Consider a train journey over the Bernina Pass during your time in St. Moritz. This optional Alpine rail experience offers a closer view of the high Engadine landscape, with mountain scenery unfolding as the train climbs towards the pass.

The Bernina railway is celebrated for carrying passengers through dramatic terrain without a rack-and-pinion system. This excursion is at additional cost and bookable on tour; ask your Travel Director about the available journey and arrangements.

• Business class coach with extended leg room
• Top-rated dining, from farm-to-table to local restaurants
• 4 & 5-star stays