Munich, Salzburg, Vienna

Hi lawless, welcome to Fodors!

I think we need a little bit more input or clarification re. your itinerary:

Does 2-3 cities and a quaint village are meant additive, i.e. you think about moving around to 3-4 places eventually? That may be a bit much for 10-12 days.
But you'd have many such villages (more or less quaint) in easy reach with public transport from, say, Munich.

If you want variety in scenery, the typical front range tourist trail from Munich to Vienna via Salzburg may be a bit too much of the same.

In fall, the Rhine or Mosel valleys are nice alternatives (especially when the grapes get picked and the new wine is sampled). The Mosel valley is less overrun than the Rhine, but also harder to get to and from with a limited time budget. The Rhine valley has also all the castles and typical scenery you want as is in each reach from Frankfurt.

If you want more real life than Disneyland-on-the-Rhine then a combo with Berlin included will offer you a bigger variety of impressions. Maybe combined with Munich and Vienna.

Oktoberfest will be from Sep 21st till Oct 6th. If you must travel within these dates, you should indeed avoid Munich. Hotel prices are a bad joke during those weeks.

Travelwise you may want to specify what travel time in between your destinations is still okay for you.
Germany is not that small, so you need 5-6 hrs by train from Berlin to Munich. Or 3-4hrs door-to-door by plane (the actual flight time is just 1 hour, of course). And 4 hrs from Munich to Vienna by train.

If you wanted to narrow it down to two locations, you could do Berlin and Munich. And save the quaintness for day trips from Munich, also to Salzburg if you wanted.

For a quaint village, I suggest Igls near Innsbruck. It is easily reachable with urban bus, it is near a city but still retains the village atmosphere. - But it makes sense if you are travelling in early fall, September or the first half of October. If you go later than that cities make more sense.
A possible alternative could be Garmisch (a city, but not a large one and with a village feel) but if you are not driving Innsbruck seems to be easier.

Hi L,

I agree with BT,

>Munich, Salzburg, Vienna<

Fly into M - 4 nites
3 nites in S
4 nites in V.

Enjoy your visit.