Suggestions for family holiday in Bavaria

[Curlewwoohoo]

Hello, just doing some research into a potential holiday to the Black forest / Bavaria area in Germany in the summer. Would love to hear any recommendations or experiences! Our kids are primary school aged. We'd like nature, scenery, history, architecture, good food. AI suggests flying to Munich, hiring a car and staying in Füssen, visiting gorges, medieval towns and castles. Would love to hear from real people.

We included Fussen in a holiday in 2023.
Neuschwanstein Castle and Hohenschwangau Castle are both worth visiting. We were advised to leave the car at our hotel and get the public bus because parking can be tricky. Fussen itself is beautiful. We stayed in Schwangau just outside Fussen and the views of the castles were spectacular.

Füssen is a great base for exploring. The town is lovely. Neuschwanstein is amazing but be prepared for it to be really busy as it’s one of the main tourist attractions in Germany. There are views of the castle from the cable car that goes to the top of the mountain nearby. There’s a great forest discovery trail in Füssen too - don’t miss the tunnel under the road with a stream running through it with stepping stones! The area also has lots of options for swimming in lakes, bike rides and walking. I can definitely recommend a trip to the castle ruins at Eisenberg, as well as the Falkenstein near pfronten. Pfronten has loads of themed playgrounds too. The kids can also collect stamps at the mountain huts then show them at the tourist information and get a badge. This was in Pfronten but I think lots of other towns might do something similar.
The region is very family oriented. There’s even a family trail on the Breitenberg where you can search for real gem stones in the sandpit at the end!

https://www.highline179.tirol/

This is just over the border in Austria but we enjoyed it last year. Two mountain top ruins and an amazing suspension bridge

The tickets to Neuschwanstein sell out so you will need to book well in advance

We stayed in Garmisch Partenkirchen for 10 days last summer. Was a fantastic base for exploring the area. We hired a car from Munich and found this pretty straightforward. We enjoyed a day at the Zugspitz, Lake Eibsee, spent a day at a local Lido, took train to Innsbruck and to Munich for day. Also went to a mountain coaster and a day in Fussen. Would highly recommend

Definitely stay in the Fussen area, we stayed walking distance from the castles. We had a horse and carriage ride as part of our package as well as tours of 2 castles and half board. We also went for walks and they had a go on the summer bob. It’s pretty touristy so I would recommend 3 nights max then head to somewhere else. We drove from the U.K., very doable, first night in Strasbourg, then Rust for europa parc, then Fussen then Munich then Bonn then Aachen.