Austrian hotelier saves the day, and has best place, in our mostly Bavarian holiday

If your ideal hotel is all about old-world charm and traditional interiors, you're going to have a challenge in Bavaria. I find it ironic that a people who insisted on re-constructing their war-bombed cities back to renaissance, baroque and neo-classical are all about stripped-back modernity in their guest accommodation.  Whether reasonably priced or high
end, you'll probably find a similar style wherever you go:  lots of simple pedestal beds with a duvet-topped mattress upon them, wooden floors and unadorned furniture with sleek lines.

Bloberger Hof

The good news: the Germans and Austrians take their bedding very seriously. We didn't have a bad night's sleep.  This was the main reason we avoided the airbnb/apartment rental option; especially in Munich where our eight-night stay would have made it cost effective. The beds have let us down on a few of our past holidays, and we didn't want to risk it.  We chose well. The quality of mattresses, sheets, pillows and duvets was consistently excellent.

I'd happily return to -- and recommend -- four of our five hotels, though without the significant discount we enjoyed thanks to my husband's frequent guest programme with the Accor chain I think we'd probably question such a big expenditure in Munich.

Here, in order of preference from best to worst, is a roundup of hotels from our trip through southern Bavaria, Salzburg and Munich.

Bloberger Hof (Salzburg)
The gem of the trip, this family-owned Alpine chalet on the outskirts of Salzburg combines classic Tyrolean architecture with a superb location, mountain views, a great restaurant and staff who bent over backwards to make our visit wonderful. By the end of dinner the first night, we discovered that Bloberger Hof is a top pick in Rick Steve's guide to the region, and most guests had found the place through that dependable source.  We'd picked it based on location. Of three days in the area, we planned two to the west of Salzburg, making this better than a town centre location. Turns out the bus at the end of the lane ran right into central Salzburg in about 20 minutes. There are no restaurants or services within walking distance, but that really doesn't matter because the restaurant here is so good. (You'll also be treated to a hearty breakfast every morning.)

Just about everyone eats in here. Between two meals a day, a relatively small dining room and a mostly British or American clientele, you inevitably end up chatting. Our two nights dining in (theatre on a third made returning for food impossible) felt a bit like a big dinner party, with everyone sharing tips on local sightseeing.  This genial atmosphere was one of many reasons I could have very happily stayed for more nights.

The lovely Sylvia earned our affection early on by upgrading us to one of their apartments on the top floor, complete with a kitchen, a second bedroom and a geranium-lined balcony with views to Hohensalzburg Castle. It was far more space than we needed, and we never touched the kitchen, but I immediately put it on possible return list for a future girls' trip. Five days later she saved our whole holiday, when she rescued the passports we'd left behind and sent them to Munich by registered mail. Due to the immigration crisis the government had resumed passport checks at the border just after we crossed back into Germany, so we couldn't have returned to get them ourselves even if we'd wanted to take the time.  Sylvia and the Austrian Postal Service were the heroes of our holiday.

Sofitel Munich Bayerpost (Munich)
Within the neo-classical exterior of the old central post office you'll find a ruthlessly modern hotel clearly striving for a hip boutique appeal. Despite the fact its cost and chain affiliation put it clearly in the high-end business hotel category.  The lobby was probably a bit too austere, black and night-clubish for me ... I detested the celebrities as cartoons modern art ... and the public spaces were given over to corporate events for many evenings.   the rooms were marvellously luxurious and the ridiculously oversized bed a miracle of comfort.  This is one of those rooms designed so the bathroom and sleeping area flow as one space, with only a glass wall separating the large tub, and shower and toilet beyond, from the bedroom.  You can slide glass doors and lower blinds to create bathroom privacy.  It's a good thing the rooms are so great, because all that sharp modernity means there are no comfortable, cozy places to relax outside your room.  The notable exception is the pool; one of the best I've been to in a hotel.  It has a grotto feel about it, lined in black tiles and illuminated with blue light from beneath the water.  There's rectangular pool on one side and a watery passageway on the other that spirals into an oval pool with jacuzzi jets. King Ludwig would have approved.

The Sofitel Munich's grotto-like pool

We ate at the restaurant the first night, when we were too exhausted to wander out, but never repeated that choice. Food and drink here is clearly priced for people on expense accounts; service was great, food good but unexceptional. Breakfast was extra and a shocking fee; we brought stuff in or headed to nearby Starbucks and the like (the in-room Nespresso machine helped on that front.). These days I realise that one of the things you're paying for at his end of the cost spectrum is the concierge team, and they did a fabulous job. They magically procured a Michelin star restaurant table for our anniversary at limited notice, gave great advice on where to catch the Oktoberfest parade and were at the receiving end of our passport adventure, ready to help us work with the British consulate if the documents hadn't arrived.

The location next to the train station has its pros and cons.  Great for day trips, hopping on public transport and getting to the train station. A 15-minute walk got us to the city centre, about the same to the Oktoberfest grounds. But train stations are never the most salubrious places.  While the government was doing a great job whisking the Syrian refugees through, immigrants from earlier arrivals ... primarily packs of young men ... congregate on streets throughout the area, and there's a fair representation of homeless people. All are more noticeable at night when the commuters have ceased to flow. I was fine walking through the area with my husband but would have been jittery at night if a woman alone.

Stadthotel und Restaurant Convikt Dillingen an der Donau
In the unlikely event you find yourself a tourist here, this is a fine option.  This historic building was once part of one of the many religious communities that congregated here in the Jesuit heyday.  It's just one block over from the cathedral, two from the main street, so ideal for sightseeing. Perhaps evoking monastic traditions a bit too much ... I found the rooms a bit too sparse and lacking in comfortable chairs. There wasn't a lounge downstairs, either, so definitely not a place to do much more than sleep. I would not have wanted to spend more than our one night here.

Great restaurant, though. Best schnitzel of the trip, a beautiful desert, good advice on German wines and a nice touch with presentation that dressed up traditional fair and pushed it to a more gourmet place. While not worth a special trip to dine here, the quality of the restaurant was definitely the best feature of the hotel.

Novotel Munich Airport (Munich)
In order to maximise our holiday time, we flew out after work on Friday so we'd be on the ground and ready for action first thing Saturday. An airport hotel makes that strategy easy; we were checked in, hire car parked in the secure lot and settled at the bar for a late dinner within 90 minutes of touching down. There's German efficiency for you!

Purpose-built and modern, it's a typical airport hotel ... the only truly exceptional feature being a more complicated than usual security key system in the lift that made getting to our room the first couple of times a bit of a challenge.  Another upgrade here and free drinks upon arrival thanks to my husband's Club Accor status. Of the hotel programmes I'm familiar with, this one is a stand-out.

Hotel-Pension Neuschwanstein (Schwangau)
The hotel was cheap (in comparison to other places we stayed on the trip), clean and located just a five-minute drive from the No. 1 tourist attraction in Germany: Neuschwanstein. We booked well in advance and got a room with a substantial balcony and views direct to the castle.  But the decor was tired and the rooms furnished with little thought. I'd hoped for the personal touch which often comes with small hotels, but staff was curiously absent.  We only ever saw a rather dour older man and a maid who ducked into rooms whenever we came across her.  Nobody engaged us in conversation or offered any help. I assumed this was because our host couldn't speak much English, but that would be a rare thing in the tourist industry here.

There's no real lobby or welcoming public spaces. Breakfast the first morning was in a curiously silent, characterless room straight out of the 1970s. Unlike Bloberger Hof, there were few guests and people didn't talk to each other.  It was all a bit creepy.  The second morning they served breakfast in a beautiful dining room with expansive windows looking over the valley to Neuschwanstein.  Why this room wasn't used for breakfast every morning, and opened to guests regularly ... much less why they didn't offer dinners here ... is a mystery.  Overall, a place with great potential, but desperately in need of a makeover and friendlier management. In a region swamped with hotels, I felt I should have worked harder, or paid a little more, to find something nicer.