TXgalinGA

I'm in the middle of planning a v. last minute trip to A'dam and Germany- leaving *next* Thursday! We have 13-14 days. Here is the very rough plan: Fly into A'dam, spend 3-4 days.
Rent a car and drive to Germany- where?
Is Baden-Baden worth the visit? The baths?
Rothenburg and the Romantic Road? How many days should we plan?
The Rhine Vally is a must. We would love to see castles (maybe even stay in one!!), we enjoy good food and wine.
Eventually we will end up in Munich, ditch the car, and take a day trip to Salzburg (Is Salzburg close enough for a day trip or should we stay 1 night?) and Dachau via train. Then back to Munich to fly home. Suggestions? Recs? We are looking for budget hotels & B&Bs, not too many splurges unless it's on tours, food, etc.

Last question- where to start when reserving a car?
Thanks!!! Lauren

Betsy

Go to www.gemut.com to find the 800 number to phone for car rentals. Shut down your computer this minute and phone the number. You'll probably reach Andrew Bestor, who uses AutoEurope. He will give you a quote, but you should compare it with AutoEurope directly by phoning their 800 number, available on their website at www.autoeurope.com. The longer you wait to make your car rez, the fewer choices you will have. To avoid a hefty fee for picking up in one country and dropping off in another, you may want to train to your first German locale and pick up the car there.

aggiemom

Hey Lauren - My mom and I came back last month from 8 nights in A'dam/Germany. We used a railpass and loved the convenience of it, and the trains are very comfortable, although a car would have been better in some of the small Mosel and Rhine towns.

We took a Grey Line tour from Munich to Salzburg/Lake District for the day and it was magnificent, the scenery, that is. The tour director was just not very effective, we couldn't hear her, she was very sweet but confused. If I had to do it over I would definitely spend more time in the Salzburg area. Just beautiful. We fell in love with St. Wolfgang and the lake there. It took about 1-1/2 hrs to get to Salzburg from Munich by bus. I believe it cost 41 € per person. Dachau can easily be done by train.

We stayed in relatively expensive hotels so i don't have recommendations there for you. The cheapest one was 85 € per night including breakfast in Beilstein, Germany on the Mosel - Hotel Haus Lipmann. Lovely area and lovely small hotel and service. Would love to have stayed a week. Spent a night in Rothenburg - highly recommend visiting. There are many other small towns on the Romantic Road that other posters have recommended and I would second that.

TXgalinGA

Thanks! We're going to take a train from A'dam to Colonge and pick up our car there. Then we will make our way to Munich- any thought as to how many days we will need to get there? We're thinking about 6....

rex

From my reply to your other thread...

Most of what I know that is relevant to this route is here:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34490362

Best wishes,

Rex

Intrepid1

Avoid the possible (very probable???) drop-off charges for the rental car by hopping on a train (a fast ICE) from A-Dam to Cologne as Betsy and others have suggested and rent the car THERE..then drive upriver.

AisleSeat

After Amsterdam I would include the Rhine/Mosel area then a night or two in Rothenburg. From there I would drive to Fussen to see the castles and then loop through Oberammergau and Bretschgaden to Salzburg for a night or two, then to Munich where you can drop your car because the public tranportation is good, traffic is tough and parking is like any big city, impossible.

aggiemom

TX - Just a heads up - you will need to make a reservation (esp. if you travel first class) at Centraal Station A'dam before you go to Koln, preferably the day before you go. We went two hours before our "hoped for" trip to Koln and that train was fully booked. We had to wait two more hours for the next train.