harvey

We are fairly lazy tourists and enjoy the ambience as much as anything but like not to miss the main tourist attractions. This will be our first trip except my wife drove around in Germany 35 years ago.

This is my first attempt at an itinerary and I would appreciate any suggestions. We want to leave the car in Germany because from what I have seen the cost doubles if you leave it in Austria.Anyway arriving and departing from the large cities is so easy on a train.

We plan on leaving for Germany on October 5th.

Day 1. Fly into Frankfurt on United via IAD. Train to Bacharach. Rest. Check out the town. Sleep in Bachrach.

Day 2. Boat Bacharach to St Goar and back. Maybe train back. Sleep in Bachrach.

Day 3. Train to Koblenz. Get car. Drove around Mosel. Burg Eltz. Sleep in Cochem or return to Bachrach.

Day 4. Drive to Baden-Baden. Check out town. Tour Casino. Sleep Baden-Baden.

Day 5. Drive to Freiburg, Fussen, Reutte. Sleep Reutte.

Day 6. Check out Castles. Sleep Reutte.

Day 7. Drive Romantic Road to Rothenburg or Wurtzburg. Sleep Rothenburg.

Day 8. Checkout areas of interest on Romatic Road. Sleep Rothenburg.

Day 9. Perhaps drive to Nurnburg. See Nazi Documentation Center. Get rid of car. Sleep
Nurnburg.

Day 10. Train to Munich. Sleep Munich.

Day 11. Munich. Sleep Munich.

Day 12. Train to Salzburg. Sleep Salzburg.

Day 13. Salzburg. Sleep Salzburg.

Day 14. Train to Vienna. Sleep Vienna.

Days 15, 16, and 17. Vienna. Sleep Vienna.

Day 18. Fly back to US via Toronto on Air Canada.

Any suggestions or comments or criticism would be much appreciated.

TexasAggie

Honestly it is a lot of moving around for the length of the trip. Do you really want to be switching hotels every night or every other night? Some people do fine with this, for most it seems better to settle in for at least 2 to 3 night stays (and do daytrips to nearby sights if necessary).

tcreath

I agree with TexasAggie. Its an awful lot of driving. I don't know if you've checked out driving distances or not, but the drive from Bacharach to Baden Baden and from Baden Baden to Fussen are both fairly long drives.

Nuremburg is a fantastic town but to cut down on the one-nighters, I would spend a morning or afternoon there and then train down to Munich for the night.

Tracy

kwnomade

You're really going to be busy! We just returned from Germany (our 3rd time) and Austria (our 1st). We spent 4 days each in Munich, Salzburg and Vienna. It's a straight shot by rail between the 3. 4 days was perfect to see everything in MUC and SZB and enough to meet some locals. 4 days was only enough to get oriented in Vienna and we had a German friend with us to help. From Vienna we took a train to Dresden via Prague, (another straight shot). Dresden can connect you to Leipsic and Frankfurt, or Berlin. Our friends tell us Nurnburg is beautiful and Passau on the Danube is to be seen too. You could perhaps drop the car there too. Nurnburg is a very large rail hub but the trip to Munich is about 6 hours. Going from here to Vienna would work better. The ICE train runs from Nurnburg to Vienna via Linz. You could then catch another ICE from Vienna to Munich via Salzburg. Don't underestimate Salzburg. It's very crowded during the day but really a jewel at night and worth a couple days. Good luck, we have always preferred to stay in a city long enough to enjoy it a little. We're planning our next trip to Vienna again and then on to Budapest.

tcreath

I also wanted to mention that it doesn't seem to make much sense to drive back up north to Rothenburg (at 260 km) from Reutte when its only 133 km to get from Reutte to Munich and you will be headed there anyways. If you look at a map you seem to be headed all over the place. I would try to keep the general backtracking to a minimum to save time. Check out viamichelin.com for driving directions/maps.

By looking at the map, it almost seems that skipping Rothenburg and Nuremburg, or Bacharach and Baden Baden, would be easiest for this trip, as it would have you moving in one general direction. You may want to consider looking into the areas between Reutte and Munich or perhaps daytrips from Salzburg (such as the Salzkammergut). The whole region is gorgeous and you will see some amazing scenery.

Good luck!
Tracy

BTilke

Today's NYTimes has an interesting article on how Baden-Baden is regaining a place for the hip (as opposed to the hip replacement) crowd. I know some people who've only been to BB years ago tend to dismiss it as boring, but it's done a lot in the past few years to update its image without losing its elegance.

http://travel2.nytimes.com/2006/07/0...59&ei=5070

Mimar

I generally like your itinerary. You are minimizing hotel changes. And I'm really glad you're going to the Mosel. It was the highlight of our trip.

I'd like to see another day in Salzburg, which I'd use to see something of the Salzkammergut, maybe on a bus tour.

I assume by the castles you mean Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau. So why are you staying in Reutte? A disciple of Rick Steves? You have to buy a vignette to drive in Austria. It seems a waste of money just for this little dip over the border. If it's only the castles you want to see, stay in Hohenschwangau itself.

Be sure to check out Wieskirche just north of the castles.