winnick

We need your help in finalizing an itinerary for September to Germany. We will be flying into and out of Frankfurt (using FF miles). We will have 14 days and need your opinion on these options as well as other suggestions. [We decided to skip Munich since we will be there during Octoberfest and do not want to pay the prices for hotels during that period.]

We really want to see the Rhine & Mosel valleys as well as Rothenburg and the Ludwig castles. We usually rent a car and stay local in an apartment to see an area in depth but realize we need to move around more to see the sites that are on our list. Do these itineraries look feasible or should we skip Fussen and concentrate on the Rhine/Mosel valley? We are also debating between car/train and tend to lean towards having a car to get around as it's easier with luggage.

We sure appreciate any help fellow Fodorites can offer:

Option 1:
Day 1: Leave US
Day 2-3: Arrive FRA and drive to Rhine Valley (Bacharach, Boppard, Rudesheim).
Day 4-6: Drive to Cochem for 3 nights
Day 7: Drive Cochem to Heidelberg
Day 8: Drive to Rothenburg for 2 nights
Day 9: Day trip from Rothenburg to Nuremberg
Day 10: Rothenburg to Fussen (stop at Dinkelsbuhl, Nordingen)
Day 11: Ludwig Castles and area
Day 12: Day trip to Mittenwald
Day 13: Train from Fussen to Frankfurt
Day 14: Fly to US

Option 2:
Day 1: Leave US
Day 2: Arrive FRA and drive/train to Wurzburg
Day 3: Wurzburg to Rothenburg
Day 4: Day trip from Rothenburg to Nuremberg
Day 5: Rothenberg to Fussen (stop at Dinkelsbuhl, Nordingen)
Day 6: Fussen : Ludwig castles
Day 7: Fussen to Heidelberg
Day 8: Heidelberg to Cochem
Day 9-10: Cochem
Day 11: Cochem to Bacharach
Day 12: Rhine Valley
Day 13: Bacharach to Frankfurt
Day 14: Fly home

pja1

Hi,

We did a similar itinerary (Option1) by car in Sept. '07. I've never been to Nurember, Heildelberg or Wurzburg, so I can't comment on these stops. Otherwise, Option 1 looks like a good plan.

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...ith-photos.cfm


Paul

winnick

Thanks for your input Paul.

Your pictures are fantastic. Love the colors in the leaves. You sure have been to Germany and area a lot. I am going to sit back now and read your trip report.

pja1

Hi again,
Thank you.

I made one misteake regarding the website of where we stayed in Valwig (Cochem).

www.hotel-rebenhof.com

We've traveled to Germany and Austria 7 times since '01 and have made prior trips in the early '90's.

We've been to Fuessen twice and Mittenwald 3 times, if you'd like any info on those places and/or things to see and do in those area's.

Paul

bigtyke

Depending the time your flight home is, you could take the train from Bacharach to the Frankfurt airport on the day you leave. Trains from Bacharach leave as early as 5:30 AM.

I like option 2 better

winnick

bigtype: Thanks for that info. We have an early morning flight at 10:30 but would rather stay in Bacharach than Frankfurt if we go that route.

Russ

"Do these itineraries look feasible or should we skip Fussen and concentrate on the Rhine/Mosel valley? We are also debating between car/train and tend to lean towards having a car to get around as it's easier with luggage."

Your trip is feasible. My concern for you is that you're investing a lot of travel dollars in long journeys and moving around so that you can be shoulder to shoulder with fellow international tourists doing the same thing. The "Romantic Road" and Füssen are vastly overrated and unjustifiably overrun by tourists because of the success of this particular theme-road marketing gimmick. There are a few nice places there but many others that are just as nice or nicer, places you are driving past.

If you like to "stay local in an apartment to see an area in depth", then Germany is perfect for that. Why not pick 3 spots and stay in each for 4-5 days?

You don't have to completely avoid the Romantic Road towns. Rothenburg is quite the amazing place, even with the throngs that go there. Würzburg's Residenz is amazing. Neither place is terribly far from Cochem, your first destination. But driving the whole RR all the way to Füssen for a 35-minute tour of Ludwig's "castle" Neuschwanstein (with the 5,998 others who visit N'stein in one day) is a bit much.

Germany has something like 30,000 castles and palaces spread around the country. Many of them are much closer to FRA.

I would look into one apartment for the Rhine/Mosel region, a second apartment for Franconia (Würzburg, Rothenburg, Nuremberg, and the awesome Bamberg, which is missing from your plan!) and another apartment in the Heidelberg area (probably not H'berg itself.)

Heidelberg lies on the "Castle Road", another theme route that is perhaps more impressive than the Romantic Road but far less overrun. You don't have to drive it either. But I'd suggest that you have a look at this page to gather some sightseeing ideas and a base town plan here instead of doing the RR. Bad Wimpfen is particularly fetching.

http://www.burgenstrasse.de/showpage...iteID=2&lang=2

If you decide not to do the car, daytrips by train from a well-chosen base town can be very reasonable. For example: stay in Cochem or Boppard and you can see nearly the whole Rhine/Mosel area for 40€ on a 3-day mini-group train pass:

http://www.vrminfo.de/en/tickets-and...eisure-ticket/

Rothenburg, Bamberg and Nuremberg are connected by rail on the "Tagesticket Plus" daypass - 16:20€ for two:

http://www.vgn.de/tickets/?Edition=en&p=1

bilboburgler

I think you are going to go with your road trip but one of the most wonderful hoidays I ever had was to bicycle ride from Trier to Koblenz along the Mosel. The ride has bike and ferry support most of the way along and I arranged the whole thing via Trier tourist office. The benefits of eating and drinking the local produce while seeing the lovely valley close up. We took 5 days but you can do just bits of it.

have a look at http://www.mybikeguide.co.uk/Mosel_Guide.php if you want to see more details

winnick

Russ,

Thank you so much for your insight. This is more in line with how we like to travel so really appreciate the suggestions. We will rework our itinerary based on your feedback. We'll post our new re-worked itinerary for your feecback shortly.

winnick

We have revised our itinerary as follows:
How does this sound? We arrive and depart FRA

Day 1-2: Rhine Valley
Day 3-4: Mosel Valley
Day 5-6: Heidelberg with side trip to Strasbourg
Day 7: Drive Castle Road, stop in Bad Wimpfen
Day 8-12: Stay in Rothenburg, day trips to Bamberg, Nuremberg, Wurzburg, Dinklesbuhl

Russ

You're back. That sounds about right. Strasbourg adds a new wrinkle. Bad Wimpfen is nice. Looks like you have 5 base towns.

I would use a single base for Rhine and Mosel. But perhaps you have some distant outings planned from each that I don't know about.

I'm not big on driving or parking within cities like Heidelberg, Nuremberg and Strasbourg, maybe not Würzburg either. A car makes sense if you have luggage issues though. You might re-organize a bit to minimize your car use in these places.

Some suggestions:

Day 5: Drive straight to Strasbourg for the day. I'd want to catch a glimpse of the Black Forest too since you're so close. Overnight in the handsome old walled town of Gengenbach (to the SE, at the edge of the Black Forest) for one-night. You'll love the place.

Day 6-7: Maybe see another BF village or two in the morning - Schiltach? (35 min. from Gengenbach) then drive north to Bad Wimpfen (2 hrs.) for 2 nights. Drop bags and drive some of the Castle Road. On Day 7, drive into H'berg, OR leave the car and ride the train in for the day - 20.50€ for two with a local VRN Ticket 24 Plus daypass. Use the "Altstadt" station - the main H'berg station is outside town.

Day 8: Drive more of the Castle Road on way to R'burg. Stop in Schwäbisch Hall, then detour to Dinkelsbühl on the way. O'night in R'burg.

Day 9-12: See more of R'burg in morning of day 9. 4 nights there? Maybe, but I'd probably switch to a base that's more convenient for travel to the other destinations. Würzburg is ideal for train outings to Bamberg or Nuremberg - A Bayern ticket daypass costs 29€/day for two. You could drop the car when you get there on Day 9, and it's probably close enough by train to FRA to spend your last night there too - 1.5 hrs. by direct train to the airport.

Alternatively Iphofen is a small, attractive, unspoiled town ideally located on the rail line between Würzburg and Nuremberg - but slightly less convenient for trips to Bamberg.

Suggest first a detour to nearby Bad Windsheim for the Franconian open-air museum:

http://www.stripes.com/military-life...useum-1.102354

Then continue to Würzburg (or Iphofen) for last 3 days.

winnick

Thank you again Russ for these great suggestions. We will look at reworking the itinerary with these new options in mind. Work gets in the way of research dang it! It's so helpful to have such great advice from fellow Fodorites.