We are Celebrating 50 years of Love by flying roundtrip in Sep 24 into Frankfurt and renting a car for 12 days . The stops we plan on making and visiting are: Rothenburg, Nuremburg, Munich, Salzburg, Fussen, Maybe Baden-Baden, Heidelburg and of course Frankfurt to at least catch the plane back home.

We are looking for some experienced guidance regarding staying in a few anchor locations for a few days as it seems we could from that base visit other towns. For example
while in Rothenburg for 3 days take a day trip to Nuremburg,
while in Munich for 4 days take day trips to Salzburg and Fussen,
while in Frankfurt for 4 days take day trips to Heidelburg and Baden-Baden

We are also looking at possibly using a day tour for those day trips or just winging it there with the car. Any thoughts suggestions are welcome including any other sites that we should be taking in. Thanks

If you are taking the car it's not an issue, but Rothenburg is in a kind of cul-de-sac by rail and does not make a good base for that reason. I would base in Nuremberg and daytrip to Rothenburg unless you want to be there after dark - there is a night watchman tour that many people like.

Frankfurt to Heidelberg and Baden-Baden are easy. Don't bother getting a tour, I think you can do it on your own. Mainz might make a better base in that area as access to Baden-Baden and Heidelberg will be straightforward and you can still see Frankfurt and do a day trip up the Rhine. It is also as good as Frankfurt for access to the airport. And don't forget to see Mainz too!

I am not so good on Munich, it's been years since I have been there, but plenty of Fodorites have been there so I will bow out here, but remember you can do lots of your trip by train - Europeans are super environmentally conscious and trains are better than cars for not polluting. Perhaps just get a car to do Nuremberg - Rothenburg...?

Lavandula

Thank you for that information. it is Very Helplul. We are open to Trains however when pricing the tickets I keep finding tickets for the 10 days on Eurorail Germany at approx $700 per person senior rate. Am I going to the wrong site? Or perhaps pricing incorrectly. Should I price individually per trip or for a 10 day pass?

Eurorail is a reseller designed to take money off North Americans

bahn.de is the place to start
seat61.com to understand the options

Thank You very Much.

If basing in Rothenburg, Würzburg should be visited if only for the Residenz:


We did not visit the Fortress but it looks like something we should not have missed:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marienberg_Fortress

Does anyone know of a day trip to Rothenburg from Munich that would include a Watchman’s tour? Or would recommend another location like Salzburg?

Is the Deutschland Ticket – valid to all of our stops (Heidelburg, Geggenbach, Munich and Frankfurt)?



THANKS for your help!

Does anyone know of a day trip to Rothenburg from Munich that would include a Watchman’s tour? Or would recommend another location like Salzburg?

There are bus tours to Rothenburg and other stops on the Romantic Road from Munich - we took one many moons ago. The Night Watchman's tour doesn't begin until around 7-8, so probably after the buses leave.

Munich makes an idea base for many day trips including Fussen, Garmisch, Zugspitze, Salzburg, Mittenwald, Regensburg, Nurnberg, etc.

Having said that, a day trip to Salzburg would never be enough for me. Too much to see and do there, but people do it all the time. It's a straight shot on the train from Munich Hauptbahnhof to Salzburg, takes just under two hours.

If you choose to travel by train, don't overlook the Bayern ticket for travel with Bavaria (it works to/from Salzburg as well).

https://int.bahn.de/en/offers/region...ticket-bavaria

Avoid Eurail.

It looks to do the Rothenburg Watchman's tour we may need to check train schedules

If you do the Night Watchman's tour and you don't have a car I would highly recommend staying in Rothenburg for the night, as the trains out of there may require multiple changes, or there is a combination of bus and train to get out of there, which would make it an unpleasant journey at night.

Lavandula

The Deutschland Ticket is valid to everywhere in Germany, but you can only take regional trains or local transport (i.e. slow forms of transport, not the IC or ICE trains). You also need to know that it is a subscription ticket so you will have to remember to cancel it. The website to buy it will be in German but you may be able to get around this by getting your browser to translate the page.

Lavandula

That is what we thought we would need to do. Thanks

So how do I determine if the train line is regional. I am little confused on this, sorry.

Big fast trains (IC, ICE) are not eligible. You can get train information when you are looking at a ticket to book (so when you get information on a specific journey you can click on each train for the information) and when you are typing in the information about where to go there is a box you can tick for just local trains. Most local trains are RB and then a number, or S and a number. Do a dummy booking on bahn.com and stop before you buy anything. Mainz to Frankfurt would be a good example, or Mainz - Wiesbaden, because they are close and will have the local trains, but will still have ICE trains coming through. Local trains stop at every station, the IC and ICE are express trains and go between big cities. The ICE travels at 300km/hr!

www.bahn.com

Come back and let us know if your clicking worked, I might be able to put in screenshots if you have specific questions.

Lavandula

This is a great route and will help you see lots of highlights around this part of Germany!
I agree with lavandula - Rothenburg is great, but not really as a base. We spent 24h in Rothenburg and (personally) found that was just right.

Definitely recommend Fussen - depending on your route, you can pick up the Romantic Road and drive from Nuremburg to Fussen.
Or if travelling from Salzburg to Fussen you can drive the German Alpine Road. We have done both of these and really recommend these routes!
Also while in Fussen I assume you would be seeing Neuschwanstein Castle?

Heidelberg and Baden-Baden are also great worthwhile day trips!

Thanks, We made some adjustments, replacing Heidelburg with Trier and decided to take a day trip while in Munich to Bamberg vs Rothenburg. We will be staying in Fussen for 2 days and going to the Castle

Just be advised to keep up with the news regarding train delays, cancellations, strikes, construction etc. I had to do a lot of business travel by train in Germany last year and only one of the various trains I took (ICE, regional, etc) left on time, arrived on time at my destination and provided all the services it was supposed to (specifically: snack/bar car and/or restaurant).