hi guys i am now really confused. would you choose bamberg instead of rothenburg. we will be arriving in frankfurt and looking for a place to stay before moving on to munich.

Choose Bamberg if you want to visit a non-touristy, beautiful, well-preserved but authentic city where real Germans live and work; choose Rothenburg if you want to see an unusually well-preserved old walled town where the only industry of any consequence is tourism and English seems to be the common language.

All of the towns you have mentioned are beautiful places. In my opinion, given where you are going, I would go to Wurzburg, then Rothenburg. Some people advise against Rothenburg because of the tourists, but they (and you will be one are there for a reason. The view from the old city walls looking over the valley and back into the city are unforgettable. Wurzburg is a great town to walk around - it's relatively flat with wide open courtyards and pretty churches.
I haven't read your other posts so I don't know how much time you have - you might have time for a quick day trip to Bamberg. But I wouldn't stress over it too much - everything is worth seeing there! It's a good problem you have - trying to decide.

Russ is 100% right in his take on the 2 cities. I think this is why we much preferred Bamberg.

Be careful and don't let the moment drive you crazy.

For an expert's opinion (not meaning much) Rothenburg gets 3 stars from Michelin where Bamberg and Würzburg get 2 stars. Still, we are all entitled to a personal opinion.

Rothenburg had the good (and bad) fortune to be poor in the 17C and 18C when cities like Würzburg were tearing down the city walls and cities like Bamberg were converting to the ornate Baroque style. So Rothenburg was left with its city walls and buildings from the middle ages. It is nearly unique in this; and yes it does attract a lot of tourists for just this reason.

Go with what your gut tells you and do not second guess yourself. It will be great either way.

Regards, Gary

I would tend to agree w/Michelin on this one. I believe Rothenburg is one of the (if not the) best preserved walled cities in the world.

Rothenburg. No question.

Eibelstadt -
We wanted to stay not too far from the airport, spend the night and then head to Rothenburg and Dinkelsbuhl. We found a little town (walled with towers) named Eibelstadt, just south of Wurzburg. We stayed at a great hotel (Zum Ross) on the town square. The owner speaks english and the rates were under 49 Euro. He served excellent local wine and some fantastic dinner meals. Some local gentlemen sat nearby playing cards and having a good time. Breakfast is included. We also stayed there the night before we flew out of Frankfurt. About an 1 hour drive away. It just seemed the perfect place to spend at least the first day in Germany. I have posted our pictures here: www.thirdmansystems.com/vacation
Just click on the Eibelstadt Pictures
link. Picture 8 is the front of the hotel. We stayed here and drove 29 miles south to Rothenburg ob der Tauber.

Nice pictures, norrisken! I am saving this thread for future travel to Germany. We have stayed in Regensburg twice and have been very happy with the medieval cathedral and buildings that we have seen. I look forward to visiting again and seeing more of the walled cities of Germany.

Great Pictures, Norrisken! I still check back to your site to see what new 'routes' you've posted. You helped me out with the Munich to Fuessen route a couple of months ago.

montrealvic, My husband and I are traveling over to Germany in July/August and we decided to visit Rothenburg instead of Bamberg. We'd love to see Bamberg, but decided that since we hadn't been to Rothenburg before that we needed to experience it first. Some people love it, some people compare it to Disneyworld ... I think it's really personal preference. Enjoy your trip!!

I'm glad you enjoyed the pictures. We hope to add more next May-June. We're torn between 2 weeks in Germany then or 12 days in Italy escorting a bus tour in October 2007. I can add routes as requested to the maps. Just email me. I had to increase my web site size since the last round of pictures! I've run across some other sites that have great pictures and I thought of putting links on my site, but I'm trying to keep it as simple as possible so I'm not sure if I should.