geolovestravel

Need help in deciding whether the Bus Tour operating out of Munich & Frankfurt is worth the price. Has anyone done this particular trip where you pick up the bus in Munich and travel to Rothenburg..spend the night there and then next day bus again to Frankfurt. The price of EUR 189 per person seems better than renting a car. My husband & I are very limited for time in Germany and my intent is to see the beauty of the countryside and villages as appose to the bigger cities. To be more exact we are staying one night in Munich on Oct.2 and need to be in Frankfurt by Oct.4. Any recomendations?? Thank You!!

treplow

I would take the train - Munich to Rothenburg, and Rothenburg to Frankfurt.

The Romantic Road is essentially - in stretches - a federal highway that connects a few nice towns. In bteween the scenery is actually pretty boring.

The train would give you more time in Rothenburg. If you don't mind travelling a bit slower, you and your wife can even do the Munich - Rohenburg part for EUR28, together. Then, upon leaving Rothenburg you can buy the same ticket again to go as far as Aschaffenburg (that's where Bavaria ends), and also buy a ticket for the short distance from A'burg to Frankfurt (airport?). Check the RR schedules on www.bahn.de. With the special ticket (Bavaria ticket or Bayernkarte) you can travel only in Regio trains, no IC, ICE or EC's. On weekdays you have to wait until 9AM to depart. That limitation does not apply to weekends.

geolovestravel

Thank you for replying treplow. This has been perplexing to me. Can I wait to make train reservations until we are there? Should I go ahead and make reservations for a hotel in Rothenburg sooner? Thanks again.

altamiro

>Can I wait to make train reservations until we are there?

No. You just don't make reservation at all. If you use regional trains (as you have to with the Bavaria Ticket) you cannot reserve anything.

>Should I go ahead and make reservations for a hotel in Rothenburg sooner?

If you find a hotel you like, why not? A reservation done via hotel.de or hrs.de is usually cancellable up to 18:00 of the previous day without fees.

Woyzeck

If you've only got 1-2 days to see things, a bus tour might indeed be an efficient (albeit expensive) way to catch the highlights. If you take the regional trains, you'd have to deal with your luggage at each place you intend to stop, whereas the bus tour will probably just drop you off at a few places to wander about, which sounds like more what you are looking for.

So the question is whether you feel like being independent or paying more to have the tour take care of you along the journey.

I am almost certain you could rent a car for that amount of time for less than 380 Euros. But as Treplow says, the Romantic Road is a terribly misleading name.

Frankly, given your time constraints, I would just head straight for Rothenburg via train and spend a very nice day or day and a half there, enjoying several of the sights and having a nice meal together at night. There's plenty there to fill a day. Save the 380 Euros and buy a nice souvenir or meal.

Palenque

I've done this bus trip and also the Castle Road bus trip from Heidelberg to Rothenburg and the Castle Road route i would say is much more Romantic than the un-Romantic Road IMO

Heidelberg to Rothenburg via the scenic Neckar River Valley to Rothenburg and yes overnight there and take the train to Munich IMO

LSky

You've gotten excellent advice from Woyzeck. Take the train to Rothenburg and stay there as long as possible. It's time well spent and don't forget to take the Night Watchman Tour.

Palenque

I think the Romantic Road buses now are not just a bus but also include the overnight hotel in Rothenburg, which, if true, could change the expensive calculations.

geolovestravel

Hello All you nice folks!
You all gave great advise. We finalized the trip. Decided to do the Bus Tour from Munich to Rothenberg then to Frankfurt. They handle the luggage and price includes the overnight stay in Rothenberg. Much easier for us. Thanks again!!

sbbaggies

I'd definitely avoid the Romantic Road bus. We travelled across Europe by train last month between Frankfurt and Budapest on our honeymoon and decided to do the final leg back on the bus from Munich to Frankfurt to see some sites that we had missed ... big mistake. We got to the Central Bus Station Munich ½ hour early to give us time to find the correct stop. There was nobody available to ask but finally found the right stand with 8 like-minded travellers and waited for the 10.30 arrival. Surprisingly, no coach arrived and at 10.45 the information board changed to state that the next bus from that stand was the 12.00 to Frankfurt. We did not know if the coach had been cancelled and nobody was available to ask. Finally one of the prospective passengers found a telephone number for Romantische Strasse and rang to be informed that they had no idea where the coach was. They promised to ring back which they did at 11am to say the coach was 10 minutes away with no further explanation. At 11.20, the coach arrived and the driver opened the luggage compartment. Half of the passengers took their luggage to the compartment whilst the others took their seats on the coach. At this point, the driver got rather irate and ran onto the coach demanding that the new arrivals get off the coach. He then stood guard at the door whilst the luggage was loaded by ourselves so he could properly count couples onto the coach. Finally, about an hour after the scheduled departure we left.
The route to the first stop was via main roads and motorway and during the latter section, an accident on the motorway caused a further delay of over an hour. The 1st stop was at a motorway services rather than at a scenic location. Nevertheless, although now expecting to arrive at Frankfurt over 2 hours late we were still looking forward to the sites on the Romantische Strasse but no. Rather than adhering to the scheduled route, the driver decided to avoid it and proceed largely by motorway. He did ever so well as our arrival in Frankfurt was only 10 minutes late but this alternative route could hardly be called romantic. We have since contacted the tour operator requesting some form of compensation but this has been flatly refused so I would warn any other potential users against following in our footsteps.

nytraveler

Sorry but the "romantic road" isn't. Some of the towns are very cute - but the road itself is a combo of highway and national roads that are totally boring.

adrienne

This is a 4 year old post that someone registered to comment on.

The Romantic Road was a Medieval trade route and I believe the name originated because it was the road to Rome, hence the term "Romantic."

One of the above posters stated that most of the route is via motorway.