We are planning a 2 week trip to Germany in March 2011 and plan to see a few traditional German villages.
Rothenburg ob der Tauber and Nördlingen both look beautiful from what I can see on the web.

We are flying in and out of Frankfurt so what ever trip we plan, we need to plan it so our final destination is not too far from here.

My questions are:

Can anyone recommend any other cute, traditional german villages that are easy to get to by train? Bad wimpfen looks nice...

Also, is it easier to get around this part of Germany by train or should we hire a car? I would imagine that train would be much cheaper.

Also, can anyone recommend a Schloss style B&B with beautiful grounds that is not TOO far from a train station? I have seen a few but they would only be accessible by car/bus

Thanks !

Tony

I would reccomend a car for you to explore the little villages at your leisure.
Rothenburg is a good start - very touristy but wonderful.

The Romantic Road is a 261-mile long scenic drive through Bavaria; it leads you from the Franconia wine country to Neuschwanstein - I know a lot of folks here do not approve but I think it is a fabulous castle to visit. Along the way, you can enjoy the Bavarian countryside, which is dotted with charming villages. Würzburg and Augsburg are also stops along the Romantic Road. There will be tourist buses but not clogging the road so much that time of year,

Heidelberg is charming for one night - the castle is great and the University is very old - from the `1300's/

Cochem - is a small town near the vinyards on the Mosel.
My favorite castle - Burg Eltz - is nearby.

I know I kind of jumped around,. we spent 3 weeks in S Germany a few years ago and these are just a few of places we enjoyed.

In no particular order, and I am not sure if all are on rail lines (I always drive);

Dinkelsbuehl
Iphofen
Schwaebisch Hall
Feuchtwangen
Miltenberg

The combination of "village" and "train", is never ideal. Expect inconvenient and sometimes long connections as well as slower trains.

Renting a car in Germany is cheaper than anywhere else in Europe, and it is easier to get around in than most other places. Germany and well marked roads and highways go together really well.

If your heart is set on smaller places, you drive manual (because it is cheaper - there are still plenty of automatics available), and you are not intimidated by driving in a foreign country, you should really consider renting a car.

Thanks for the replies...

I hear that petrol is expensive in Europe and road tolls as well are something to consider.

I am not sure how i would go driving on the right side of the road ! That would take some getting used to....

If you want somewhere accessible by train you might consider the train which runs along the Rhine between Mainz and Koblenz. There are heaps of small pretty communities; you can also do this by river cruise. I would also recommend the train which runs from Wiesbaden into the Rheingau region, with its small villages. Eltville has a pretty castle set in a rose garden, and there are numerous vineyards and wineries in the region. In the towns vintners set up temporary wine bars in the summer and into autumn, when you can get wine and a light meal, and you often see groups of Germans walking from village to village or taking the train, to get to the next village and the next wine bar (Strausswirtschaft or Besenwirtschaft). In the late summer the new wine, which is cloudy and bubbly, is particularly sought after (Federweisser). Another place to visit is the former Cistercian monastery Kloster Eberbach, which is where the Name of the Rose was filmed. Very picturesque, with vineyards all around. You can do tours of this from Wiesbaden:
http://www.wiesbaden.de/en/tourism/t...e_culture_.php

Lavandula

It sounds like a nice trip - although I would definitely drive given the small villages involved. But you are going quite early in the year - early spring- and while the days will be longer than winter the temps can still be quite chilly - and the countryside may only be starting to come into it's own. (Be sure to have warm clothes for chilly nights.)

IMO - if you are from the USA, German towns like Bamberg, Regensburg and even Munich to some degree, will seem smaller and compact by comparison to even mid sized US cities. Thus, if this is your first trip to Germany, these places are ideal and feel village like in their old towns.

If you like road trips in the USA, then you should drive to the even smaller towns mentioned on this post - I would not be deterred by the cost of gas and tolls, it will be comparbale to train travel costs when you factor in time, convenience, etc.

If you just want to lace together a few of Germany great places like those I mentioned above, take the train. Either way, Germany is a great travel destination.

nytraveler, yes it will be chilly, but we were in europe in Feb last year and the cold didnt stop us loving every minute of it!

Cars seem to be around 500 euros a week from what I have seen via a very quick look on the web....so around 1000 euros for the duration of our trip...plus petrol and tolls....we just need to do our sums as on the surface it seems quite expensive.

Aramis, Thanks so much for your list of cities....they are EXACTLY what we are looking for !!

Hi msj8028,

I live in Bavaria without a car and get around town and to many villages quite easily. The biggest impact is that you cannot see a dozen villages in a single afternoon . . . (!), so you are forced to slow down a bit. I think that's a good thing!

Taking the trains means that you are travelling closer to the locals rather than isolated inside your private bubble. It's more fun, too, and more unique I think -- one can take a road trip practically anywhere. Having access to a good and workable train system is something most folks don't get often, so when you do have access, you ought to grab the chance.

Also, naturally, using the trains is more green, yaaaaay! So you can leave the country as beautiful and clean as it was when you arrived!

So, once you have the list of places you'd like to see, check out all the rail connections at the German rail site

www.bahn.de

Once you select "Germany" in English, it will accept all your spellings in English (though do be careful with umlauts). Also take a look under "Offers" and then under "Travels Within Germany" look at "Regional Tickets within Germany," "Länder-Tickets." Most localities offer a ticket where 2-5 people can travel all day for a reduced price (usually around 25-30 E), so you can hop around all day to see and experience various sites. Just make sure that all your destinations for the day are within one "Länd."

For travels outside of one locality, get one of the "Savings Fare - Sparpreis". You can generally travel all over the country for about 29 E if you buy your ticket early enough. They go on sale 92 days early. However, you will be locked into a specific train at a specific time.

Anyway, have fun as you plan!

s

Bookmarking some great information

Thanks swandav2000 - yes the trains do appeal to us for their simplicity. God forbid we should be in an accident so far from home....or get a flat tire in a village where nobody speaks english!

I am not sure how anyone knows what time they are boarding a train 92 days in advance ! We'll probably take our chances and buy tickets on the day. We certainly wont purchase Eurail passes as we did last time we went to Europe, which we very expensive.

msj;

I did a quick search on Expedia for a car at FRA from Mar 12-26 and there is an economy vehicle, VW Polo, manual available for the 2 weeks for under 450 Euros. There is an automatic, Ford Fiesta, available for a little over 600 Euros.

Expedia prices can usually be beaten with some research and patience.

And virtually everyone under the age of 50 speaks English. It would be almost impossible to get stuck in a language crisis.

Have you tried Kemwel? I see a price of US$850 including insurance (less if you can carry the CDW on your credit card) for a sub compact standard shift.

Hi msj8028,

We have had two visits to this part of the world this year - all using public transport - to great little villages.
We really enjoyed our time visiting the villages that lavandula mentions - and some towns as well and for this we caught local trains and some buses - great scenic rides along the river and then right into the middle of towns.
At Easter we based ourselves in Traben-Trarbach, which was a good place for us to start. We visited Cochem and Bernkastel and enjoyed taking a boat along the river.
Yes - it is slower than driving around - but once we got to a town we were able to really slow down and enjoy walking around.
Have a hunt on this site for some excellent material - that is how i found out about these places.

We have also managed to visit some lovely towns when staying in St Gallen in Switzerland (during a work visit) - Stein am Rhein was one - and again the access via train was very easy.I realise that this is Switzerland but am referring to it as another example of ease of train travel.

We elect to not drive on the 'wrong side' of the road when our trips are usually fairly short and we have been flying for 24+ hours - just our choice - so up to you.

We have always found the staff at railway stations to be very helpful when selecting tickets and they work hard to find the best price!

Lots of people on this forum will be able to give you good advice if you decide to go with rail - and do search through some trip reports.

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...rip-report.cfm

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...tz-moselle.cfm

Oops - meant to say - it was cold in aarly April - but we managed a number of sunny days and only a little rain. We were even able to sit outside for a few lunches - under heaters - !
Language is not really much of a problem for those of us that don't speak English, although we did need help with river boat timetables over the holiday period.

Some other possibilities near Frankfurt that are easy to reach by train:

http://www.ochsenfurt.de/

http://www.marktbreit.de/

http://www.wertheim.de/

http://www.veitshoechheim.de/

There are plenty of villages in Germany that can be reached by train. We have used both cars (mainly our own) and trains to travel in Germany, and both worked well. We do prefer trains over RENTAL cars.

Regards, Gary

Thanks Gary- some nice recommendations there.

All of these nice villages seem to be south of Frankfurt which is a shame because we would have like to included Bruges within this trip, however it looks like it would be quite a detour to go there now.

We are currently in the second week of our Germany & Austria trip. As there are 3 adults traveling with luggage, we rented a compact station wagon from AutoEurope for under US $500 for 2 weeks.

We have been to almost all of the towns recommended above over the past 10 yrs or so and don't see how you could go wrong with any of them. If you use public transportation, then the ease of scheduling could be your guide.

On this trip, we arrived in Frankfurt and have visited Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Meersburg, Berchtesgaden, Hallstatt, St. Gilgen on Wolfgangsee and Bamberg. Our last stop will be in Bacharach before heading home on Sunday.

The castle hotel Auf Schoenburg in Oberwesel is one of the nicest hotels we have stayed in. There is a train station in Oberwesel, but you will need to take a taxi up to the hotel.

Thanks bettyk, sounds like you are taking exactly the type of trip that we plan to I'd be very keen to get any recommendations on hotels within these beautiful villages too!

We'd love to find an old Schloss to stay in along the way too....so any recommendations would be great if you or anyone else knows of one that can be accessed via train and a short taxi ride.

ttt for later