Are you comfortable traveling by car in a major city? If you are, I would definately do the car. I have driven in Munich many times and by far they are better drivers that we have here in my small town. You can buy a picnic lunch and pull off and have a meal while traveling, this will save you money, we have eaten in church yards (our favorite), road side rests, etc. Set a route and then check michelin and it will tell you the directions, costs, etc. The castles you want to see are pretty, and I have been to them 5 times (new people, who want to see them) once was enough for me, but you do things for your friends. Rothenberg, via the romantic road is a very nice drive. We enjoy Nurnberg and all the cities, but you really need a route. We stay at Morfelden-Walldorf the last night, as it is a direct 10 minuet drive to the Frankfurt airport car return, and you miss all the autobaun traffic. Please keep posting, nice people will help.

going to all those places in OP is easy by train and I think cheaper too vs car rental - if add in parking fees and very high fuel tolls - anyway for lots of Wunderbar dope about German trains check out these fab IMO sites - www.bahn.de the official site of German Federal Railways and also www.budgeteuropetravel.com; www.seat61.com and www.ricksteves.com.

And there is a German Train Pass that could be on interest to you if you travel long distance and not just within one Lander like Bavaria where the Bavaria Pass may be the best bet, especially for families.

As far as traffic in Munich - I haven;t been to every city in Germany - but have been to several - and must admit I haven;t seen heavy traffic anywhere in large amounts. I'm sure there are specific times and places with heavy traffic - for instance Octoberfest - but none of it looks like what I would consider heavy traffic - or any impediment to keeping a car in a garage there.

As for serendipity by train - if you see something interesting out of a train window - it is long past and you don;t know what/where it is - in order to be able to find it. If you're driving you can simply say - I want to spend 30 minutes looking at whatever or I want to have lunch there.

We have driven all over europe and have found heavy traffic only in small areas of a few major cities - where we are either picking up or dropping off a car. (Now perhaps this is all perspective, since I have driven in NYC for years and have been known to scare cab drivers at times. But I am familiar with this heavy traffic and have never seen anything similar in Munich.)

I support the daytrips to the Rhine from Munich!
A groundbreaking idea and one wonders why no-one ever thought of that option before.

Probably because a day trip that requires 9 to 10 hours of travel and only a couple of hours seeing the sights doesn't make a lot of sense.

ttt

Yes as European cities go German cities, thanks largely to WW2 where many of the city centres were reduced to rubble and streets rebuilt wider than before - streets are bigger and easier to drive in - being designed to skirt the pedestrian town centers so yes driving in German towns with few exceptions like Heidleberg is easier than in more medieval towns like Florence with mainly tiny lanes in its city center that have been made off-limits to cars for the most part - tourist cars at least.

I'm going to side with nyt on this one, but it depends on your attitude about driving/navigating yourself around a strange country. Train travel is fine, but a car does offer some convenience.

I've driven in several countries in Europe, and for me, Germany is one of the easiest. Just make sure you stay to the right on the Autobahn.

Havy traaffic is going northboud to Dachau at 5pm-6om, havy traffic is Germering at 5-6pm, havy traffic is L-Kiesselbach square at 8am, is the A9 autobahn nothbound at 5-6pm.

What can you do? -> Have breakfast an leave after 9.30am and return pas 8pm. If you don't have to go to or return from work, there isn't a problem. However, there are those holiday weekends.

Stay to the right on the Autobahn is imperative! I was driving a slow old van once going top speed and even in the far right lane I literally had lorrie drivers giving me the finger and one even showing me a knife - I was going top speed for my vehicle but that was too slow for the autobahn.