Frankfurt to Wurzburg
 

I am flying into Frankfurt and picking up a car there. I am thinking about driving down to Wurzburg that day. Is this a difficult drive for a jet lagged person? I had planned to start trip in Bacharach, but that itinerary put me in Rothenburg during their Whitsun celebration. I want to avoid this so thought maybe to do the itinerary the other way around.

We flew into FRA and drove to Bamberg, passing Wuerzburg on the way. The drive was pretty easy. You get highway 3 coming out of the airport and follow it pretty much all the way to Wuerzburg. On our drive, the only difficult part was driving around Bamberg, but that is another story :)

Whether or not you should personally do this depends on how you handle jet lag, how long your flight(s) is, and how comfortable you are with driving in general. I do pretty well with jet lag and we had a non-stop flight from SFO to FRA, so while the flight was long, it wasn't like we had been in transit for 24 hours or something.

You could just as well take the train. Faster and easier.

From Aschaffenburg (where I once lived) west you are driving through the Spessart. The A3 winds and wobbles through the hills. There is no speed limit on this Autobahn.

Ditto the train recommendation. There are many ICE trains from the airport to Wüzburg as low as €19.00 and 1h30m or so. Pick up a car in Wüzburg after you have seen the city.

You don't need a car to see Würzburg. I would take the train. Give yourself maximum opportunity to recover from the flight and pick up the car in Würzburg when you are ready to leave. Trains are efficient and frequent, and it's a quick ride to there from Frankfurt.

Lavandula

I would recommend taking the train too. Relax after your long flight, and enjoy the scenery. Driving a car after a trans-Atlantic flight is actually quite dangerous, and really ought to be avoided, though I know lots of people do it.

Rent your car in Wuerzburg the next day if you want one. It will also be cheaper than getting it at the airport.

Judy,
As November_moon said, it depends on how you handle jet lag. I don't handle it as well as I did when I was younger. I once deplaned in Munich after a trans-Atlantic flight, picked up my car, and drove straight to Berlin with no problem. (It was much cheaper than the train.) But that was about 20 years ago. Last year we deplaned in Frankfurt and drove straight to Strasbourg with no trouble. I have also deplaned at Frankfurt and driven past Wurzburg to Rothenberg after a trans-Atlantic flight. It all depends on how pumped up you are when you get off the plane.

One item that usually leads me to rent a car at the arrival airport is how much luggage I have. It is pretty easy to throw the bags in the car trunk and not worry about loading them on and off of the train and finding a place to store them when you arrive at your first destination (assuming your plane arrives at FRA in the morning and you can't check into your hotel before 2 or 3 in the afternoon). Leave the luggage in the car and sightsee or get a snack while you wait to check in...

Have a great trip!

Thanks for all your replies. Taking the train from airport and picking up car later sounds good.