German Itinerary, please advise
 

We're spending two weeks in Germany. Here is my tentative itinerary. Any advice, suggestions of things to see/eat would be great.

Thursday: Fly to Berlin
Friday: Land in Berlin, most flights land before noon
Saturday: Day 2 in Berlin, maybe day trip to Potsdam
Sunday: Day 3 in Berlin, maybe day trip to Potsdam, train to Nuremburg
Monday: Nuremberg
Tuesday: Nuremberg, Train to Munich
Wednesday: Munich sights
Thursday: Munich sights
Friday: Castles tour 8am - 8:45pm
Saturday: Train to Stuttgart
Sunday: Stuttgart breakfast? Train to Rothenburg
Monday: Rothenberg ob der Tober, train to Heidelberg
Tuesday: Heidelberg
Wednesday: Heidelberg, train to Frankfurt
Thursday: Frankfurt
Plan A:
Friday: Frankfurt, train to Berlin for round trip airfare
Saturday: Flight out of Berlin
Plan B:
Friday: Frankfurt
Saturday: flight out of Frankfurt

I prefer to use the open jaw or multi city ticket to spend as little time as possible back tracking.

Is there a reason you are going to Stuttgart? You can go directly to Rothenburg unless you are going for the Mercedes or Porsce Museums in Stuttgart.

If it was my trip i would steal a day from Stuttgart or Heidelberg to spend a day in Salzburg.

I did not like Stuttgart at all... checked out after one night and went to Baden Baden. Are you doing the car museum there?

Yeh, going to Stuttgart prior to R'burg is a major detour. I'd remove the day in Stuttgart too - add a night in Nuremberg and do a daytrip from there to fabulous Bamberg, with one of the best preserved old towns in Germany:

http://www.bamberg.info/en/

Direct trains from N'berg to Bamberg take about 45 min. and it's only 16.20€ round trip for two if you get a VGN Tagesticket Plus daypass:

http://www.vgn.de/tickets/?Edition=en&p=1

I do not know what you are interested to see (castles, cities, small towns, museums, nature), but in any case, in your itinerary seems to me to be too many places.

You plan to move a lot and change the hotels each 2-3 days. Berlin it is a huge city and offers so many things to visit! You plan for it one day, as other will be day trips. I stayed there one week and it was not too long.

As other adivsed, I would eliminate Stuttgart, take one day from Heildelberg. I would not visit Frankfurt, but Rhine or Mosel Valley for 2 days, and fly home from Frankfurt.

Hi aw,

You are doing a lot of moving around.

Why Stuttgart?

Train schedules and tickets are at www.bahn.de

((I))

I have lived in both Stuttgart and Berlin and IMHO, you are spending too much time in Stuttgart and too little time in Berlin. In fact, as others have pointed out, you can take the train directly from Munich to Rothenburg odT and that's what I'd recommend. There's no need to go to Stuttgart at all.

Also, I concur that you should get an open jaw ticket allowing you to fly into Berlin and out of Frankfurt. I don't think you'll find much, if any, price difference especially after you add in the train fare. I certainly would NOT want to take the train from Frankfurt to Berlin! Should you decide to fly out of Berlin, then there's no reason to go to Frankfurt--boring!

We want to see an auto museum in Stuttgart. Should we ride in, see the museums, and ride out the same day? Also, we can omit Frankfurt. I have not done much research on things to do in Ff yet.

Are you big Mercedes or Porsche fans? There is a BMW museum in Munich and the BMW factory tour. Also the Deutsches Museum in Munich has a room full of old historiacal cars. I am not sure but there may be an Audi Museum outside of Munich.

You can see the BMW museum and/or take the factory tour in Munich.
Stuttgart really is a huge detour.