Our germany trip is back on! We will fly into frankfurt
1) 2 days heidelburg
2) 2 days munich
3) 1 day rothenburg
4) 2 days berlin
5) ending in dresden and flying back from frankfurt.

My question is should we skip rothenburg it seems a bit out of the way to go for 1 day. we will be travelling by train what do you thinks. also we can get a cheap ryan air flight to stockholm for frankfurt is it worth going for 2 days. we have free hotel there.
thanks,

Munich via Rothenburg to Berlin is about 8 hours, vs. M->B at at about 5-6 hours. I would say that it would be worth the detour to us. Rothenburg is a pretty unique taste of the middle ages as I look at you itinerary.

Have fun, glad that you are back on.

Regards, Gary

I would drop Heidelberg and Munich; with only 7 days, you'll not see much but the scenery flashing by if you try to do all that. You'd be doing well to see Berlin, Dresden, and Rothenburg in just one week. But then, maybe you just enjoy scenery flashing by and hotel rooms

In and out of Frankfurt will require a lot of backtracking from anywhere. Why not fly into Munich and out of Dresden or Berlin (depending on which way you go around the circle.) thne decided if you have time for Heidelberg or Rothenburg.

You do have a lot planned for a short time and it is a pretty long travel time between places. Even with cheap air fares you have to factor in the time it takes going to the airport, checking in, security, flying and then getting into town from the airport.

Thanks Guys I am sorry to confuse you. Our trip will be for 2 weeks. We will be staying in Dresden for 5 days. I know this sound long but we have free hotel coupan for there. I am confused about heidelburg some people are not too impressed by it.

I can understand your "confusion" about Heidelburg, especially given a recent trip report posted here...BUT if you read between the lines you can probably figure out why that particular poster wasn't "impressed" with just about everything.

Don't be put off by the idea of seeing a lot in a few days..it is better than not seeing it at all IMO.

And as to Dresden...I realize that a free hotel is a lure but I think you are giving up a LOT just to spend five free nights in Dresden.

If you want to visit a lot places it could be interesting to use a Lufthansa airpass. There is an offer during the soccer worldcup season for a reasonable price; just check the lufthansa US website for it.

Intrepid, you have never been to Dresden, right?

Montrealvic, if you are travelling by train Rothenburg o. T. seems to be out of the way, indeed. I would suggest you see it on the way from Frankfurt to Munich and skip Heidelberg instead. You could maybe add a day to Munich for doing a day trip from there or stop for a night in Nuremberg.

Another option is to put the stops in a logical (geographical) order: Frankfurt - Heidelberg - Rothenburg - Munich - Berlin - Dresden - Frankfurt

I.

Hi vic -

I would suggest skipping Berlin in the first half of your trip. Heidelberg, Rothenburg, and Munich are relatively close to each other, but Berlin is way north and way east. I would suggest the train from the Frankfurt airport to Heidelberg, then the train to Munich, then rent a car and drive up the Romantic Road, or the Autobahn, to Rothenburg. Rothenburg is magical in the evening and in the early morning - try not to skip it. Then drive to Dresden with an overnight or at least a stop in Bamberg. I think the train routes from Munich to Rothenburg to Dresden will be tricky to figure out, not to mention slow. I haven't taken the train to Rothenburg, but I think it's on a spur, which means transferring.

Yeah, I just looked at bahn.de - Rothenburg to Dresden takes three trains and 5 hours and 45 minutes.

Since you have 5 whole days in Dresden, you could use two of those days for an overnight in Berlin, which is only about 2 - 2 1/2 hours by train.

Have a great trip!