bettyk

Glander, I think that on your arrival day, driving to the Rhine from the airport and then driving down to Baden Baden might be too much when jetlagged.

The Rhine and Moselle River areas are lovely but you just don't have time IMO to do everything. Something will have to wait for your next trip. Unless you are willing to cut out something else from this trip, then I think the Rhine shall have to wait.

bettyk

Sorry, I guess I misread your post. Sure, you could go over to the Rhine area as you originally planned, spend the night and then drive down to Baden Baden. But then you'd be back to only 1 day in Fuessen unless you cut a day somewhere else.

If it was ME, and I really am just speaking for myself, I would cut a day from Munich. I am just not a big city type of person and would enjoy spending that extra day somewhere else.

Holly76

glander, you should keep in mind that you arrive in frankfurt after you had a long nightflight. so you won't do too much the first day. i would spend the first day in frankfurt. the city has plenty to see. then i would head to the south and save the rhine and mosel area (which is pretty lovely) for your planned trip to west germany. the rest of your updated itinerary seems to be ok. while visiting the romantic road (füssen-munich-rothenburg-würzburg), you should not miss the town of nördlingen. it is a picturesque place with a well-preserved 14th century city wall. rothenburg is nice too, but be prepared to see it packed with tourists.

as for your flight, arriving in frankfurt and departing from munich could be more expensive than you might expect (depending on various circumstances). an alternative could be to return the car in munich and get to frankfurt on highspeed train. this would accommodate your wish to do some travel on the train while in germany. the trains run every hour and bring you directly (no transfer needed) to the frankfurt airport in 3hrs 26mins.

if you should return your car at a location other than the pickup location, there are companies that do not charge a one-way fee. recently i had a car with hertz, picked up in frankfurt and returned in cologne and they did not charge that fee.

while in urban areas like munich, you should park the car and use public transit. the networks are extensive, the services frequent and they provide day passes or multi-day-passes, so you won't have the hassle of purchasing tickets frequently.

these are my ideas for now. i hope something may help you.

iris1745

Hi Glander; We drive after an overnight, anywhere from two to four hours. But we are from the 'east coast'. I would agree with Holly if you were from the west coast or middle America. If you are from the 'east coast' stay two nights in Baden Baden. I think you would like a cruise on the Rhine. Strasbourg is only an one hour and fifteen minutes. It is on the Rhein. You could get a half day cruise there if you wanted. You could probably get to Speyer, an Imperial City. Any cruise on the Rhein is beautiful. iris1745/dick

bettyk

Holly, it's only a little over an hour to Bacharach from FRA or an hour and a half to Baden Baden. We always limit our first day drive to about 2 hours and find it to be no problem driving.

Glander, if you do pick up your car in Kelsterbach, there is no problem or no extra charge for returning it to Frankfurt Airport.

Agree with Iris that Speyer is lovely. But again, it's just a matter of what you can squeeze in to the limited amount of time you have.

Glander

Dear travel-lovers,

Thank you all so much for sharing your goodies!!!

It makes sense to me going directly to Baden-Baden staying for 2-night. Dick's suggestion eased my little pity on the thought of skipping Rhine Valley. I'll look into the detail plan for our day-trip next.

And I'd save the train experience for later.

I'd also consider Betty's suggestion of cutting down to 2-night for Munich and make it somewhere else... though I like to see the city highlights, over-crowded or busy place would be a bit stressful... is it added to Fussen the best choice?

I think I would buy a Michelin map and forget about the GPS (it costs about $150 for a SD card Europe map) for we'd try to avoid driving into big cities anyway, right?

Glander

iris1745

Hi Glander; If you decide to do two nights in Fussen, you could then consider going to the top of the Zugspitz, Germany's highest mountain. Great sight. iris1745/dick P.S Driving is easy in Germany and well sign posted.

magcota

No one has mentioned Garmisch-Partenkirchen or Oberammergau. Glander, if you choose the Zugspitz, don't miss those towns.
I heartily concur with Holly76 "füssen-munich-rothenburg-würzburg), you should not miss the town of nördlingen." I don't know Fussen, but love the other towns. I am partial to southern Germany (I've requested my kids take my ashes there when I die and dump them over the Brauneck, probably illegal, but, oh well...). Have fun!

cookiesandmilk

Loved our time in Baden-Baden and would go there again. Took a day trip to Strasburg, France - very nice. You could take the train from Frankfurt to Baden-Baden and pick up your rental car there. Part of the trip goes alongside the Rhine River and you can doze if you're jet-lagged. We took the Rhine River cruise and were kinda bored. It was crowded and slow. The little towns were nice along the way but began to resemble each other so choose one or two to explore.

PRLCH

Hi Glander,
Westayed at Haus Weissenbacher just outside St Gilgen in 2007 - some of our nicest and most cost effective accommodation in Europe. I highly recommend it. http://www.birkenstrand.at/fewo_eng.htm

HollydaleK

Since Neu Schwanstein castle is one of your mentioned destinations, let me give you a tip to avoid spending all day waiting in line to go up to see it. Be at the building where they sell the tickets NO LATER THAN 8 AM. It gets incredibly crowded, and you could spend all morning just waiting to buy a ticket.

It is a long, steep walk up to the castle, but there are horse drawn wagons and also buses that can take you fairly close to the castle's entrance.

Also in the general area is Chiemsee, which boast another one of King Ludwig's fairytale castles, that is worth visiting.

While you are in the Berchtesgarden/Salzburg area, since you have mentioned loving mountain scenery, I would strongly recommend a boat trip on the Koenig See. It is stunning.

bettyk

A boat trip on Koenigsee is very scenic and fun. Also, you should go up to Hitler's Eagle Nest. If it's clear above, you can see forever and the historical aspect is very interesting too.

LSky

You’ve been given excellent advice so far from people who love Germany. I do too and it always seems whenever I’ve planned a trip to Germany, I plan quite a bit and then throw out half of it when we arrive, knowing that we’ll have to return. It took us an entire 2 weeks to go to the Rhine and get down the Romantic Road ending in Munich. We took another 2 weeks for the Schwarzwald. There’s no point in rushing Germany.

We spent 3 very happy days exploring Munich and I would go back anytime it was a fun city. But if you could skip it and feel that you’re trip would be complete anyway, maybe you’d like Stuttgart for your, “artistic architecture/thing” depending on the type of art and architecture that interests you.
If you just want an overview of art, the Städel in Frankfurt had a satisfying collection of art from the 14th century to modern and you’ll see plenty of older architecture, half timbered houses etc in your travels.
If you like modern architecture then the Mercedes Benz Museum in Stuttgart is a phenomenal achievement. The Neue Pinakothek art museum in Munich was excellent but I found the Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart much more memorable.

Lucky you, enjoy your trip.

Holly76

as far as neuschwanstein castle is concerned and keeping in mind that time is limited for you, it could be on option for you to make a hike through the surrounding landscape and marvle at the exterior. though the interior is precious, it'll require an amount of time and you'll have to share with crowds. just a tip if you need to save time.

another hint: as you're travelling in may, summer temperatures are not uncommon. nevertheless you should consider to bring kind of decent clothing. many americans make themselves identifiable as americans by wearing shorts, white socks and large sports shoes (you probably know what i mean) which is NOT a problem. but it looks so touristy and the one or the other will certainly appreciate any attempt of being kind of "unobstrusive". just another tip.