Help with Frankfurt/Munich/Salzburg/Prague itinerary
 

Hello, this forum has helped me immensely in planning my last two trips to France and Italy and I am now seeking advice for our next trip. We are a family of four (kids ages 7 and 10 who travel really well), going to Germany next month for 10 days and will be flying in and out of FRA (unfortunatly could not get open jaw). I have browsed this forum for hours and came up with the following itinerary:

Day 1: Arrive in Frankfurt; Train to Rothenburg (stay overnight)
Day 2: Rothenburg; Train to Munich
Day 3: Munich
Day 4: Day trip to Fussen via train
Day 5: Day trip to Salzburg via train
Day 6: Train to Prague
Day 7: Prague
Day 8: Train to Frankfurt
Day 9: Frankfurt
Day 10: Fly out of Frankfurt

We plan to use the Bayernkarte (pardon my spelling) whenever we can and would prefer not to drive. I realize we will be missing much of the Romantic Road doing it this way, but don't think it would be all that romantic with the kids in the backseat for too long anyway.

We are interested in seeing only the major sites at each city, (no museums) and plan to just soak up the atmosphere, let the kids play in the park and otherwise take it easy. Does this seem doable?

Also, can anyone can recommend specific hotels/apartments/pensions? Any other suggestions or comments would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

If you had a car, I'd recommend Burg Colmberg castle hotel near Rothenburg--the kids would love it. But you don't, so I won't. lol

In Prague, we liked the Bellagio Hotel--fairly new place in a renovated old building; very helpful staff; nice location easy walking distance from the major sights, but out of the center of the tourist whirl. Good breakfast.

You do realize how long the train rides are btw Munich-Prague and Prague-Frankfurt, right?

It's over 6hrs Munich-Prague and 8 hours Frankfurt-Prague.

I suggest you skip Prague complete, and spend more time in Salzburg, Munich, and the Romantic Road.

You still may want to look at the German Railpass as unless you get a discounted SPAR type fare for Frankfurt-Bavaria and Czech border to Frankfurt at regular fare these two combined could well be more than the pass price.

And it's 4-day out of 1-month pass so you'd have two days left over - so you could take the crack ICE train to Salzburg and save one other day on buying the Bavaria card.

www.bahn.de for regular fares and SPAR fares as you probably know. For railpass info i always advise www.budgeteuropetravel.com as they don't charge RailEurope's $18 mail fee for these passes and are experts willing to answer any question. You can buy, i believe 5- and 10-day German passes in Germany but not the 4-day one. A Twin pass has two names on one pass at a discount. Can be used on any train any time so flexibility is a key as well.

By the way i think the Romantik Road itself is one of the most overhyped things anywhere - a conjuring of the German Tourist office some years ago. The towns like Rothenburg are great but the road itself i found a busy two-lane road -hardly romantic

Thank you for the responses. yk, would it make a difference in your opinion if I cut Rothenburg, and went directly to Munich and added a day or two to Prague? Or did you find Prague not worth the time to get there on a trip of this size?

PalenQ, thanks for the budgeteurope website, it's really helpful. At $37 per day for the entire family the Bayern pass seemed hard to beat, but I haven't actually added in the costs for the border crossings between Bavaria and Frankfurt/Prague. It may be a hassle, not worth the price.

Hi night,

I just came across your post and I thought I would put in my two cents. Is there a reason for staying in Frankfurt for so many days? I did a similar trip 2 summers ago and used Frankfurt only as a hub from which to fly in and out of.

I would recommend staying in Prague for an extra day, if you can. IMHO it is a beautiful city and there are a lot of things to do.

Salzburg is also beautiful, but with less things to actually "do." Were you planning on doing a tour or something while you are there? I know that they have "sound of music tours" and stuff like that that you might want to look into. Just a suggestion.

Whatever you do, I'm sure you will have a great time!

Oh, I wouldn't have wanted to miss Rothenburg. It's so beautiful. I think the kids would like walking around the wall and maybe the museum of crime and punishment.

You could add a day in Prague, a really wonderful city, by taking an overnight train one or both ways to the city - avoiding a long day on the train. Kids that age may well be excited by the prospect of an overnight train. I know my son at those ages was.

I am going to withhold judgement on the railpass vs. local tickets until I have a chance to thoroughly analyze your itinerary, but my gut feeling is that we can find a way to beat the railpass.

At €27 per day, the Bayern-Ticket is hard to beat. You can use it from Munich to the Czech border as well as Munich to Salzburg and Munich to Füssen.

Have you considered a night train from Prague to Frankfurt?

The leg that might convince you to use a railpass is Frankfurt to Rothenburg. Using local tickets it is only €49, but it will take 45 min longer (3:45 vs 2:58), and you will be coming off a long flight.

I've never been to Prague, but I'm sure it's worth more than just a day, especially if you're going out of your way to get there. I'd cut 1 day out of Frankfurt.

Now that Larryincolorado mentions it, I will not want to travel the entire distance to Munich the same day I get off my international flight. I will keep the day in Rothenburg. As for the Frankfurt to Rothenburg leg, how long is the ride? 45 minutes doesn't sound like much in the comfort of my living room, but I can see it being a problem coming off an international flight. Would I need to transfer trains or is there a direct one?

I do love the idea of a night train in and out of Prague! My kids would indeed enjoy it. Is there any problem with security on these routes? I did not consider it before because I didn't think I could use the Bayernkarte on an overnight train, (except on a weekend maybe? My day 6 from Munich to Prague is on a Sunday)

I will cut the day in Frankfurt to add one in Prague. If I can take the night train from Prague to Frankfurt, (and actually get some sleep) we could probably squeeze in a day in Frankfurt that way.

Thanks for the great suggestions!

Frankfurt airport train station to Rothenburg ob der Tauber station is more a 3 hour ride than just 45 minutes.

You can check connections at www.bahn.de (Internat.Guests) and use the full name of Rothenburg (i.e.: Rothenburg ob der Tauber) as your destinantion and "Frankfurt Flughafen" as your starting point.

You will have to change trains twice, as Rothenburg ob der Tauber is not on a main line.

As most rental car companies in Germany do not charge extra for one way rentals, you may consider the option of picking up a car at FRA airport for 2 days, use it to go to Rothenburg, and then to Munich via Romantic Road, and return the car in Munich (you don't actually need one for Munich and your day trips there) and do the rest of your itinerary by train as planned.

Hi

I did a similar trip a few years back and agree with the posters, why in Frankfurt so long?? We flew into Frankfurt and I beleive I stayed all of 10 minutes to get my car and go to Rotenburg which is lovely. We spent 2 nights there and 2 nights in Salzburg. A day trip to Salzburg does not do it justice. Eat at the oldest restuarant in town (sorry forgot the name) best tomatoe soup I ever had. Sit and watch the men play a large size version of chess and just enjoy the ambiance.

On my trip we did not do Prague as it was to far for us but did include a night in Munich, a night in Innsbruck and 3 nights in Vienna.

This is my two cents, and I think you are underestimating how long train travel takes, when you could be relaxing wherever you are.

Have a fabulous time.

<but my gut feeling is that we can find a way to beat the railpass.

At €27 per day, the Bayern-Ticket is hard to beat. You can use it from Munich to the Czech border as well as Munich to Salzburg and Munich to Füssen.>

if talking about dollars and cents and not dollars and sense - restrictions on the trip from Munich to Czech border would, and Larry can correct me if wrong, meaning you'd have to take a slower local train to the border as Bavarian Tickets i think are not valid on the faster trains - meaning you probably have to change at the border.

The flexibility of the pass to use on any train any time can be pricelss for some trips.

Thus i do not judge a railpass strictly on the dollar price - if i could save $50 and sacrifice flexibility i would not do it, personally. Not to say that you may not mix a pass with the Bavarian ticket.

You kids would pay 50% off the adult German Pass price.

Cowboy, the 45 minutes we were talking about is the time difference between FRA and Rothenburg using unrestricted railpass travel and regional trains available with the Bayern Pass.

Bahn.de shows 9 unrestricted connections between 9AM and 6PM using a standard search. They ranges from 2:48 to 3:32 with an average of 3:07. In the same time period, there are 9 regional connections ranging from 3:36 to 3:57 with an average of 3:46. So the average difference is actually 39 minutes.

Using a RMV group day ticket, FRA to Kahl (first stop in Bavaria) cost €22. Add €27 for the Bayern-Ticket and the trip costs €49 (about $67). A fourth of the cost of the railpasses (4d, 2. cl) is $145.

For the trip from Munich to Prague, you would have to go out of your way to use trains not available with a Bayern-Ticket. Only regional trains run on the direct line to Furth im Wald or Bayerish Eisenstein on the Czech border. The three fastest connections to Prague, those featured for the Prag-Spezial, are all regional connections and take 6 hours and 1 or 2 minutes. Two of those connections are direct (no changes); in fact, the only direct trains to Prague are regional connections and available with the Bayern-Ticket.

The only "express" connection that takes under 7 hours is an ICE/Reg connection through Nürnberg that takes 6:24 and gets into Prague at the same time as a regional connection that leaves Munich 23 minutes later.

Hi, Night...

I, too, think you should postpone Prague till the next trip. Although it's tempting to want to see everything, with this itinerary you will be moving around almost every single day. I can't imagine doing it myself, let alone with 2 kids in tow.

You said you want to "soak up the atmosphere" and "take it easy." This itinerary does not reflect that desire, IMHO.

I agree with the others: Cut down the time in Frankfurt, spend 2 days in Salzburg, and maybe spend the night in Rothenburg.

But leave Prague for next time. One or two days is barely enough to scratch the surface of this incredible city, and you'll spend a heckuva lot of time getting to/from there.

Just take it easy and soak it up slowly, I don't think you'll be sorry. Have fun!

A 4 day, 2nd cl. German Rail Twin pass at $346 plus two 4 day 2nd cl. children's passes at $117 each is $580, about €420 at today's exchange rate.

Extra days are $70 (Twin plus 2 children) per day, about €51. Since their planned extra days are trips that are entirely regional trains (Munich to Füssen) anyway or only take an extra half hour each way by regional trains (Munich to Salzburg), €27 Bayern-Tickets are obviously preferrable to days of the railpass.

So, for the railpasses, we are looking at an average of $145 (€105) per day.

To answer an earlier posting, whether you go from FRA to Rothenburg by unrestricted trains or by regional trains, you have to change in Würzburg and go by regional train to Steinach and then by another regional train to Rothenburg. That is a minimum of two train changes. With unrestricted train, you can almost always (depending on the time) get a direct connection from FRA to Würzburg. Using regional connections, you take the S-bahn from FRA to Frankfurt Hbf, and a direct RE from there to Würzburg.

I just looked at the schedule for regional trains during the Regionalbf construction at FRA (9 Jul to 3 Aug?). All trains, including S-bahns, will leave from the Fernbahnhof. With the new schedule, the average time for travel via regional trains to Rothenburg is now only 37 minutes longer than by unrestricted trains.

Regional trains i've been on, though modern enough, have not nearly been as comfy as ICE trains - some even had metal seats so price is not always the main factor - especially on a three hour trip IMO