Help with Planning a Trip to germany
 

hello,

Our trip to Germany and Vienna is
really taking shape. We would like to stay in Worms for 1 night. Could anyone reccommend a hotel that MIGHT have Air conditioning that is reasonable and is in the center where the
historic sights and restaurants are?

We want to rent a car and drive to the Moselle Valley and spend 1/2 day
seeing some of the small towns and tasting some wine. Any ideas as to
where a nice wine route in the Moselle Valley would be? We dont want to cover the whole area of course just get a "taste of it".
Also we want to rent a car for this and take the car along the romantic road and leasurely drive to Munich and spend 2 nights there.
Any reccomendations on hotels in Munich? How far is Ludwig's castle?
I know its a day trip for sure,
Any info would be gratly appreciated
natjgc

Try www.viamichelin.com for driving routes, distances, and times.

You can easily see 3 of Ludwig's castles (Linderhof, Neuschwanstein, Hohenschwangau) plus a couple of other sights (e.g., Ettal, the Wieskirche, Oberammergau) in one day with an early start from Munich. You can make timed castle tour reservations in advance on the internet.

We like to stay in the central part of Munich near the old city. The area around the main train station has a lot of hotels to choose from in all price ranges. We especially like the Drei Lowen hotel.

I have not been to Worms yet - so I cannot give you a qualified recommendation.
But on this website from the town's tourist office you find a list of their hotels:

http://tinyurl.com/3crsb2

None of them seems to have air conditioning, though.
An alternative to staying in the town of Worms could be a stay at one of the two B&B vineyards. Just click on "Hotels and B&Bs in the Worms district" on that website.

Do you plan to drive from Worms to the Moselle? Do you plan to overnight on the Moselle?

A half day isn't much time. We have spent 3 days on 2 different occasions on the Moselle and could easily go back to see more.

If you are just interested in wine tasting, then you can do that in other places. Besides, the Moselle is west of Worms and the Romantic Road is east.

To me, it would make more sense to head from Worms to Wurzburg. Lots of wine in that area too. Then head down the Romantic Road from Wurzburg.

I'd second bettyk's opinion that a day trip to the Mosel valley is somewhat ambitious, and could be replaced by bettyk's suggested wine areas.

But if the Mosel stays on your list, you should focus on the central section, between Cochem and Bernkastel-Kues.

There is no real need to look for a certain wine route, IMO, since there is only one highway which follows the valley, so you probably just want to stay on that.

To save more time for the valley, you could take the freeway from Worms to Trier via Kaiserlautern (that's A6 till junction #12, then A62, which will merge with A1, until exit #131 on A1), and then proceed downstream along the Mosel.

But it will be one long day for you, and lots of driving.

Thanks for your answers. Actually I know very little about the Moselle valley except that I heard it was beautiful, had wonderful little towns that produced great wine and I knew it was near Worms which my husband wanted to explore.
However, if the Romantic road is just as lovely with vineyards and on the way to Munich than that might be easier and less driving
for us. Thanks for the website
for Worms, that will be so helpful.
We wanted to spend one night in Worms. So you think driving in the Moselle Valley and then going to Worms and spending the night there would be too much before driving the Romantic road? Here's another question.. and I dont mean to confuse anyone so bear with me..
Do you think that driving the Romantic Road from Worms to Munich can be done in one day? Or do you think we should break it up and spend the night somewhere along the way? We know we want to spend 2 nights in Munich and 3 nights in
Vienna. We are starting this trip in Berlin ( 2 nights ) and
flying to frankfort and spending one night there and then renting a car in frankfort to see Worms. Does this make sense or does it seem too crazy? natjgc

We thought the Mosel River valley the highlight of our trip to southern Germany. And we especially liked Burg Eltz. The area is definitely more scenic and cute than the Romantic Road. So I'd hate for you to miss it. However you need at least a day there. And we all must prune our itineraries to the practical. The RR isn't too bad either.

I'm a little lost on your directions. If you are flying into Frankfurt, it would make more sense to go to the Mosel first (actually if it were me, I would just go to the Rhine between St. Goar and Boppard, as it is closer to Frankfurt). The best sights on the Romantic Road are the northern stretch from Wurzburg down to Nordlingen. It is possible to drive most of the RR in 1 day even with stops. You should try to go to Ludwig's castle between the RR part of your trip and Munich. Going to Munich first will require backtracking.

natgc, go to a mapping website such as viamichelin.com or mappy.com and look at a German map. Then, using Driving Directions, plot the route you are thinking about from Point A to B and B to C, etc. That way, you will have an idea of how far you'll have to travel and what cities are along the way that might be of interest to you.

The Romantic Road is NOTHING LIKE the Moselle River area. My point was, the area around Wurzburg is a wine growing area, with lots to see and do. It is also the start of the Romantic Road. The "Road" part of the RR is not the attraction; it's the various towns along the Road such as Rothenburg, Feuchtwangen, Dinkelsbuehl and Noerdlingen. And these towns take time to explore.

Therefore, I would not advise driving from Worms down the Romantic Road to Munich in one day. Overnight in Rothenburg and enjoy the city taking in the Nightwatchman's tour in the evening. Then on the drive to Munich the next day, maybe stop in Dinkelsbuehl and/or Noerdlingen for a walk around the old town for an hour or so. It's less than 3 hours to Munich from Rothenburg so you should'nt be too rushed.

Agree that the Romantic Road is not nearly as scenic as the Mosel River valley. The attraction on most of the Romantic Road is more the old towns, not the natural scenery. It's not ugly, just not as scenic as many other areas. Yes, if you don't especially want to stay overnight, you can easily drive the RR to Munich with a couple of sightseeing stops along the way.

But if you do want an overnight stop, we liked Dinkelsbuehl as an overnight stop better than Rothenburg, but that's purely a matter of personal preference.

Hi Bob_KY and Cowboy1968,

We are renting a car in Frankfort and are planning on driving to the Mosel Valley for a 1/2 day and then on to Worms to explore the town and spend the night in Worms.. The next day we are going to head on the Romantic road with some stops on the way and continue on to Munich. That is the direction we are planning on taking.
Cowboy1968- thank you for the website with the hotels and B&B that have their own email addresses.
It has been so hard to email these hotels and the website you gave me was so very helpful. natjgc

You're welcome. I know it's often hard to find accomodation in the smaller towns.

I second everyone else when warning that the Romantic Road cannot be seen as a scenic drive, but more as a string of pearls. You may want to pre-select the towns or sights along the road that are especially interesting for you.

Driving from Worms to Munich on the RR is somewhat in the area of "technically possible", but you will need time on the RR to stop and explore, even it was just for half an hour.

If you want to start from Worms, and would like to break your trip in Rotenburg, you could go east on Hwy 47 until you reach Michelstadt in the Odenwald forest.

From there, you will have two options:

1. Stay on Hwy 47 E thru Amorbach until you reach Hwy 27, go east on 27 until you reach Tauberbischofsheim where you will hit the Romantic Road, which you can go south until you get to Rotenburg.
2. Stay on Hwy 47 E until you hit Hwy 469. Go north until you hit the Main river (not necessarily literally, I hope), go east along the Main thru Miltenberg and Wertheim until you get to Autobahn A3 at exit 66. Take A3 east until junction with A7. A7 south to exit 108 (Rotenburg).

Option 2 lets you spend more time in the Odenwald and the scenic towns, with a quick dash for Rotenburg at the end, while Option 1 is only on 2-lane highways and lets you see more of the Northern RR.
Würzburg, which is really a nice town to visit, is omitted in both options, but could be incorporated in option 2 since you will pass it near junction A3/A7.

That is indeed both a scenic drive plus quaint little towns. Miltenberg, Michelstadt, and Amorbach are typical picture postcard towns, and are usually a bit in the shadow of the neighboring Romantic Road.

Cowboy 1968,

Wow you really know the Romantic Road, this will be incredibly helpful as we figure out our route through this part of Germany.
My husband would like to know if this is feasible: We want to leave Worms very early July 22nd and drive the RR and go to Rotenberg. Stop for a while and maybe do another town before we go to Count Ludwig's Castle. Tour the castle and then arrive in Munich late that evening. Can we do this in one LONG day? Are we completely crazy?? Do we need 25 cups of coffee to do this or do you think if we pace ourselves correctly it can be done?? natjgc

The drive from Worms via Rotenburg (some exploring), going south on RR with another visit to one of the towns, to Munich <b> without</b> visiting Neuschwanstein would be that long drive you described.
Including the trip all way down to F&uuml;ssen to see Neuschwanstein would make it impossible.

To visit Neuschwanstein (and neighboring Hohenschwangau castle), you will have to get tickets for a certain admission time at the bottom of the hill which Neuschwanstein sits on, then walk 20min minumum uphill (or take a bus/carriage), to be at the castle at that time, and get downhill again. And drive to Munich.

It would become somewhat technically possible if you
a) went from Worms to Rotenburg,
b) chose a neighboring town to visit, i.e. stayed on RR only for a short time, and
c) used instead motorway A7 which parallels most of the RR for a straight shot south to F&uuml;ssen and Neuschwanstein.

Still you would have to reserve tickets online for Neuschwanstein, in order not to have driven there in vain. And you must be at the ticket booth at Neuschwanstein by 5:00pm latest.

Yet, that itinerary is far from being feasible. Not even remotely close to feasible.

If you left Worms at 7:30 am, you could get to Rothenburg around 9:30 am. Let's say you leave Rothenburg at 11:00 am, you could be in Dinkelsbuehl by around 11:30. Have a quick Bratwurst stand lunch in Dinkelsbuehl, look around a bit and leave at 1:30 pm. Driving straight to Hohenschwangau would get you there around 4 pm or so. So you technically could do this if all you wanted to do in the Romantic Road towns was walk around a bit and take pictures. There are 2 castles in Hohenschwangau--Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau. If you got to the ticket booth by 5:00 pm you could theoretically make the last tour of Neuschwanstein or Hohenschwangau at 6:00 pm. Leaving around 7:00 pm or so you'd be in Munich around 9:00 pm.

I wouldn't do it--but barring bad weather, traffic tie-ups, etc. it is technically possible.

Is there any reason that you must be in Munich that night? I'd make a more leisurely drive down the RR. Stay in Hohenschwangau, Schwagau, or Fuessen that night. See the two castles in the morning and then take the afternoon to wander into Munich stopping at places like the Plansee (for lunch), Linderhof Palace, Ettal, etc.

After spending the night in Rothenburg, we drove the rest of the RR to Ludwig's castle in a day, including 2 or 3 stops of an hour or so to walk around some of the towns. We took the last tour of the night once at the castle and spent the night in Fussen. So that much is possible, but I wouldn't try much more.

I see what all of you mean.
No, we don't have to spend that night in Munich, we could spend it somewhere else close to Ludwig's castle and enjoy the day without being too rushed.. I like this idea and as you might know I am so unfamiliar with Germany,I quess I didin't realize that all of this is time consuming. Ok then, doesanyone have an idea of where to stay in the area of RR/ ludwig's castle?? natjgc

Hi,

I wonder if going staight to Rothenberg on the day we go to the Mosel Valley and Worms might be smarter. It would give us more time to do the RR and castle. I'm re -thinking this part of the trip.
Worms probably won't take more than a few hours ( the most) Any reccommendations for a place to stay in Rothenberg( or is it Rotenberg?) bear with me, it seems all of you know more than my travel agent who says she is a &quot;specialist&quot; in Germany and Austria.
natjgc

Not in Rothenburg proper, but just a few minutes drive east in Burg Colmberg, a very nice castle hotel with a good restaurant. They do have a website. My wife wanted to stay in a castle hotel on our Bavarian trip a few years ago, and it worked out well for us.