Hi there,

We are already planning for our next trip and are pretty positive it will be mostly in Germany-Switzerland-Austria. We are leaning toward a late September/October time frame.

My problem is that I'm completely overwhelmed with options and trying to keep this to a week and a half.

You'll notice some of the towns at the start are small and that's because in tracing our family history, these are some of the towns our family is from.

Here is the initial iterinary:

Fly into Frankfurt stay for the night.

Rent a car and hit the towns of Meisenheim, Heidelberg, Bad Bergzabern and Stuttgart.

Stay in Stuttgart for the night

Up the next day to Wurttemberg, Baden Baden and Strasbourg.

Night in Strasbourg.

Next Day to Colmar and on to Zurich

Night in Zurich.

On to Innsbruck/night in Innsbruck

On to Salzberg/2 Nights in Salzberg

On to Munich/Night in Munich

Take Romantic Road north back to Frankfurt and fly out of Frankfurt.

So I'll concede this is ambitious but I just need help figuring out which parts are nuts and which I should save for another trip. It seemed to me that most of the towns were less than 1 hour apart so that's why we thought we could do several in one day.

Also does anyone have any suggestions for hotels along the way? Are there special things we need to see, etc? I really want from this trip charming German towns, spectacular views, good food, maybe some museums, castles, a little WW2 History if possible, some beer gardens, that kind of thing.

Thanks in advance.

Well, as usual with this kind of itinerary, I think you're nuts. Too many places, almost all one-night stands.

Recommendation #1: investigate open jaws tickets, into one city, out of another. Saves time backtracking. You could fly out of Munich or Zurich, for example.

Rec #2: lay out your route on one of the mapping programs, like www.de.map24.com or www.viamichelin.com. I don't see how, on day 1, you can see 2 towns plus Heidelberg, then drive to a third. Unless you just drive through.

Rec #3: skip Zurich and save Switzerland for another trip. Zurich isn't very typical of Switzerland and there's lots more to see there.

Rec #4: you've omitted the Mosel River, not to speak of the Rhine. The Mosel is my favorite part of Germany: cute small towns, riverbanks covered with vineyards, Burg Eltz, slow, easy-going travel (not your style, I guess.)

Rec #5: investigate driving around the Salzkammergut, the area around Salzburg, with beautiful scenic lakes and mountains. Also interesting to visit is Herrnchiemsee, King Ludwig II's palace on an island in the middle of Lake Chiemsee; it's between Salzburg and Munich.

I assume you are much affected by jet lag. This is a lot of driving; gotta be sharp.

Great feedback - thanks. by the way I knew i was nuts

It seems from the quick research I've done that I could either concentrate my trip around Munich with a trip on the romantic road and into Salzburg OR concentrate near Frankfurt, into northern France and maybe into the river towns.

Is that accurate?

Can you give some recommendations on river towns along the Mosel and Rhine?

The part of the Rhine between Frankfurt and Koblenz is considered the most scenic. High density of castles. There are a number of nice little towns in which to stay: Boppard, St. Goar, Overwesel, all with access to river boats and trains.

The Mosel flows into the Rhine at Koblenz. If you follow it upstream to the west, you will come shortly to Burg Eltz, near Mosel-Kern. (Rick Steves' guidebook has good detailed instructions on driving to the castle.) This castle has been continuously occupied for hundreds of years, has different areas devoted to different time periods, and is very interesting to visit.

Farther on are Cochem, Beilstein, Zell, Bernkastel-Kues, all cute little towns and good places to stay. Beilstein is very small but so picturesque. And Trier, which is a small city, formerly a northern outpost of the Roman Empire, with well-preserved Roman ruins. In Trier you're close to Luxemburg and the Lorraine.

Whereas the Rhine remains a major transportation link and thus has a slightly "industrial" atmosphere, the Mosel is agricultural, specifically a wine-growing area. The riverbanks are lined with fluffy trees and vineyards climbing up the hills. And it's smaller than the Rhine.

In 3-5 days you could do a pretty good job on this area.

I liked Munich and the Romantic Road also. Tough choices.

HI J,

I think that it is too much of a muchness for only 1 week.

Salzburg is pretty much of an outlier.

You are not giving proper time to Alsace or Zurich.

What are the towns related to your family history?

I agree with the nuts assessment written above. My initial reaction was that you left out Moscow, Stockholm, Paris and Barcelona.

More realistically, I fully agree with the suggestion to skip Zürich. I don't see that going there would add anything at all to your trip; in fact, it would detract in that your schedule is already one that would work me into a frenzy with frayed nerves.

I also will be quite honest in saying that I have been to Innsbruck 4 times and have yet to find anything there to occupy my time for more than a couple of hours. The main attraction was a residence formerly occupied by some of the Hapsburgs but, and again to be quite frank, once I saw Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, I had had enough of monarchial grandeur and lavish overkill.

I also am not sure you want to drive your car into downtown Stuttgart and park it there. Usually those arrangements are costly for what you see and do. Stuttgart never hit me as being a tourist attraction, although the Mercedes plan in/near Böblingen is worth the time and effort if a tour is available.

Munich is worth more than the short shrift time you have given it.
Salzburg, and please note that it is u and not e, is interesting, BUT very touristy. It is however, a long drive from where you are starting out even if you do have long stretches of autobahn.

I might add that seeing Germany and Austria from a superhighway at 90 mph is even less productive than seeing the USA from I 80 or what have you.

Last, if you want Switzerland, go when the rocket attached to your back has flamed out.

That is one country that is best enjoyed at a pedestrian pace. The mountains are full of beautiful trails that lead to great views of gorgeous mountains. Fleeing from life by roaring through Switzerland should be some kind of sign of compulsive-agressive behavior.

If that is you, then go to Berlin and find an upscale, plush, but frenetic discothèque in which to burn off some calories. Save Switzerland for a more micro oriented trip when you spend time in the mountains rather than roaring along a highway.

A good website to visit is www.bensbauernhof.com. Even if you don't want to do farm stays, there is loads of other info on cities and hotels as well as trip reports. It's a great reference.

I also agree that you need to check viamichelin.com or one of the other web mapping sites because you are way off on some of your distances if you think most of these places are only an hour apart.

We have been to the southern part of Germany 4 or 5 times and still haven't seen all the great sights in that beautiful country. Not to mention Austria which is also gorgeous.

You can't see it all in one trip unless you plan to stay 3 or 4 months. You're better off concentrating on a smaller area like the Rhine-Mosel or Romantic Road and really getting a feel for it before you go running off to someplace else.

Hi, jodeenyc,

Gott in Himmel! Even Napoleon didn't move this fast.

you need to establish some parameters:

what are the "must do's"?

can you do "open jaw"?

how long have you got?

when you've got those sorted, you can begin to do a proper plan.

AS all the others have said, you are being far too ambitious. if there are just two of you, it IS possible to move faster [not as fast as you'd like] but if you are adding in kids &/or parents, they wil slow you down.

in the time you've got, you could do a nice tour with two bases - Mosel/Rhein area and Munich. that's it. you could spend a night on the Romantic Road on the way between the two. any more and all you'll remember is the inside of your car.

the other places will still be there another year.

regards, ann

Thank you for the quick (and creative) replies. The rocket on my back was my favorite.

Mimar you've given me some great little towns that all sound interesting - thank you.

Ira - the towns related to family history were Meisenheim, Heidelberg, Bad Bergzabern, Stuttgart, Wurttemberg and Zurich. You can see how I got carried away They all kept going south and then I saw Innsbruck was so close and then Munich. ... but I don't want to have my rocket go out too early so maybe I can visit a handful of these close to Frankfurt.

Based on all your advice and Ann's suggestion, I'm thinking we'll fly into Frankfurt, spend 3-5 days exploring the Rhine Valley and then move to Munich for 3 or so days with maybe one stop on the Romantic Road. I can probably total trip time get away with a week and a half.

If there was ONE town (a must see) on the romantic road that is feasible between Frankfurt and Munich what would it be?

Thanks again.

Well, the obvious place is Rothenburg. It's very touristy but for a reason. It's a well-preserved medieval town, surrounded by the original walls, which you can walk on. If you stay a night, you see it less-touristed. I liked Dinkelsbuehl also.

What is "Wurttemberg" supposed to be? Wuerttemberg (sp) is a region, historically speaking a duchy, then a kingdom after 1806, with Stuttgart as its capital - but not a town.

bookmarking to see jodee's trip develop...

jodee - glad you are trimming down your list although sometimes I feel like the stated rocket when I travel in Europe. There is just so much to take in and I hate to miss anything!! Do get to Switzerland next time. The early fall is beautiful here esp. if you like unbelievable scenery and walking.

g.

Before you're wedded to dates check carefully for both conventions (in larger towns) and festivals (in smaller towns). For those people often reserve hotels a year or so in advance. (A friend of mine was once shut out of a Rhine river town - forget which - by an asparagus festival.)

Thanks all - this definintely helps me.

quokka - I made a mistake. The town is Baden Wurttemberg and it is just SW of Stuttgart.

I'll do some more research from here and see if I can come back with some solids - like timing, hotels, etc.

Hopefully it will come together!

Hi again, jodee,

"Baden Wuerttemburg" [sorry, I haven't worked out how to do umlauts] is the "Land" or region, which comprises the area of germany southwest of Stuttgart. Germany is divided into a number of "Laender" of which BW is one. others are Bayern [or Bavaria], where Munich is, and Rheinpfalz,...loads more.

Baden Wuertemburg won't be much use to you as you need to be looking further east into Bayern for places to stay between Frankfurt and Munich. How about Ulm? - home of a german tongue-twister

"in Ulm, und um Ulm, und um Ulm herum".

I seem to remember a cathedral there.

regards, ann

As annhig said, Baden-Württemberg is not the name of the town but the federal state (southwestern corner of Germany) of which Stuttgart is the capital.

Do you by chance mean Baden-Baden?