Itinerary Germany 9/10 - 9/24/17
 

Hi
The following is our itinerary. Any comments would be appreciated. We have already booked rooms in Bacharach and Berlin. Any thoughts on whether we could book rooms at the other destinations on the fly?
9/10 Fly into Frankfurt
9/10&11 Bacharach
9/12 Baden Baden
9/13 Linden (Bodensee)
9/14&15 Fusen
9/16 Rothenburg OB Der Tauber
9/17 Bamberg
9/18&19 Dresden
9/20 Potsdam
9/21-23 Berlin
9/24 Fly home from Berlin

Are you driving? If so driving times between many of those places could take a half day or so. Baden-Baden to Lindau could take most of a day - autobahns are fast but the beauty of a road trip in Germany to me is nice side roads thru rural areas. Maybe cut some stops and meander a bit more between bases.

I'd maybe ditch the car once in Berlin and use the superb public transit and do Potsdam as a day trip - one less relocation of hotels which always takes a lot of time and again saves car rental days.

But all in all a nice if hurried perhaps itinerary.

You could also take train from Frankfurt Airport to Bacharach and on the Rhine take boats and trains - cars can be problematic parking in small Rhine towns and trains go up and down both sides of the river and of course the k-d.com boat trips IMO are a must.

Saves a few days of car rental though if wanting to drive along the nearby Mosel a car would be sweet - the Mosel being outrageously gorgeous.

For lots on trains and boats in Rhine/Mosel and info in general check www.budgeteuropetravel.com - the Germany chapter of their online European Planning & Rail Guide covers it well and www.ricksteves.com.

Fussen is a nice town but IME it is much more romantic to stay in Schwangau -on a lake with Mad Ludwig's Neuschwanstein hovering above it - a real bucolic setting vs Fussen a albeit nice town but no such bucolic views from your hotel balcony as in Schwangau.

Potsdam is a S-Bahn ride away from Berlin. I would stay in Berlin to avoid the hassle of a hotel change and visit Potsdam by taking the S-Bahn.

We are picking up the car in the airport at Frankfort and dropping it off in Mitte in Berlin before the Berlin portion of the trip. We will look into Schwangau.

Thanks to WW2 (!) cities like Berlin are easy to drive thru -wide streets as most German cities have as an aftermath of being bitzed to bits.

Schwangau:

https://www.google.com/search?q=schw...w=1745&bih=864

I camped there once and the municipal band struck up lakeside in early evening!

Have a "gute Fahrt" as they, to me lovingly say, in Germany for 'good trip'!

Over a 6 night span you are moving 5 times (5 one night stays) and you are covering an area from SW Germany all across the south of the country and back up to east central Germany in doing it. That is one big distance to cover with the "hassle" of changing hotels every day.

It is about 9 hours of driving over 4 days and when you are finished in Bamberg you have 3 more hours to drive to Dresden.

Yes lots of driving and little time in each place. Natural inclination to try to see lots of Germany in a little time - eliminate perhpas Baden-Baden, Lindau

suggest returning car in Dresden and taking train to Berlin.

Some suggestions.
9/10 Fly into Frankfurt
9/10&11 Bacharach
9/12 Rothenburg ob der Tauber
9/13&14 Lindau (Bodensee)
9/15&16 Fussen
9/17 Regensburg
9/18&19 Dresden
9/20 Potsdam
9/21-23 Berlin
9/24 Fly home from Berlin

https://goo.gl/maps/1bi6BmLtVMy

I would have my hotels reserved in advance.

The above itinerary reduces driving,reduces one night stops, eliminates sequential one night stops,adds a two night stop.

I would rather spend two nights in Lindau instead of one night in Lindau and one night in Baden.Bamburg and Regensburg are a toss up. Another thought, you could drop Lindau and add a two night stop in Prague between Regensburg and Dresden if you would rather see a major city. Also Munich could be substituted for Lindau and added after Fussen.So many decisions. They are all good.

I have found that it is good to book the hotels ahead since the hotels seem to be filling up.