theatrelover

My husband and I are planning on flying to Frankfurt on or about 9/7 and we would need to fly back to NY on 9/24. I am really getting overwhelmed looking at all the possibilities and I have no idea what itinerary would be reasonable. We would rent a car. My husband loves to take photos so pretty natural sights and charming towns would be high on our list. We are in our late 50s, in good shape, love to walk but not intense hikes. We also do not like to rush when traveling and would prefer to see places in more depth rather than running from town to town. My initial thought was to make a circle from Frankfurt towards Wurzburg, Rothenburg, Munich, along the southern area of Germany such as Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Neuschwanstein and Lake Constance and then head north back toward Frankfurt through the Black Forest perhaps stopping in Baden-Baden and Heidelberg. I don't know whether a route like this is feasible in our time frame. If not, how should I change it? Thank you so much for any help you can give me.

Hans

theatrelover, sounds good to me for two and a half weeks. The stops you're mentioning are always at most a few hours away from each other (if you want to look for driving distances, you can use for example www.map24.de).

You can use www.hrs.de to check hotels. If the hotels aren't busy, you might think about not booking ahead but just going with the flow. So if you feel that things get too hurried, you might simply skip one destination and stay a little longer at one place.

Gary_Mc

Your schedule looks pretty good to me.

We traveled one year without reservations but with a list of hotels mainly from HRS mentioned by Hans. That was in April, September is a little more high season. I would keep close tabs on how fast rooms are disappearing. With a car, you have more flexibility.

The Michelin Green Guide is good for driving vacations. There are a couple maps up front that will help you group major sights by the regions you are visiting.

I also like the ADAC Straßenatlas for maps. It has more scenic places highlighted than any guide book covers. There can be many places worth seeing or stopping for lunch that do not make a guide book. This is one of the beauties of traveling in Germany.

Regards, Gary

theatrelover

Thank you both for the responses. It's good to know that this general itinerary is doable.

Pegontheroad

I think your itinerary looks good too. Very often when people post their itinerary here, they try to do too much.

We always check viamichelin.com to see how far it is from once city to another. I have found, however, that it usually takes a little longer than viamichelin says it will to get to a given town or city. We try to drive no more than three hours per day.

bavariaben

I've thought for many years and many trips to Germany that the loop you describe is about the best way to see my favorite highlights of the country. For the past few years (due to budget constraints) I have left out the Bavarian portion but this year I will be using basically your same itinerary. Frankfurt to Rothenburg o.d.T. - Dinkelsbühl - (but bypassing Munich and Oktoberfest) - Austria (near Füssen) - Ludwig's castles - Bodensee - Black Forest (Titisee - Gutach - Gengenbach) - Bacharach (Rhine Gorge). It's an excellent loop any way you do it. With the time frame you have - you should definitely include the Berchtesgaden area. Here are 14 and 15 day itineraries that take in pretty much the same territories -
http://www.bensbauernhof.com/itineraries.html
Ben

theatrelover

Thank you all so much for taking the time to help me with this. These itineraries will help so much. I haven't been to Germany since the summer I graduated from college (many years ago) and I visited friends who were in the Stuttgart Ballet at the time. It will be wonderful to tour this beautiful country with a bit more money than my student budget permitted way back then.