no-car itinerary with 8-y.o. son
 

I'd welcome itinerary advice for a trip in Dec./Jan 08-09 with my husband and 3rd grade son. We are considering Rothenberg, Augsburg, Munich and Fussen and have about 10 days to spend. Munich and Rothenberg are must-sees but we are flexible, the only thing is that we don't want to rent a car so will be using public transit.

Hi TM,

See www.bahn.de for train schedules.

((I))

You seem to have a very good 10 day itinerary in mind. I might suggest Regensburg for Augsburg but both are very nice. Regensburg has a city museum with scaled models of the original Roman Fortress (actually its construction) and the medieval bridge that might be fun for a 3rd grader.

For the bahn.de site use Fuessen rather than Fussen and "Rothenburg ob der Tauber". If you are landing in Frankfurt, "FRA Airport" works. I think that Munich works, otherwise Muenchen.

Traveling by train is one of the pleasures of Germany for this 60+ adolescent; I bet that it will be for your child as well.

Regards, Gary

Sounds doable. I personally wouldn't rule out a car (we rented for 3 weeks this summer for about $250/wk) unless your son really wouldn't be interested in castles, suits of armor, etc. If he were, there are places near Rothenburg that might fascinate him, but they aren't handy by public transit.

Gary...had to chuckle at your "60+ adolescent" comment...we normally drive anywhere in Europe, but for the times we've "trained" it, I just loved it...relaxing, varied scenery passing by....a few years ago, we dropped our rental car in Narvik after driving a good part of Norway, and took the overnight train into Stockholm...lots of summer daylight of course, and the scenery was nothing short of magnificent.
Travelmom...happy journey...the 8 year old will love every bit of it..
stu T.

We did a similar itinerary - mostly by train, but 3 days with a car when we went to the Fussen area. Lots of people do that by train too though, so I don't see any issues.

thanks for all of the great advice. it sounds as though it would be worthwhile to rent a car for a few days of exploring in the Fussen or Rothenberg areas. Gary, I'll look into Regensberg over Augsburg.