Hi

We are a family of 3 with 6yo boy planning the following itinerary in August 2018. Is it doable? Would you change anything? We will be mostly using public transport as much as possible.
1 Arrive in Frankfurt in the morning sleep in Nuremberg
2 Nuremberg visit Bamberg
3 Nuremberg visit Rothenberg
4 Munich
5 Munich day trip
6 Munich day trip
7 Munich visit Salzburg
8 Heidelberg
9 Return from Frankfurt morning flight

Ray

just a word on trains - except for trip to Heidelberg you can use the bargain Bavarian Ticket for unlimited travel on regional trains throughout Bavaria and even to Salzburg for both for about 35 euros - includes city transports - buy at station day of travel. See www.bahn.de/en for details. Great info on trains- www.seat61.com; BETS-European Rail Experts and www.ricksteves.com. Book Munich-Heidelberg tickets at bahn.com too for discounts if book early enough to get them. Heidelberg to Frankurt cheap so no need to pre-book.

Thanks for the great info. Does it make sense to buy 10 consecutive days German Rail Pass ?

Well yes and no - depends on whether you get discounted fares for Frankfurt to Nurnberg and Munich to Heidelberg- only two long-distance trains your taking - book at www.bahn.de/en (again www.seat61.com has loads on doing that yourself) - but if wanting to just hop on any train anytime the pass could be a good deal - price it out yourself at www.banh.de/en vs pass - beauty of pass is you can yes jump on any train anytime and don't have to restrict yourselves to regional trains like with the Bavaria Pass (though some of your trips will be mainly by regional train).

that pass is about $380 for 10 days so at $38/day or about 29 euros p.p. (kid gets free pass I believe) to me it sounds like a great deal - could save a few euros with regional pass and discounted tickets (train-specific and can't be changed and must be booked weeks in advance to guarantee getting as sold in limited numbers, etc) but for not much more I'd suggest the 10-day pass. Any questions about passes I recommend calling Byron at BETS-European Rail Experts -I've bought passes from him for years and IME will take time to answer questions whether buying or not. Look for possible specials on German Passes that pop up periodicallyh

l'd also consider a first-class railpass - about $530 for 10 days p.p. on a Twin Pass (two traveling together on one pass) or about 42 euros a day and much more likely to find empty seats in first class than 2nd class (but you can make optional reservations in either class for a few euros).

Thanks for the valuable information . I made a small change. It makes more sense to skip Heidelberg and fly out from Munich.

Why not fly into Munich as all your other places are in Bavaria or Salzburg, practically in Bavaria. Then you may want to see if Bavarian day tickets were better than a pass - especially if some days will be spent just in Munich. 30-35 euros for both unlimited regional trains which are fine for your plans and no need to advance purchase, etc.