Flwrhead

My son and I are going to Germany in late March (first trip for both) and I've created an overly ambitious itinerary for our 9 days, 8 nights trip. Goal is to see castles, experience the country and countryside, and visit museums if possible. Unfortunately, when I booked the trip I didn't realize that the Romantic Road bus begins operation in April, so I'll be renting a car. I've looked at trains but it seems to be fairly expensive compared to the cost of car rental and I assume I'd have to line up other transportation to actually get to these historical sites?

DAY ONE: arrive in Frankfurt at 7:50 am, pick up rental car and drive to Mespelbrunn Castle, visit castle, continue on to Wurzburg, tour Fortress Marienberg and Kappele Sanctuary,spend the night in Wurzburg.

DAY TWO: Drive from Wurzburg to Nuremberg, visit Kaiserburg Nurnberg. Drive to Salzburg, Austria, stay the night

DAY THREE: Visit Fortress Hohensalzburg, drive towards Schwangau, visit Schloss Neuschwanstein and Schloss Hohenschwangau. Spend the night in Schwangau.

DAY FOUR: Drive to Sigmaringen, visit Sigmaringen Castle. Drive towards Hechingen, visit Hohenzollern Castle. Drive to Strasbourg, France, stay the night.

DAY FIVE: Visit Cathedrale Notre-Dame de Strasbourg and Kleber Square. Drive to Boppard Germany, stay the night.

DAY SIX: Drive from Boppard to Bruhl, visit Schlosser Bruhl. Drive from Bruhl to Cologne, stay the night.

This is as far as I've gotten. I'm quite sure this itinerary is either impossible or is so packed that it won't be enjoyable, but when I look at suggested itineraries in both Fodors and the Michelin Green Guide, it seems like they spend a LOT of time visiting a very small area.

So please, don't hold back, tell me I'm nuts, I won't take offense!

annhig

You're nuts.

janisj

>>DAY ONE: arrive in Frankfurt at 7:50 am, pick up rental car and drive to Mespelbrunn Castle, visit castle, continue on to Wurzburg, tour Fortress Marienberg and Kappele Sanctuary,spend the night in Wurzburg.<<

bad bad BAD idea to drive after an overnight flight. That is a two+ hour drive plus stops/sight seeing. Just don't.

Day two is craZY. That is a 5+ hour drive plus stops/ hunting for parking, sightseeing.

Day 3 is a 4 hour drive plus two major castles.

Day 4 is totally 100% bonkers -- an 6 hour drive plus stops for two castles!!!!

Start over - throw this plan out

bilboburgler

Why you driving in March (weather issues may abound) in such a big area to see places that are really lovely in May?

Why do you need to "score" visits rather than visit.

Take Strasbourg. Ancient centre, even a rushed person will take 8 hrs to visit the best bits, then the WW1 outskirt bunkers need another day and the local fortresses, Roman stuff, concentration camp needs another day. The wine the food.....

So three days makes sense. Plus some down time in a pool, hit the internet and just look at one base.

Nuts with kernels man.

janisj

. . . meant to add -- most of the time (almost always but a few exceptions) . . . when an OP asks if an itinerary is insane - it IS

annhig

Seriously, the first problem is that you are planning to pick up a car and to drive a strange vehicle in a foreign country after an over night flight when your abilities are highly likely to be impaired. The second one is that you are trying to cram 3 trips into one week.

If you want mountains i would suggest getting the train straight to Munich and spending at least one night there before you drive off.

The next day get the train to Garmisch which will take about an hour. then pick up your car. loads to see and do there, quite enough to fill at least 2 days. [night 2, 3, 4] [You'll see I've missed out Salzburg. Far too far to go for just one night]

Drive to Augsburg. Stay 1 nights. [night 5]

Drive to Nuremberg. Stay 2 nights [6&7]

Drive to Wurzberg. stay 1 night [night 8]

Train to Frankfurt airport. fly home.

IMO this is still far too much driving but it gives you most of what you were originally interested in without all the travel. If you must have Salzburg then I suggest looking at flying straight to Salzburg when you land, spending at least 3 nights there [4 would be better] then working your way back towards Frankfurt. You could spend a night in Regensburg, 2 in Nuremberg, and 1 in Wurzberg, for example.

OR - cut out the mountains and spend a week touring Wurzberg, Bamberg, Nuremberg, Rothenburg ob der Tauber etc.

OR - Get the train straight to Strasbourg, spend at least 3 nights there, then work your way back to Frankfurt via a combination of any of the Black Forest, the Sueddeutsche Weinstrasse, the Pfaelzer Wald, Heidelberg, and Boppard and back to Frankfurt.

If you think I'm being unambitious, try putting your original trip into google maps, working out how much time you're going to spend driving as opposed to seeing things. [remembering that google maps doesn't allow for traffic] plus you need to factor in the tine wasted finding a new hotel, orienting yourselves in a new place, etc. etc.

Have fun planning.

Flwrhead

hahahahahaha! I knew it was! I was sooo tempted, you know, you look at Google maps and the distances don't look like that much, but yeah, I knew it was crazy!

Thank you, everyone, I am deleting this wacky itinerary and nailing down the key areas we want to see and will schedule the trip around 2 or 3 of those. Because no, I am not interested in checking boxes, I am interested in experiencing Germany and soaking it in.

Flwrhead

Thank you so so much, I will look at all of these options. I personally would much rather take a train than drive. I also would rather move hotels 4 times MAX, so I obviously have a lot more research and planning to do. Since the romantic road buses aren't in operation until the last two days of our trip, I wonder if there are hop-on, hop-off boats, I'll have to check that out!

cdnyul

<<DAY ONE: arrive in Frankfurt at 7:50 am, pick up rental car and drive to Mespelbrunn Castle, visit castle, continue on to Wurzburg, tour Fortress Marienberg and Kappele Sanctuary,spend the night in Wurzburg.>>

Change that to : arrive in Frankfurt at 7:50 am, pick up rental car and drive to to Wurzburg, spend the night in Wurzburg.
An hours drive in no big deal, five or six is pushing it.

Pay for an extra night in Wurzburg so you can check in early, relax take a nap, etc.

After that do what you want , it is your trip.

Having a car means you are not tied to a train schedule or an itinerary and,as you observed, is cheaper.

texasbookworm

Glad you are re-thinking; when using Googlemaps, we always add at LEAST 50% to the time. DH's numerous trips to Germany for business and ours together for fun have taught us that German traffic can be horrendous; that stretch Frankfurt to Wurzburg is often awful.

Here's another idea: there are tons of castles and sites reachable from Frankfurt via trains, so you COULD just stay put in Frankfurt (an underestimated city, imho) and take trains. Maybe not to ones/cities you mentioned, but to lots along the Rhine. (Nice museums in Frankfurt; also maybe take Frankfurt by Foot tour, a good option for arrival day.)

We've driven over much of Germany and are going back this June to see stuff we haven't, using a car, so I'm not saying you shouldn't rent one. But if you click on my name and look at my Trip Reports, you can see how much I have been able to do based in Frankfurt using trains (by myself, so they're pretty easy, reliable, and (relatively) safe. Just an option.

kja

Wrong! Driving ANY distance after crossing multiple time zones is just as dangerous, to you and anyone else on the road, as driving drunk. You can't avoid the micro-sleeps that cause the danger by sleeping on the plane or drinking coffee or any way other than giving your body time to adjust.

Lubitsch

Granted that your itinerary is crazy and the usual US American pointless driving rallye but beyond that I also don't quite get its purpose or the logic behind it. You are mostly hopping from castle/palace to castle/palace with two random churches and Boppard being thrown in. Not sure when you could even do as much as even a walk in a town (let alone a museum). Also if castles/palaces then how on earth can you leave out Würzburg Residenz? If churches then where are Nuremberg's two main churches?

I appreciate that you have done at least some basic research and some more original choices but with 8 nights two areas is all you should focus on. Also late March is still a problematic choice if you can change it for something warmer please do so. A car trip after a transatlantic flight strikes me also as a terrible idea. Get yourself a room at Frankfurt, take the train and do a day trip to Marburg.

Sassafrass

This might be of some help to you.
https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopi...a_Bavaria.html

janisj

PLEASE don't listen to cdnyul. Driving 'just' an hour is no safer than driving hours

Lubitsch

How is this thread which has only the faintest connections to OP's request of any help?

annhig

Well done for accepting the advice you've had to cut down on your ambitions.

To give you an idea of how a longer stay can mean that you see more, you might like to tag along with this TR which is being posted at the moment, covering some of the same ground:

The Boomer and the Gen-Zer: A trip of firsts

in this case less is definitely more.

Flwrhead

Thank you for chiming in! I have traveled to Europe six times but never driven and am not in a particular hurry to do so. Just thought it might be more practical and also less expensive. Our air travel is booked and non-refundable so changing to May isn't a possibility. I did try to look at off-the-beaten-path choices and that remains a priority - I will be doing much more research today and post a revised itinerary soon.

As always, I appreciate the advice and experience of the posters on Fodor's, I have received many wonderful recommendations over the years!

Flwrhead

Well, you know, my dreams got the best of me when I looked at a map and thought ALL THESE PLACES ARE SO CLOSE TO EACH OTHER, I WANT TO SEE THEM ALL! hahahaha Thank you for the trip report link!

annhig

Well, you know, my dreams got the best of me when I looked at a map and thought ALL THESE PLACES ARE SO CLOSE TO EACH OTHER, I WANT TO SEE THEM ALL! hahahaha Thank you for the trip report link!

lol, no problems. I have that same thought when I look at a map of North America. How close all these places look to each other.

bvlenci

I'll just add that you don't really experience a country by visiting castles. I would bet that half the people living in Europe (maybe more) have never been inside a castle. There's so much more to the culture of a country than its castles.