Bird

Does any one know why this area in Germany is called the Romantic Road? Is this a name someone gave it from the Romantic Era? If you have any clues, I would be interested.

RufusTFirefly

I read in some guidebook that it was to help spur tourism. Gives people planning vacations a themed itinerary. The same with all the other "roads": Castles road, Fairytale Road, etc.

steve

Because you will fall in love with the region and want to keep going back and back and back and back

Seamus

Hate to be a wet blanket, but the name derives from the fact that this was a road originally built by the Romans.

JMM

Seamus is wrong Rufus is essentially correct. It is NOT a specific road but rather a route through some of the most attractive and interesting parts of Germany. And it is really quite worth doing.

Marge

I'm no expert about this, but I have been planning my own trip there lately and found this info at http://www.germany-tourism.de
(a site that has a ton of information about traveling in Germany, btw)

The History of the Scenic Routings
The first "Vacation Route" was established in 1927 - the German Alpine Road. Designed to attract individual travelers, most, however, were founded after 1949 in the original states of the newly born German Federal Republic.

In 1950, "The Romantic Road" was first advertised overseas, and to this day, it remains the most famous of Germany's Scenic Routings.

Also the German Fairy-Tale Route and the Castle Route are reknown worldwide. A major advantage of these Scenic Routings is how they enable travelers to get acquainted with day-to-day life in Germany.