Dear Fodorites,

I am back again and in the process of firming up my plans for my trip to Germany in May 2011.
Please advise me a base town and a place to stay (Apartment / Garni preferably a garni as we would prefer breakfast to be included in the room rate) for each of the following areas. We are okay with Apartments also but it should be conveniently located to the railway station and local store / market as we are 2 adults with 2 kids below 10 years :
Black Forest town
Romantic Road Town
upper Bavarian castle town
towns from where we can see the German Alps
Munch & Berlin or their suburbs

While recommending bases for our stay in each area please bear in mind that we will be travelling by rail and the place needs to be safe and budget.

Also, recommend a garni in St. Goar. Assume St. Goar would be a good base for covering Rhine Valley towns. We are currently booked at Rhinefels Apartment.

Any feedback will be really appreciated.

Kind regards,
SKPKCP11

For a town in the Black Forest, we'd recommend Staufen. It's a small town, (more of a village really) with an authentic feel/flavor, good restaurants and a few descent lodging options. For the adults, there's wine tasting and a top class Kirschwasser distillery (Schladerer) that also offers tours and tastings; for the kids, there the ruins of the castle to explore, just above town. There's also a pretty nice, outdoor pool on the outskirts of town, if the weather is nice enough. There's a small train that connects Staufen to Bad Krozingen, a station on the main North/South Basel-Freiburg line, so it's pretty easily accessible. And while there's not a lot of train routes in the Black Forest, there is good bus service connecting Staufen to points deeper into the Forest, if you'd like to explore.

Why not Freiburg itself, which would be a hub for that area?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mksfca/...7623103979081/

As for the Romantische Straße, Würzburg might be a good hub. I would not recommend Rothenburg because it is at the end of a slow rail line.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mksfca/...7623099774049/

The Black Forest is a huge chunk of real estate. There are a few destinations, but it's mostly a rural region dotted with small, mostly attractive villages and spa towns where visitors tend to do lots of hiking and mountainbiking. You need to decide what you want to see/do there first. Likewise, the Romantic Road is an incredibly long stretch of asphalt. Perhaps the fact that you have small kids will help you determine your interests better.

In the BF, Triberg is the big tourist destination, lots of buses and cuckoo clocks, not my cup of tea, but there are some other interesting and attractive towns nearby, including Schiltach (some nice photos here):

http://www.schiltach.de/ceasy/module...hp5?cPageId=82

Near there is the open-air museum in Hausach, which may interest you:

http://en.vogtsbauernhof.org/

If you stay in Schiltach or any of the BF towns on the following list, your train travel through the region is FREE with the Konus Card:

http://www.schiltach.de/ceasy/module...hp5?cPageId=82

http://www.blackforest-tourism.com/konus



Another open-air museum can be found in Bad Windsheim, Bavaria, not far from the Romantic Road town of Rothenburg:

http://www.stripes.com/military-life...useum-1.102354

You can fulfill your desire for both an upper Bavarian castle town and towns from where we can see the German Alps by staying in a place like Hohenschwangau (Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau Castles) or near a castle in the Berchtesgaden region.

Thanks to you all for your quick reverts.

Russ : We have been booked at Hausach - Joklisbauernhof recommended by BavariaBen for 2/3 nights. Based on your recommendations to my earlier post, we have got bookings at Mr. Walter Huppertz place in St. Goar too.
No reverts received from Logos, Echnaton, Swandav and the group. I find all you guys give very good inputs.

PaulHahn : Any recommendations for stay at Hohenschwangau or any place close to Berchtesgaden/or any town/village close to Berchtesgaden.

Any recommendations for place of stay in Munich & Berlin (hotels close to the train stations)

Kind regards,
SKPKCP11