Going to see the Mercedes and Porsche Museums, and going on a Porsche factory tour. Will have one free day and looking for suggestions for a day trip (by train) to a "cute" town/

Schwaebisch Hall is just north east of Stuttgart. It has a dramatic hilly setting with a grand cathedral and plenty of colorful timber houses.

Bad Wimpfen: Similar without the grand cathedral.

Tuebingen: Colorful student town south of Stuttgart (easy access) If you have a car go further south to Hechingen to tour the hilltop Hohenzollern Burg (picturesque castle/fortress complex with elaborate corkscrew cobble stone entry & jail.

Heidelberg is also not very far - one of the very finest German towns as it was hardly damaged in WWII as were most cities, including Stuttgart.

Tuebingen i thought was a wonderful university town near Stuttgart.

I second Schwäbisch Hall - it is a very pictureque town and has several attractions (museums, castle etc.).

An alternative option would be driving into the Black Forest (e.g. Triberg - waterfall, cuckoo clocks).

What DAX said.

Bad Wimpfen is the smallest and Tuebingen is the largest.

Here is Schwaebisch Hall:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hausfra...7603859079991/

I prefer them all to Heidelberg, which, albeit beautiful, is just too overrun with tourists for my liking.

If you want to see an incredible castle, I would second the Tuebingen / Burg Hohenzollern combo suggested by DAX. You could easily spend a morning walking around Tuebingen and an afternoon at the castle, or vice versa. Tuebingen has lots of great restaurant options but Burg Hohenzollern also has a terrific restaurant on-site.

Either Schwaebisch Hall or Bad Wimpfen. Both are great but different.

This is our webshots album showing photos from both Bad Wimpfen and Schwaebisch Hall a couple of years ago.

Sorry, left off the link to our album:

http://travel.webshots.com/album/354616542PMkPVQ

Hello OTC:

Frankly, I would stay in Stuttgart and wander around the margins of the city. I have found loads of fun and great people in the restaurants and bars just away from the centre of Stuttgart. Gradyghost

Thanks for your suggestions. Tomorrow I will start checking out these places.

Burg Hohenzollern (http://www.preussen.de/de/heute/burg...ichten.html)is worth seeing.

There's a train leaving Stuttgart at 10:16, arriving at Hechingen at 11:18. The bus to Burg Hohenzollern leaves Hechingen shortly after the train arrives at 11:25 and gets to the base of the hill below the castle at 11:40. There is a shuttle up the hill that runs often and takes just a few minutes.

The return trip leaves Burg Hohenzollern at 16:10, giving you about 4 hours to tour the castle. The bus gets to the station in Hechingen at 16:32, and the train leaves at 16:37, getting back to Stuttgart at 17:43. You will find all of this on the Bahn website, http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en.

Sorry, that's http://www.preussen.de/de/heute/burg...ansichten.html.

Everything, except for the shuttle bus up and down the castle hill, should be covered by a Baden-Württemburg-Ticket.

As for "cute" towns accessible as a day trip by train, here are a few.

Calw: home of Herman Hesse (Steppenwolf). Take the train to Pforzheim and change there for Calw. Small town, lots of fachwerk buildings.

Bad Wildbad: spa town in the Black Forest, with a great Therme (Spa, www.palais-thermal.de), if you don't mind co-ed nudity. Take the streetcar from Pforzheim.

Freudenstadt: (www.freudenstadt.de) a little bigger than Calw and Bad Wildbad. Sometimes called the capital of the northern Black Forest. Boasts the largest town square in Germany - good shopping town. Has been rebuilt since being destroyed by fire during WWII.

Herrenberg: lots of fachwerk buildings, remains of town wall, fortress ruins (not much left).

Tübingen: university town on the Neckar river. Pleasant.

Ulm: east of Stuttgart on the main line to Munich. Has the tallest Gothic church tower in the world, and it's climbable (inside).

There are plenty more. These are just some I know of from personal experience.

We have been to Burg Hohenzollern, Tuebingen, Herrenberg and Hechengin on our last trip in Sept. 2007. All were well worth a visit. Herrenberg and Hechingen are both small and can be done in an afternoon.

Tuebingen:
http://travel.webshots.com/photo/205...11574650Xtloup

Burg Hohenzollern:
http://travel.webshots.com/photo/259...11574650KaMSTm

Herrenberg:
http://travel.webshots.com/photo/292...11574650LcBJyr

Bauhaus Architecture - Stuttgart, Germany
Bauhaus Architektur - Outstanding architectural buildings, constructed by architects of the 1920s, the so called Bauhaus era. Buildings of Ludwig Mies van ...
www.bauhausarchitektur.info/rfcmscat9.html

In Stuttgart itself you have one of the earliest and best samples of Bauhaus architecture - including the first modern housing complex i think - originally for workers - the Weisskopf in an area in the eastern part of the city.