What to do in 8 days
 

I will be travelling to germany at the end of September for 8 days. We will be arriving in Frankfurt on a Friday morning and will be flying out of Munich the following Saturday. I've just begun my research but would love some advice. Here are the things that interest us: The Rhine Valley, Rothenburg, Romantic Road, Possibly Octoberfest for a day, Dachau, and Salzburg. Any thoughts???? I'm not keen on driving and have always done Europe by rail.

You may be a candidate for a German Railpass - as low as $150 for four days of unlimited travel in a one month period - based on a Twin Pass. Compare prices in euros at www.bahn.de to see what's best - pass is cheaper the more days you buy - about $20 for the fifth and subsequent days. to get to the www.bahn.de site's English schedule and pricing page visit www.budgeteuropetravel.com's home page and click on link there "All European Train Schedules" and you'll instantly get the bahn site (Germany Rail site)'s English page where you just put in your two towns and get all the schedules and pricing in euros. (You can request an excellent free European Planning & Rail Guide this company publishes on their home page and it has extensive coverage on Germany - with a rail map, itinerary info and bits on each of the places you're heading. The German pass will take you all the way to Salzburg, which is a German station for pass purposes - there actually is a Germany station in the Salzburg station. The pass can also be used on the Romantic Road buses - you get a 60% discount but do not have to use a day of travel on your pass. All the places you mention have superb rail service. German passes also pass for free travel on KD boats on the Rhine (www.k-d.com) For Romantik Road buses: www.deutsche-touring.com) - schedules and pricing but both will be running full schedules in September.
As they say in Germany, have a Gut Fahrt (Nice journey!)

We have visited the Rhine, Rothenburg, the Romantic Road, Munich and Salzburg, and found them all wonderful. You could hardly go wrong with any of your choices.

We are planning a 10 day rail trip this spring, also into Frankfurt and out at the Munich airport. We are first spending 4 nights in Wurzburg with side trips to Rothenburg & Bamberg. Then we will spend 3 nights in Nurnberg with visits to local cities as we lived there some years ago. Our third stop for two nights will be in Regensburg, a city that will be new to us. Our final night we will spend in either Landshut or Freising, both of which are easily accessible to the Munich airport.

We came to really enjoy the "Bergs & Burgs" in Franconia during our tours to Germany. They are generally less touristy (except Rothenburg) but still have enough middle-ages history and baroque decorations to make them interesting.

Regards, Gary

Thanks for the rail tips....I am thinking:
Day 1Fri: arrive in Frankfurt beofre noon and Train to Rhine (maybe St. Goar??) spend 2 nights
Day 3Sun: train to Rothenburg and spend one night
Day 4Mon: Train to Munich spend 3 nights
Visit Dachau, Ludgwig's Castle
from Munich
Day 7 Th: Train to Salzburg spend 2 nights
Day 9 Sat: Leave early for Munich airport

How does this sound??

You can check for train connections on line.
http://bahn.hafas.de/bin/query.exe/en

From St Goar to Rothenburg ob der Tauber it looks like about a 4.5 hour train ride with 3-4 connections. From Rothenburg to Munich (Muenchen) it would take about 3 hours.

Regards, Gary

Gary, we have spent 2 Christmases in Regensburg and really enjoyed the city. Very walkable and has retained so much of its medieval flavor (and even some of the Roman vestiges).

sk2214:

Sounds like a great itinerary - the German Railpass may well save you money so compare prices on the German (bahn) site with pass prices.