Hello. Myself and my partner would like to drive from Berlin to Frankfurt over 4 nights in May this year. We would like a scenic drive if possible and to be able to discover some beautiful towns. Any advice and recommendations would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Erfurt is a nice town

https://flic.kr/p/fhwSr1
as is Quedlingburg

https://flic.kr/p/fkV7DV
or Wernigerode

https://flic.kr/p/fmaw5q

We are making the same drive (but faster and toward the end of a 3-week trip) in June; we will stay in Fulda. I was there a few years ago at Christmas Market time and look forward to showing DH a few sights, especially the cathedral, in warmer weather. Then the next day we have Gelnhausen and Ronnenburg on our probable agenda before arriving in Frankfurt.

Parts of my trip report might be useful: Trip Report: Central Germany, 2013

The only advice I have is: if it’s foggy stay off the autobahn.

Thanks all

I can't say that I am particularily enamored with Michael's trip report which for your area mostly shoots down sight after sight. Anyway this isn't such an epic trip that you should change hotels each day. With a car you might rather target smaller towns instead of plowing through large city traffic. Directly on your way are six UNESCO World heritage sites (if we disregard Potsdam which you also technically pass by car but that's a day trip or two from Berlin) namely Wittenberg, the Garden Kingdom Dessau Wörlitz, the Bauhaus in Dessau (not everyone's cup of tea), Naumburg cathedral, Weimar and the Wartburg. So theoretically you are already full without even detouring towards the Harz mountains. Leipzig has contrary to Michael's comments in fact on of the best preserved town cores of a major city in Germany and Halle also has a plethora of sights ranging from the sky disc of Nebra to its colorful justice palace. Merseburg's ensemble of cathedral and castle also merits a short look. Erfurt has one of the largest surviving old towns in Germany, Gotha has an outstanding palace, Bad Hersfeld one of the most imposing church ruins and Alsfeld is one of the prettiest towns. With Friedberg's mikve we reach already day trip destinations from Frankfurt but you with a car might want to see Münzenberg's castle which you have partly to do by bus from Frankfurt.
This is a list that very tightly clings to the highway and omits places like Marburg or Mühlhausen because i really don't see how they could fit in anywhere within your limited time frame.

I just re-read the report, aware that I am not known for gushing. Leipzig is the one negative view of the cities we saw. Perhaps you are from Naumburg and were insulted by my finding it ordinary? As to changing hotels each day, that is not what we did. We used Leipzig, Bamberg and Görlitz as a hub, as mentioned in the trip report.

Michael, I rather like your choice of destinations and that you don't sugarcoat everything into some "fairy tale" talk. It's just that at some point I was wondering what you are expecting from a destination. I'm from nowhere near the area but - Naumburg's cathedral has by now gained UNESCO World Heritage status and its statues are among the most important and iconic German artworks, the town itself is a perfectly nice Renaissance town with a beautiful square, an interesting parish church (with a nice view from the tower) and a former gate still intact. As for Leipzig it feels wrong to point out the bombardements when you have together with Hamburg the largest coherent old town core of any 500000+ people plus city in the country. It is a rare opportunity to see grandiose historistic architecture in larger still surviving contexts in Germany. The passages certainly don't compare to Milan - but then again what does? If that's your point of reference then everything will be just a lame imitation. The painting collection is perfectly fine as long as you don't expect Berlin, Dresden or Munich levels - that the building is an oversized monstrosity where you could hang airplanes instead of paintings is an unfortunate reality. However the main museum of Leipzig is anyway the Grassi. Finally the spacious and clean train station with its shops is generally seen as a striking success story. While Nordsee is a mass chain which has the same meal everywhere in the country so it is somehow amusing to see that it is your favorite from Leipzig. Finally - how you nuke the Garden Kingdom in two sentences - come on, did you at least take the boat trip and did you explore the different buildings and arrangements in the park at all? The least interesting park? Seriously?

It's interesting how someone can have such a different view of a place. I LOVED Leipzig, and want to go back again. I was there during the World CUp so that was lots of fun as they had a jumbotron out somewhere and everyone was in a festive mood (I think that was the year Germany won, so I guess 2014). But that isn't the reason I loved it, I just though it was a very pleasant city, and attractive, outstanding train station, several good museums, and I am a real classical music buff so that was my primary task, to visit those composer homes/museums which you can't do elsewhere. I just loved Leipzig.