Hello,
I will be taking my first trip to Bavaria in early September. My plan is to arrvie in Munich spend a few nights and then drive to fussen and up the romantice road to the rine river, then fly out of Frankfurt. I%26#39;m not sure what%26#39;s the best way to plan the trip in terms of must see towns and nights to stay in each.
Can anyone help with an itinerary?
Here are a few details I%26#39;m hoping to incorporate.
8 nights for the following ........
1) A stay in the 3 castel hotels, unless someone has better ideas; Castle Hotel Colmberg, Castle Hotel Auf Schönburg, Castle Hotel Liebenstein.
2) A night in Fussen, Rothenburg ob der Tauber, ???
3) Perhaps side trips to Nuremberg and Koln if time permits
4) A visit to the rine river, but not sure what%26#39;s the best thing to do and how much time to spend.
5) A stop to small towns, to take in local life, sites, and ambiance along my journey. Not sure which one%26#39;s and how long to stay..
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1) You could stay in Burg Katzenstein, a castle from the 1100s which is fairly near Noerdlingen ( www.burgkatzenstein.de only in German). If you choose to stay there, see the old Roman Road just north of there, straight as an arrow across the desolate countryside, and also the magnificent church at the monastery in Neresheim. Two other castles upstream from Heidelberg on the Neckar River have accomodations, Schloss Hirschhorn in Hirschhorn (Neckar) and Burg Hornberg in Neckarzimmern.
2) I recommend the Villa Jaegerhaus in Hohenschwangau with close-up views of lit-up by night Neuschwanstein from your room. Click on my name for my review.
5) I would skip many of the small towns and concentrate also on other sights such as the nice castle in Harburg, some palaces, some monasteries, and some nice churches to give a pleasant mix of things. Make sure to drive to the river below Rothenburg to see the town on the skyline. Also, include a few modern things on your vacation, particulary interesting when juxtaposed against the old. When you get north of Rothenburg, you also will have wineries around. The Residenz in Wuerzburg is excellent, and there is also a fortress there.
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Nuernberg makes no sense as a side trip given your route. I%26#39;ve eaten at Colmberg castle a couple of times, and saw the inside of one the rooms. A nice touch of medieval and modern. Food is good there too. Only 20 minutes from Rothenburg, so not a bad option. I would suggest 3 nights in Munich, drive to Fueseen, a night there, drive to Colmberg, a night there, and then 3 nights on the Rhine. St. Goar is nice.
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Thanks for your responses. Would you recommend to stay in Fussen? It seems the recommendation may be to stay around the town at hotels with a view of the castle?
Does Wuerzburg warrant a night spent or a drive through? Certainly would love to do wine tasting..
Could you highlight any must see sites not castle related along this drive..
Oh.. If I didnt ask enough questions. Could you recommend the best way to rent a car with GPS?
Thanks!!!
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I stayed in Fuessen once and Reutte once. Avoid Reutte, but I stayed at the Hotel Kurcafe in Fuessen. Highly recommended, see my reviews. There%26#39;s a view of the castle - the Fuessen castle. I hear people rave about the hotels in Schwangau, but obviously it%26#39;s packed full of tourists during the day. I%26#39;m not a fan of Wuerzburg, but some say the Residence there is worth a visit. However, I%26#39;d rather stay the night in RODT. Can%26#39;t comment on GPS rentals, but folks are saying you can buy one in the states with Euro maps for around $200, cheaper than the cost of a rental. I have a TomTom 920 that tries to take me down turn roads, but Navigon is no better. But I still would recommend a GPS. It%26#39;s easy to drive here, but you definitely want to take the quickest routes. From Fuessen I would take the A7 straight to RODT. And after a night there, I would blast up the A7 to the A3 for the Rhine. The Rhine is awesome, spend your extra time there instead of Wuerzburg or small towns like Noerdlingen and Dinklesbuhl.
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%26quot;Could you highlight any must see sites not castle related along this drive..%26quot;
Places along the Romantic Road such as hotels, restaurants, museums, and tourist offices will have free booklets about the places along it which I highly suggest getting.
Some of the better places to visit going south to north are:
Fuessen
Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein Palaces
St. Coloman Church, Schwangau
Wieskirche (church), short detour
Monastery church in Steingaden
Pilgrimage church Marial-Heims.
Towm of Schongau and the basilica there
Town of Lndsberg am Lech
City of Augsburg
Monastery church St. Peter and Paul NE of Meitingen
Former monastery St. Johannes by Nordenhof
Town of Donauwoerth
Monastery church at Kaisheim to its NE
The castle in Harburg
The walled medieval town of Noerdlingen, the only walled town of the Romantic Road where you can walk the entire town wall You are now in the Ries Basin, which a meteorite impact basin created millions of years ago, the musuem has information on this.
The walled town of Dinkelsbuehl
The town of Feuchtwangen
Town of Schillingsfuerst with a palace and a falconry show
Walled town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber
Town of Creglingen with the nearby Herrgott Church
Town of Weikersheim with its excellent palace
Spa town of Bad Mergentheim, with its German Order Museum, palace and church, and just to the south a wild animal park
Town of Tauberbischofsheim with palace and nice churches
City of Wuerzburg with several palaces (Residenz is best), the Fortress Marienberg, and the Old Franconian Vineyard just SE of it.
Of course, if you make short detours away from the Romantic Road, this list increase dramatically. But get one or several of those free booklets. It will tell you what is special about the places, such as exceptionally nice carved altars in some churhces, etc. You can stop in a lot of monastery churches or other churches along the way. These stops need not be long, sometimes a few minutes will be sufficient, other times much longer, but you should start to notice what is unique and special, or possibly the same, when comparing them.
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Thanks so much for the sites... I%26#39;m fairly open to venture around since we will have a car.
We will stay in Munich for 2 nights then make the drive up to the rhine river, we have 8 nights for that drive.
Would you recommend a trip to Koln?
We were thinking to stay:
1 night Fussen
1 night Colberg
1 night Rothenburg
1 night ?? (open not sure)
4 nights rhine
Would you recommend this or something else?
We very much appreciate your responses.
Thanks
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%26quot;Would you recommend a trip to Koln?
We were thinking to stay:
1 night Fussen
1 night Colberg
1 night Rothenburg
1 night ?? (open not sure)
4 nights rhine
Would you recommend this or something else?%26quot;
I really don%26#39;t like to get into itineraries as to me they are personal. You could spend two weeks almost anywhere in Germany and 100km (60 miles) around it, and not run out of excellent things to see and do. You%26#39;ll have a good time, the things that you see and do will be of course somewhat different.
I%26#39;m sure that what you%26#39;re planning to do is fine, however, I believe that you meant Colmberg and not Colberg.
Personally, we never drive such routes as the Romantic Road, the road itself isn%26#39;t romantic, an ordinary German two lane highway, just some of the places along it could possibly be described that way. We just visit the places that interest us, and stop at some others along the way to fill in the day and see some other things also. So, instead of driving the Romantic Road, I would drive the much faster A7 autobahn which kind of subparallels it. This autobahn goes by Fuessen with nearby Neuschwanstein Palace, the walled town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber, and Wuerzburg with the Residenz Palace. These three places are considered the highlights of the Romantic Road. If you do this, consider also visiting the monastery church at Ottobeuren, crammed full of more beautiful Baroque religious items than can be easily comprehended, the cathedral in Ulm which has the world%26#39;s tallest church spire, climbable if desired, and the Steiff Museum in Giengen (inventors of the teddy bear).
Between Rothenburg and Heidelberg, I like the unique, walled, fortified medieval monastery Comburg (also called Grosscomburg- in www.schloesser-und-gaerten.de ) by Schwaebisch Hall. By Heilbronn, you can visit the medieval town of Bad Wimpfen ( www.badwimpfen.de ), and continue on down the Neckar River with its castles, vineyards, and pleasant small towns to Heidelberg. By the way, much of this is on the Castle Road which intersects the Romantic Road in Rothenburg. Perhaps something to do with your extra day.
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That sounds very nice. I appreciate your perspective and realize itinerary is very personal.
After some more research, I am thinking to spend the time as such....
Munich
Romantic road
Heidelberg
Mosell valley (Cochem) / perhaps small trip to Rüdesheim
Rhine Valley (st. Goar / Shonburg castle hotel
Would you recommend these stops? Do you know what drive makes the most sense if I also plan to stop in Wuerzburg? It would appear I can go from Wuerzburg to Heidelberg them to Cochem the Rhine and end my trip in Frankfurt..
Not sure in terms of the drive and the scenery what would be the better order for these stops.... Is Heidelberg worth the trip or do you think it would be better to spend the time exploring rhine and mosell?
I know a lot of questions....... sorry about that .........
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%26quot;Would you recommend these stops? Do you know what drive makes the most sense if I also plan to stop in Wuerzburg? It would appear I can go from Wuerzburg to Heidelberg them to Cochem the Rhine and end my trip in Frankfurt.%26quot;
The stops are all fine. As I said before, I would just use the A7 autobahn between Fuessen and Wuerzburg. From Wuerzburg to Heidelberg, take the A81 north toward Stuttgart, and then the A6 autobahn west to the A5 autobahn north to Heidelberg. You could also cut over on two lane highwas before Heilbronn to the Neckar River and drive along it but the sights will be similar to the Mosel and Rhein.
%26quot;Not sure in terms of the drive and the scenery what would be the better order for these stops.... Is Heidelberg worth the trip or do you think it would be better to spend the time exploring rhine and mosell?%26quot;
I personally don%26#39;t care too much for Heidelberg but the palace there is excellent, and it%26#39;s not much out of your way. It certainly will be different than the places along the Rhein and Mosel, therefore maybe a good thing to do. The best views of Heidelberg are from the river or across the river. There is no lack of interesting things to see and do in Germany, you%26#39;ll barely be able to scratch the possibilities, so if you miss a place or several, or substitute another place, you will still have a good time, you%26#39;ll just see somewhat different excellent sights.
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