Paris to Munich, 17 days

Can't help with Germany, but in France:

I would definitely not change hotels during the Paris stay. That's a serious waste of time, and you only have two really usable days in the city as it is. [Never mind--clarified: All nights on Rue Cler.]

I love museums, but few people are up for a full day in the Louvre.

If you are interested enough in the D-Day sites to travel up to Normandy to see them, I highly recommend that you take a one-day van tour of the area with a company like Overlord Tours. If you just drive yourself around, you will not see nearly as much as you will see on a tour, and for much of the time, you may not know what you are looking at. One beach looks a lot like any other beach. Note also that by the time you drive from Rouen to Bayeux and back, you've used up 3-1/2 hours, a large chunk of the day. You need to spend the night before your D-Day tour in Bayeux (from which most of the tours depart) or somewhere like that.

I do like Rouen; it's just not a base for seeing D-Day sites.

Oops: Didn't originally notice a big potential problem: If you rent a car in France and drop it off in Germany, you will pay a very high international drop fee--hundreds of euros.

Oops, there is no hotel change in Paris, I missed that when I copied it in here. We're planning on staying in rue Cler the entire time. We won't spend the whole day in the Louvre, but it will be the highlight event of that day with other general sightseeing.

As for the one way rental car fee, I realize that, but it is actually cheaper than returning the car in Reims and getting a new one in Cologne, after taking the three train tickets into account...

Based on your comment of base for Normandy, I think I'll shift over to Caen, that's only a half hour from Bayeux.

Hi,

Good that you include Amiens in the itinerary. A long drive from Amiens to Reims unless you can bypass Paris. Doing that route by train you would have to go through Paris, change at 2 different train stations..Paris Nord and Paris Est.

What do you plan to see in Koblenz?

Yes I realized the drive from Rouen (now Caen) to Reims was long and rather than driving through Paris, that is how we decided to stop in Amiens for a daytime stop on the way.

Not exactly sure what we will be doing in Koblenz...I am guessing you have a reason for asking that, though. One of the days there, my daughter and I will be going to Phantasialand while my non amusement park fan wife will be there by herself without a car. The other day we could use just "exploring" there or the other nearby towns

Germany does not shut down in August. Neither does France, although many go south to the beaches that month.

Just my opinion, but you can always go to Disneyland in California or Disneyworld in Fla. Why waste time on an American item when you spent all that money to fly to Europe?

Bayeux, be sure to see the Bayeux Tapestry that is 900 years old telling the story of the Norman conquest of England in 1066. It is amazing.

Glad you plan to do the Romantic Road, its great.

We are considering going to Parc Asterix instead of Disney Paris, it's more of a pain getting there without a car, though. We'd have to go back to CDG then take a shuttle bus to the park, and then do the same in reverse.

Aug, 6-9: I would expect a little more driving time. Google maps (I suspect
that your information is from there) is often too optimistic.

You might consider exchanging Dinkelsbühl for Nördlingen, I think that's more worth seeing. However, if you spend the whole day on the journey from Rothenburg to Füssen, you can see both of them. Or, for something different, do an additional stop in Landsberg am Lech.

Aug 8: I would not just see Neuschwanstein. Hohenschwangau offers interesting information about the Wittelsbach family. With good weather, it's rewarding riding up
to the Tegelberg by cable car (good views). Provided you have sturdy shoes, you can descend from there to Neuschwanstein again. The historical center of Füssen is also worth two hours or so.

Aug, 9: If you want to go up to the Zugspitze only and aren't interested in the other attractions of Garmisch like the Partnachklamm, you can do that faster from Füssen by going to Ehrwald and taking the Tyrolean Zugspitz cable car.

If you decide on Oberammergau instead of Füssen, I'd consider staying in nearby Ettal with it's splendid baroque abbey. A good hotel is Ludwig der Bayer (opposite the abbey and owned by it).

My wife and I did the opposite direction two summers ago. We flew into Munich and stayed 3 nights. We rented a car and drove to Dachau on our last day and then started our trip towards Paris. We stopped at Nuremberg, Rottenburg, took a Reine River cruise, popped into Luxembourg for lunch, saw some really cool WWI trenches (possibly the best part of our trip) in near Verdun, went through two towns called Bouzy and Tipsy in the Champagne region (got a champagne tasting for the wife), drove to Versailles for a night, and ended in Paris for 4 nights. Total trip was 14 days.

Caleb

I don't really weigh in on itineraries, because they're a personal choice, unless I see something you might want to know.

In this case, don't worry about Germany shutting down. Yes a lot of people go on vacation in August. You won't notice it as hotels, restaurants and sights are all open full hours.

mrhandhistory - I saw Bouzy and Tipsy and am adding that to my trip notes - I found Bouzy, France (35 mins SE of Reims), but I cannot find any mention of Tipsy...where is that town located?

@ scythian...thanks for the information. True...Laon is underrated.

Not a bad itinerary, I did the French half of this in reverse a couple years ago to celebrate a new car purchase.

Our least favorite place on the route was Reims. We didn't have time to tour any of the Champagne houses (which seems quite pricey anyway) but the city itself was extremely underwhelming. The Cathedral was cool, and worth seeing, but if the Champagne is a must-do I'd stay in a village, and just hop into Reims to see the Cathedral and then get out to someplace more interesting or charming.

I've stayed in Fuessen and Oberammergau and hiked to Ettal - I'd probably stay in the first two just for a wider selection of restaurants and whatnot. You might be shortchanging Munich a bit if you want to tour any of the palaces.

I know it's controversial but I just do not see the fuss about Wurzburg and find it bizarre it's included in the RS book. Aside from the palace there's not a heck of a lot to the town from a tourist standpoint, unless I missed something massive. The Franconian wine country is lovely, so I'd opt to stay in one of your desired locations on the Romantic Road, maybe stopping at Wurzburg on the way if you must.

Sarah - We weren't planning on staying in Wurzburg, I found a very nice inn about 20 minutes south A lot of the towns mentioned where we are 'staying' is a region placeholder for general itinerary purposes.