Suggestions for small towns in Germany comparable to Colmar, France and Rothenburg?

Germany is loaded with charming small towns (83% of my nights in Germany have been spent in towns with less than 50k population).

The first towns that come to mind around Munich are Oberammergau and Mittenwald. Both are easily accessible by rail.

Nördlingen, on the Romantic Road, is a less touristic, little sister to Rothenburg odT, with an almost complete wall and fachwerk buildings.

Oberstdorf is a prototypical Alpine town with lots of hiking and scenic beauty in the surrounding mountains. You can take day trips from there by bus to Füssen or by rail to Bodensee and the island town of Lindau.

I've also stayed in Pfronten, on the Außerfernbahn (rail line) between Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Kempten. This pretty town is at the foot of the mountain where Ludwig started building his next castle, Falkenstein. It's a short bus ride from Füssen and has a gondola that goes up the Breitenberg for a fantastic view of the mountains.

Thank you, Lee. Great suggestions. What do you think of Garmisch and Berchtesgaden? Realized I should have posted in Germany forum but don't know how to switch over.

If you want to explore more than one town consider the Harz mountains in Central Germany. They offer several perfectly preserved towns with literally thousands of half-timbered houses: Quedlinburg, Goslar, Wernigerode, Wolfenbüttel, Einbeck, Stolberg etc. Two of them, Goslar and Quedlinburg, are World Heritage Sites. The Romanesque churches of Hildesheim are World Heritage Sites too, and the Gothic cathedral of Halberstadt is one Germanys most beautiful Gothic churches.
From Wernigerode you can take a nostalgic steam train up to the highest peak of Northern Germany, the Brocken.

Here is a gallery with 140.000 pics of the region:
www.raymond-faure.com

Have a look at the mentioned places. My favorite is Quedlinburg, which is older, bigger, more important and less touristy than Rothenburg ob der Tauber.
Here are a few reviews by fellow tourists:
Quedlinburg
Harz Steam Railways
Halberstadt cathedral

If you are flying into Frankfurt, there are a multitude of small, charming towns to choose from. Some of my favorites are the medieval walled town of Büdingen and the near-by Gelnhausen. Up in the Taunus Mountains you will find Limburg, Marburg, Braunfels, and Idstein and along the Rhine there is Eltville with the near-by Eberbach Monastery and the town of Kiedrich. South of Frankfurt you will find Michelstadt, Seligenstadt, Miltenberg. These towns are all with-in one hour of Frankfurt by train.
Close to Stuttgart there is Esslingen and Tübingen.

To find towns, take a look at the Half-Timbered Route that runs through Germany.
http://www.deutsche-fachwerkstrasse.de/uk/index.php

Anna,

Berchtesgaden itself is a pleasant enough town, but but nothing extraordinary (no interesting buildings). But the Eagles Nest and nearby Dokumentation Center, and the Königsee, are all worth seeing.

I've twice spent part of a day in Garmisch-P. Since then I have changed trains there three times without being tempted to spend more time. It does have some interesting houses with murals on the side, but other than that, I found it to be too big (seemed bigger than it is) and touristy.

I concur with Martin's suggestion of the Hartz. Besides the Fachwerk towns (Goslar, Bad Harzburg, Wernigerode, and Quedlinburg), which are on the flat land north of the mountains, there are some nice towns in the mountains (I stayed in Braunlage). They don't have the Fachwerk buildings, but most are in a wooded setting. I'm not sure I would want to take the relatively expensive steam train all the way from Wernigerode, but it was a short trip for me by bus from Braunlage to Schierke, the last stop on the train before the top of the Brocken.

You might consider staying in Würzburg. From there you could make day trips to Weikersheim, Bamberg, Rothenburg, and Nürnberg. Würzburg is easily accessible by train from either Frankfurt or Munich.

Lee, Martin and Jo all gave some great recommendations, particularly the suggestions near Frankfurt and the Hartz region. I would also add Wetzlar in the Taunus district, near Marburg (a gem!) and Braunfels.

Near the Mittelrhein, if you specifically want to see a Fachwerk-heavy town with an intact defensive wall, look into Bad Neunahr-Ahrweiler, which is also very close to the abbey of Maria Lach and Remagen.

A walled town completely off the North American tourist radar is Fritzlar, in northern Hessen. Has much of what tourists travel to see in Rothenburg, including the defensive wall, but none of the trinket shops or tour buses. Might be hard to reach without a car, but no more difficult than Rothenburg.

The Bergstraße (route B3 between Darmstadt and Heidelberg) also has several such towns, the highlights of which are Heppenheim and Weinheim. And up river from Heidelberg, the Neckar valley also offers some, the most worthwhile being Dilsberg and Bad Wimpfen.

Finally, Schwäbisch Hall (not too far from Stuttgart) is almost Rothenburg's Doppelgänger, minus the wall, souvenir shops and tour buses.

I love the Saar/Mosel region. Trier is neat and I would describe it as a bit like Colmar. Cochem (Cock-um) and Beilstein are also great towns to visit.

You can rent a bike in Trier and bike to Koblenz over four or five days (a true biker can do it in one or two!). After you see Germany from a bike you might not want to tour any other way. I'm fat and out of shape, by the way, but Mosel biking is easy since it's flat.

Bad Wimpfen is great. An easy 30 minute train ride from Heidelberg. Really charming. Small number of German tourists there. Not on the international radar screen.

I have to say we did not like Eagle's Nest at all. Herded like cattle. The top basically consists of a restaurant.

Thanks to all of you for your thoughtful suggestions! I have indeed made a list to google at least a dozen places. Lee, thanks, taking Garmisch and Berchtesgaden off my list; luckily, there is lots of good stuff left. Wish I could spend six months and explore all these interesting places....

You could pretty much throw a dart at a map of Germany and come up with a charming small town.

We have been to many of the ones mentioned because we also prefer the smaller towns and don't think you could go wrong with any of the them. Some are more convenient depending on whether you arrive in Frankfurt or Munich.

I know whichever you choose, you will be happy to be there!