Time to vet the itinerary for April/May 2013 trip

I love Budapest but the schedule is just too agressvie for my taste; so since you major interest is Germany skip Budapest. I might suggest you skip Vienna and innsbruk as well and spend some real time in those German interests.

"We could skip Budapest. That would keep us in a tighter circle and allow us to spend more time along the Rhine." Probably a good idea.
Sounds like a good trip, mostly. Car or Train?? Innsbruck: Not terribly interesting. Suggest you try Garmisch and/or adorable Mittenwald for a Zugspitze base instead. If you have a great reason to visit Innsbruck, do an outing to Innsbruck from Garmisch/M'wald. Staufen, Baden-Baden: Neither is really in the Black Forest. Both are weak bases for doing outings into the BF if you're traveling by train. Staufen is pretty dull and only cute if you haven't spent much time in German towns of similar size. Baden-Baden is about casinos and spas. Suggest you look into other BF places instead. Scroll half way down Bavaria Ben's most recent trip report for ideas. The Black Forest Railway offers double-decker sightseeing trainsand gets you to interesting towns and the Vogtsbauernhof open air museum near Hausach. Gengenbach is a particularly attractive old-world town and a great base for train outings to Freiburg and elsewhere (free with the KONUS guest card if you stay in certain towns: KONUS card

"Baden-Baden is about casinos and spas." And Russians buying bling at high-end boutiques. And North American tourists carrying a certain Blue Book. Of all the spa towns in Germany (and there's over a hundred), Baden-Baden is not the one I'd recommend going out of my way to see. I think it merits international attention only because of it's connection to Russian literature and because Mr. Steves chose to highlight it above every other German spa town.

Your planned itinerary has quite a bit of backtracking, and flying into and out of Frankfurt is really not your most efficient way to travel. Fly into Budapest and then take a train 175 miles northwest into Vienna.
Then, take a train west to Salzburg as a gateway south to Innsbruck and then north thru Bavaria to your Germany destinations. Work your way over to the Rhine River Valley. Bacharach is a 1 night destination, as the city's quiet and no more than 1/4 mile long. Driving up the Rhine River, you're a short drive from Cologne. From Cologne, it's a straight shot to Amsterdam and a great airport to get home from. This would be a good itinerary to do part by train and part by car.

OK, we have deleted Budapest for this trip. Vienna is not negotiable for either of us but that will be the eastward edge of our travels. Had not really considered a car although my dad and I had one for 3 days on previous trip. Most of our places I think are accessible by train. Mittenwald too? Have not been there. Other "bad" towns? Baden-Baden was the only choice that we had any information about but recommendations for others, smaller is certainly OK, would be appreciated. The nights spent in Bacharach would be as base for Mosel exploration and even a bit off the Rhine, not necessarily just for that town. I did look at Ben's website...very interesting and gave us more ideas. Sigh. Seems like too many choices already. Have to not try and see/do everything in one trip.

This is way too many hotel changes for me. I don't have any idea of the travel times between your destinations, but even if it's short train trips, you still have to start by picking up your luggage at your hotel, getting to the train station in good time to board, then dropping off your luggage at your destination hotel - all that before you start sightseeing. It's tiring, especially for four weeks. It's also a lot of luggage schlepping. Even if you travel really light, you still have to put your bags somewhere, and then there's lots of hand laundry every couple of nights.

Hello Lynn. Did you get your airline reservations for flying to and from Frankfurt ?

If you have a car it might not be too terrible to do all that moving... throw you stuff in the car and drive when you are ready. But, with having to follow a train schedule it most definitely will use a lot of time with all the moving around. It is pretty easy to drive around the areas you want to visit, and the roads are great. You can then stop for photos or picnics whenever you like.

Agree about Baden-Baden. The Black Forest is FULL of spas. ANything with "bad" in the name in fact. I personally haven't spent a lot of time exploring those because Stuttgart is also a spa town (or at least, the suburb of Bad Canstatt) so I don't need to travel to take the waters. I wouldn't go on this trip without devoting some time to Salzburg, since it's literally one the way from Munich to Vienna. If you have a lot of energy and don't mind one night stays, I'd say one night is sufficient. You can also use Salzburg as a base to see Berchtesgaden (it's really close) but you might want two nights in Salzburg in that case. Bacharach isn't on the Mosel so it's not a great base for seeing the Mosel, only the Rhine. It looks like a lovely town (I've only seen it from the boat) but I just want to make sure you have your rivers straight. If you're up for short stays, I'd consider one night in Bacharach and one night in Cochem (on the Mosel...take the boat or train up from Bacharach, transfer in Koblenz. Trier is an easy day trip from Cochem.

Sorry I have not been online here to reply in a couple of weeks. Yes, Ron, we purchased our round-trip Frankfurt airline tickets. We also purchased a 15 day/2 month Eurail pass. Our schedule now is arrive Frankfurt and go to Rothenburg OBT for 2 nights; south to Landsberg am Lech for 2 nights; to Berchtesgaden for 3-4 nights (day trips from there); to Vienna for 4 nights (day trips from there) then back to Munich for at least 4 nights (day trips from there). After that, head toward/up the Rhine and wander around until our departure date. Will be staying with friends in Frankfurt on the tail end of the trip before the airport but have not yet made any other accomodation reservations. We will be taking our time and not rushing, even though it may seem like it to some folks. We will "base" ourselves and adjust our stays depending on what we find once we get there, leaving ourselves time/energy to shift as needed. Yes, Sarah, I know that Bachrach is on the Rhine and not the Mosel and I have looked into the boat trip offerings on each river in the "interesting" areas. Thank you so much for all your assistance.