Bacharach to Munich

"...or should we just tough it up and drive to Munich where we will stay 4 nights?"

Not the best idea if you have Bacharach in your sights. It's not Bacharach itself so much... there are several very nice towns there to stay in... it's the Middle Rhine Valley, and though 2 nights might sound about right at this point, you probably will wish you'd allotted more time there.

Marksburg and Rheinfels Castles are both outstanding, authentic castles real very different from each other; both can be toured.
More castles
River cruises
Old world towns, including Braubach (home of Marksburg,) Oberwesel, Linz am Rhein, and Boppard
Great views of the Rhine Valley from Boppard's Gedeonseck (at the top of the chairlift there) and from the Landgraf terrace (next to Rheinfels Castle.)
There are also WW II museums, open-air cultural museums, wineries to visit. Hiking is popular and very rewarding as well.

Bacharach itself has some extra-nice buildings.

It's usually best just to take the train to your Rhine Valley town - the distance is short, and driving jet-lagged is impaired driving.

Where to stop over on the way to Munich? I would suggest that you swap Würzburg out of last place and into your slot right after the Rhine Valley. It's a good place to spend 2-3 nights if you have the time - and you could even day trip to Bamberg from there. Several old-world towns like Ochsenfurt, Marktbreit, and Iphofen are within a stone's throw of Würzburg as well.

ALL of these destinations would be easily reached by train, by the way. I wouldn't want a car in Munich or Dresden, and the others are easy to negotiate on foot, mostly.

Thank you so much for your response! Do you think this itinerary is too rushed or not doable? I'm definitely considering including Wurzburg and Bamberg after the Rhine Valley.

Land in Frankfurt at 10:30AM and take the train to Bacharach and sleep 2 nights
- ( what do you think of Gengenbach? is it a must see? Is it worth staying 2 nights after Bacharach?) - assuming we do not go to Gengenbach then we can to Wurzburg and sleep 2 night with a day trip to Bamberg
- Train to Munich and sleep 4 nights
- Train to Salzburg with Berchtesgaden on the way and sleep in Salzburg 2 nights
- Train /bus to Prague and sleep there 3 nights
- Train to Dresden and sleep 2 nights
- Train to Bamberg and Wurzburg & sleep 1 night before our flight out of Frankfurt.

Your input is greatly appreciated!

I've you leave on the 9:36 RE from Bacharach and change to the EC at Bingen, you can be in Munich just after 2 PM. With sufficient advance purchase online, the current price for two people is 48€.

I'd make a few adjustments to make some of the journeys a little easier. But it's mostly doable. 16 nights altogether, right?

Day 1: train from FRA to Würzburg for 3 nights - a short trip. Day trip to Bamberg. Half day trip to Marktbreit, Ochsenfurt or Iphofen (only about 30 min. or less each way to these places.)

Day 4: train to Salzburg for 3 nights. Day trip to B'gaden, maybe to Werfen (ice caves? Hohenwerfen Castle?)

Day 7: train (2 hrs.) to Munich for 2 nights.

Day 9: train/bus to Prague for 3 nights.

Day 12: train to Dresden for 2 nights.

Day 14: train to Middle Rhine Valley for 3 nights (long journey.) If your flight is very early on Day 17, then stay in Mainz on night 16. Otherwise you can stay in a Middle Rhine Village like Bacharach for all 3 nights. On most days there are early morning direct trains into FRA from most Rhine towns.

Gengenbach is not a destination - just a nice place to stay if you're visiting the Black Forest for a few days, which you do not have unless you drop Dresden or something else.

I don't know just what you have planned for Munich but this plan gives you the better part of 2 days there.

Rus, thank you so much!!! The proposed itinerary is so much better. I think i can add one extra night in Munich since I wanted to do some day trips from there (ludwicks castles).

What are some good day trips or tours from Wurzburg besides Bamberg?

Thanks again!

"ludwicks castles" - not a day trip I especially recommend from Munich. Yes, I know, it's heresy to suggest not going there. But it takes 5 hours by on trains and buses to get to N'stein and back, all for a 30-minute tour, not of a real castle, but of a palatial, late 19th-century home. What's the allure of N'stein? Its "importance" to most tourists lies in the fact that N'stein was one of several buildings Walt Disney's architects borrowed from to design Disneyland's Cinderella Castle - in other words, hordes of international tourists go there to see the fake castle - often believing it's some genuine-article castle - that inspired another fake castle.

There are some interesting rooms there, but I would suggest that you are already logging considerable ground miles and that it would be more conserving of your limited time and maybe more interesting to pay a visit to Nymphenburg Palace, which is right in Munich and which has been around for centuries longer and seen much more history. It was Ludwig's first home (he was born there) and also home to many other important figures in German history. The only real resident of N'stein was Ludwig II - and he lived there for only 6 months.

Nymphenburg: http://www.schloss-nymphenburg.de/englisch/palace/

Day trips from Würzburg, some mentioned above: Iphofen, Ochsenfurt, Marktbreit, Nuremberg, Bad Windsheim (for a superb open-air cultural museum.)

Franconian Open-Land Museum

Touristy (2.5 million per year) Rothenburg is another option, but I found the less trampled towns mentioned above more enjoyable - these towns are far less tourist-oriented, places where there are other goals besides selling stuff to tourists (Iphofen, for example, is a wine town: "Gypsum, wood and wine... these are our pride" is the town's motto:
http://www.iphofen.de/download/ortsprospekt_englisch_100510.pdf