Bavaria/Franconia Itinerary Advice

Unless you have already made room reservations, you might just stop at Regensburg for a day/night on the way to Nürnberg from the Munich Airport. It is a Unesco World Heritage Site & one of our favorite towns in Germany. We like the Hotel Weidenhof, a few blocks from the train station. Kneitinger Brauerei (Brewery) or Pam Pam Pizzeria are good choices for supper. The town has a gothic cathedral (1141 AD) , several other beautiful churches and Roman Ruins. There is a Kaufhaus Galeria for any shopping that you need to do first day in country.

Thanks for the suggestion, but we have already made reservations (and in the case of the rental for the first week, already paid). Since it's our first big trip like this, we wanted to minimize the amount of movement between different accommodations.

Bier (Beer).

In Munich I really like Augustiner and Paulaner. The "Paulaner im Tal" restaurant is good to my taste as well Augustiner.

https://www.paulaner-im-tal.de

The favorite in Bamberg is Schenkerla but I noticed masses of folks drinking outside on the sidewalk waiting to be seated. We enjoyed the Klosterbräu in Bamberg.

http://www.klosterbraeu.de

Kulmbach offers good Bier in Nürnberg. I liked Mönchshof.

In and around Munich, we'd like to see some or all of the following: Englischer Garten, Augustiner Keller (and hopefully some other good biergartens), the Residenz, Nymphenburg Palace, Schleißheim, Dachau, and Andechs Monastery.

We were in Munich in September and could not get enough of the Residenz. I'm not a museum person at all, and I absolutely LOVED it. We also stayed at the Pension Lindner which is in the same building as your pension. I loved the location!

Gary, thanks for those suggestions. I will make sure we try to get to those restaurants and breweries you mentioned. Thanks for the tip about Schenkerla.

Judy, we're not really museum people either (art museums, at least), but I've heard enough good things about the Residenz to keep it on our list of places to see. How long did you spend there?

Try the outdoor terrace (Biergarten) at the Kopernicus Restaurant at the Krakauerturm. Sitting on the old city wall on the island on the east side of the Altstadt. Tried it once, but wouldn't ya know it started raining just before we got there and they closed.

Assume you've read up on the VGN tickets. https://www.vgn.de/en/tickets/
Bamberg, Bad Windesheim, and Graefenberg (for Funf Seidla Steig) are all in the VGN network. It may take a bit of spreadsheeting to get the optimal ticket combination, or just buy a 7-day all-zone Mobicard for 90.70 EUR. Covers up to 2 people over 18 yo traveling after 9 am M-F, anytime weekends. One person can use the ticket before 9 am, but not 2. We bought a 4 pack of local tickets to get "in position" for the 9 am start time.

Regensburg is out-of-network, so you'll need a Bayern Ticket for that. And between Nuremberg and Munich and time spent in Munich, there are other useful special tickets.

Judy, we're not really museum people either (art museums, at least), but I've heard enough good things about the Residenz to keep it on our list of places to see. How long did you spend there?

We spent half an afternoon there and they practically had to drag us out when they were closing. We definitely could have spent more time there. I loved it and I am not a museum person in the least. If you're unsure about it, maybe try to do a google image search to see how it is inside? Neither of us knew what to expect, really, but we both agreed it was probably our favorite thing we did in Munich.

We had been on a walking tour the day before, and the guide briefly stopped outside of the Residenz to talk a little about it. We could see the shell grotto inside from where the tour group was standing, and it looked so interesting that we decided to add a Residenz visit to our stay. And I'm so glad that we did.

Sam, thanks for the recommendation about the Biergarten at the Kopernicus - that sounds great. I was aware of the VGN tickets; however, I hadn't looked at the 7-day ticket. That's a good idea. We had been planning on just buying a TagesticketPlus everyday (minus the day to Regensburg, which as you noted, will require a Bayern ticket), but buying the 7-day card plus some trip tickets if we want to get going before 9 will save a fair amount of money.

You already have a long list of things to see in Munich - but honestly, one of my favorite things in Munich was the BMW World (Welt) and Museum. I thought I was giving my husband a break from the more traditional sights, but I think I liked the museum more than he did - it reminded me of the Tate Modern, but with cars and motorcycles. I'm not particularly crazy about BMWs, but if you're at all into cars, this could be a fun couple of hours.

The "World" and museum are across from the Olympic Park.

Have a great trip.

https://www.bmw-welt.com/en/besuchen_planen.html

Traylaparks, neither my wife or I are really car people, but I appreciate the suggestion!

Here are some beer and Munich free day recommendations:

• On the Five-Seidla-Trail Save some space to try the beers at Lindenbräu in Gräfenberg, the Vollbier is my personal favorite.
• in Munich, try and visit Paulaner am Nockherberg. It’s consistently voted as the most beautiful Biergarten in Munich and the only place you can get the Nockherberger Bier (look it up).
• if you have a nice weather day you might consider heading to the breweries/mountains/lakes south of the city. Andechs fits this but other alternative could be Tegernsee with a nice mix of mountains and the lake or Kloster Reutberg which is like a smaller, less crowded Andech with better food.

DJ

DJ, thanks for the tips. Kloster Reutberg looks interesting, although it seems to be a little farther away, and wouldn't be covered by an MVV ticket. Still, I'll definitely have to see if we can fit that in. How crowded does Andechs get?

Regarding Dachau -- for me, it was an all-day event because I needed time afterwards to process the experience. (I was there with someone whose father had been imprisoned at Dachau.) May not be this way for you, but I would recommend NOT scheduling anything after your visit so you don't feel like you need to rush.

Laura - I have heard similar from many others. We won't be visiting with anyone with personal ties, but I was going to make sure anyway that we didn't have anything big planned the rest of that day.

Kloster Reutberg is just as easy to get to as Andechs. Take the S-Bahn to the end of the line at Holzkirchen and from there you can catch a bus or taxi (we usually take a taxi). Honestly they can both be quite crowded on a nice weekend day it's just that Andechs has a lot more parking and seating capacity so it just gets more people.

DJ

I like Bad Tölz so am looking forward to trying Kloster Reutberg. Is there a biergarten or is it all indoors? Looking at the google bubble I only see indoors, but that's what happens when google map scanners aren't so welcome in a country.

Kloster Reutberg has a nice outdoor seating terrace with about 20-25 tables. In some images from their website you can see it. It’s not a self service though.

DJ

After visiting last year, I would skip Bad Windsheim and it's outdoor museum. The museum is alright for a decent enough stroll but many of the buildings were similar, the landscape not the prettiest. I had been to Bad Windsheim many years earlier and did not remember it as being so grimy looking compared to some of it's neighbours. Rothenburg is a much better option, presuming it does not take too long to reach by train. Rothenburg has it's critics but I think it's an absolutely fabulous place.

I remember liking Coburg very much, it has a pleasant centre and city park, as well as the fortress. Depending on your style of travel, it may be too much to combine with Bamberg ( it would be for me). I like delving into all the nooks and crannies, sometimes twice. I returned to Bamberg last September and made several attempts to acquire the taste of rauchbier. We were in the Schlenkerla for a couple (it's rude to just have one), a very old building packed full of locals. The beer had a strong, medicinal quality to it. The best smoked beer I ever tasted was in Spinnakers on Vancouver Island.

You have a full schedule whilst in Nuremberg but other places to consider and beffudle you even more are Wurzburg and the fanstastic, little town of Iphofen.

If you enjoy a hike and visit the King's Castles from Munich, hike above the castle and around the lake. It is too much to fit Augsburg in. Spend the rest of the day in Fussen. We ate in a few places here, nice Croatian dishes in Zum Schwanen (I think).

Bamberg:
There are two big styles of beer there, smoked and kellerbier, which is like an unfiltered pils. Schlenkerla and Spezial for smoked beer. Mahrs Brau for the Ungespundet, which is a kellerbier. There are other breweries too but those are the three I would go to first.

Gundersen, thanks for the advice. I do fear combining Bamberg and Coburg would be too much for one day, and I think we'd probably rather see another town than the open air museum in Bad Windsheim. That said, I'm torn on whether to replace it with Coburg or Iphofen (since you and many others have recommended it in other threads). Anyone have any opinions on that?

Chris, thanks for the additional brewery recommendations. I'll make sure to check those out.

between Nuremberg and Munich and time spent in Munich, there are other useful special tickets.

Assuming you go directly from Nürnberg to Munich and don't need to use any conveyances of the MVV (Munich metro) when you get there, a Regio-Ticket München-Nürnberg is similar to a Bayern-Ticket but costs 3 euro less.

Lee, I was already aware of that ticket, but thank you anyway. I've tried to read up as much as possible on the different regional tickets.

Sorry about the delay. Iphofen is a splendid little place and is a good day for me. I start with a coffee or two, hike for two hours or so into the vineyards and woods on the edge of town, back to town for a leisurely lunch (1.5 to 2 hours). Then a walk around the walls and in and out of all the nooks and crannies a couple of times before a final coffee. Plenty of daylight left when I plonk down on the sofa. This kind of day is not for everyone. Coburg I remember liking alot but it's been about thirty years since I was there last. As I mentioned above, I highly recommend Rothenburg if you have never visited, and if it is easy to reach by public transport.

No need to apologize - as you can see, my reply is equally late.

We had considered Rothenburg odT, but I have seen many others say it's best if you can stay there after the day-trippers have left. That that won't be possible for us, as we already have our accommodations locked in.

Rothenburg is splendid any time of the day, very easy to spend a full day here well into the evening, especially if you like to hike. Pleasant walking in the valley on the west side. It should be very pretty when you go.