Aloha,
The wife and I are planning our first trip to Europe (from California). We plan to focus on Munich, Rothenburg, and Salzburg for sure. We are thinking about 10-12 days, probably in early September (before Octoberfest as crowds are not amusing to us). We don’t want to rent a car, rather take trains etc. Would it be best to fly into Frankfurt, then train to Rothenburg, Munich, Salzburg, then leave from Vienna? Or are there better endpoints, like in and out of Munich? TIA!
Under the assumption that 10-12 days is what you have available, that is to me
sufficient for Munich, Salzburg, and Rothenburg, but not much else.
If that is the extent of the itinerary, my input is that Munich is the best place to
fly in/out of. Fly in, head in one direction, pass through Munich going in the
other direction, end up in Munich and fly home from there.
At the same time, if you are going to R ob T for Romantic Road-type medieval
towns, there are others as well, and seeing them is best done with a car. Issue
being how to rent a car in R ob T for a day (I couldn't find a way, and went to
Nuremberg to do it).
The Munich-Salzburg part is easily done via train.
Either fly into Frankfurt and out of Munich or in and out of Munich, depending on airline prices. Only out of Vienna if you are otherwise visiting there or there is a SUPER CHEAP fare from there
If you were to fly into FRA with the intent to head straight to Rothenburg, the cityon your list that is closest to FRA, you'd have a post-flight train journey of 3+ hours with at least 2 changes of train right after your flight. That might be taxing right after an overnight transatlantic flight.
From MUC airport to Munich proper it's around 40-45 minutes by direct train, a much easier Day 1 trip. I'd start there. Maybe arrive late in the day on the final night of your trip at FRA airport and stay at an airport-hotel.
Rick Steves' tours offer 1 night in Rothenburg, 1 in Salzburg, and 2 in Munich. I would suggest slightly longer for Munich and for Salzburg since you are going independently. So if you went with 3 in Munich, two in Salzburg, and one in Rothenburg, that leaves 4-6 additional nights.
As for seeing other medieval towns... a good idea, IMO... I'm sure that you will have more than enough time to see some of those in addition to R'burg, Munich and Salzburg.
And you can easily use the train to see other medieval towns before you fly home. I suspect that shoeflyer was unsuccessful in finding trains for the reason that only certain medieval towns were under consideration. The towns listed below are some of Germany's best medieval towns and are easier to reach by train than Rothenburg is....
Regensburg (UNESCO World Heritage old-town center; train from Munich)
Bamberg (also UNESCO WH; train from Munich or Rothenburg)
Neuburg an der Donau (train from Munich)
Nördlingen (train from Munich)
Nuremberg is also excellent... destroyed heavily in WW II (like Rothenburg was) but rebuilt with the past in mind... beautiful and walkable old town center, lots to see and do. Train from Munich or from Rothenburg. It's actually on the way to Rothenburg from Munich by train.
Early September is prime Fest time. Octoberfest is a bit overboard, but it's not the only one. See this list of the majors for Bavaria: https://bavaria.travel/listicles/bavarian-folk-festivals/
And don't forget this is wine country also, so there will be little winefests in all the small towns along the rivers.
Fly into Munich and spend a couple days, minimum, it that city. From there you can go to Salzburg easily by train. Spend a couple nights there. Then go back to Nuremberg and stay there awhile. You can easily daytrip to Rothenberg from there. Then head to Frankfurt and fly out from there. There's plenty to see along that route, and if you buy the Deutschland Ticket you can do all your traveling for one fare.
We did this a few years ago. We flew in/out of Munich and had about the same amount of time. We went Munich, Rothenburg, Salzburg and back to Munich, getting out before the craziness of Oktoberfest began. For us it was a perfect itinerary. We did do a day trip from Salzburg to the Eagles Nest We also went to Dachau one day while staying in Munich.
If you aren't doing the Rhineland of Germany, fly directly into Munich. You can do Rotenburg from there.
Munich deserves 3 days, Salzburg(Berchtesgaden 3 days and Garmish/Fussen 2-3 days. From Fussen rent a car and take The Romantic Road, it is worth renting a car for a couple of days.
https://www.romanticroadgermany.com
There are several medieval walled cities that aren't as crowded as Rothenburg. Also, Augsburg is over 2000 years old.
It's not too hard to see the reason for the popularity - despite the modern roots of the idea, the tour combines the historic cities of Würzburg and Augsburg with the three medieval walled towns of Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Dinkelsbühl and Nördlingen, and then finishes off with the tourist highlights of Neuschwanstein Castle and the Alps.
