Best Itinerary for 10 day trip late Sept 2025

For me, that would be visiting greart beer towns, with museums, palaces, city walks, and thermes tossed in because I can't drink all of the time.

For you, may I suggest reading Rick's itineraries or best of recommendations. See what resonates with what interests you.

Your interests or your top 5-7 of 100 sights and attractions in Germany would help.

I'll take a blind swing at your request.

Your other thread indicates an interest in Oktoberfest... if you like beer, you will love Bamberg, but the plan below would allow for a visit to O'fest if you feel so driven. Train travel times are suggestions from the real schedule but are flexible.

• Day 1: flight arrives in BERLIN
• Days 2&3 in Berlin... take some tours and/or see what interests you.
• Day 4: am and early pm in Berlin; early evening train (17:04 - 20:00) to the Bavarian city of NUREMBERG
• Days 5-7 in Nuremberg with 1-2 outings by train (to Bamberg? Regensburg? Rothenburg? Bad Windsheim? Munich for O'fest?)
• Day 8: early morning train to the Middle Rhine Valley town of RUEDESHEIM (7:30 - 11:04.)
• Your flight determines your remaining time: For the MRV, take a river cruise / do some hiking or biking / take outings by train to Marksburg Castle for a 1-hr. tour and to other old-world river towns. Fly home out of FRANKFURT AIRPORT (1.3 hours from Rüdesheim, but spend your last night at the airport if your flight is in the early morning.)

My three favorite areas of Germany are in this order:
1) Bavaria- Munich, Garmish, Berchtesgaden, Nuremberg, Rothenburg, Augsburg, and more.
2) The Rhine Valley- including Trier, Cologne, Rudesheim, Mainz, Heidelberg, Baden-Baden, Black Forest (Friberg and Triberg), Strasbourg, France.
3) Berlin- Berlin, Dresden

Don't try to do all three in 10 days.

Did a 9 Germany day trip last summer. While I loved each place we visited, allow me to offer some hindsights based on our similarly short stay.

Dusseldorf/Cologne (2 nights) - Stayed in Dusseldorf, did day trip to Cologne. Loved both, but Cologne one day would've been enough.
Rudesheim/Rhine Valley (2) - Would've traded one night from above for extra day exploring region/Mosel.
Rothenberg ob der Tauber (1) - Some will argue 24 hrs wasn't enough. We pretty much did all we could do within the walls in one day.
Fussen (1) - Loved the region more than Fussen, per se. I was not prepared for how beautiful the foothills along the Alps were. Would've liked more time in the region (although we visited Oberammergau for a 1/2 day on drive to Munich).
Munich (3) - enough.

Early in my planning, I prioritized the Rhine and Munich. So I had to write-off a couple of regions: NE (Berlin) and SW (Black Forest).

If I had to plan it all over again from scratch with 10 days, I'd do Rhine Valley 3, Rothenberg 1, Munich 3, Mittenwald/GP 3, 1 day toss-up.