Bus from Rothenburg to Munich.

While you're in Rothenburg, are you just touring in Rothenburg, or planning to go
to other towns on the Romantic Road?

A car is going to be more amenable if you want to see multiple towns and have
the ability to stay as little or as long as you want.

There is a bus: Romantic Road bus, but it appears to be more of a day trip type
of thing.

My algorithm was to go to Nuremberg, rent a car, and then drive around to different places
while staying in one. At the end, return the car to Nuremberg and take the train to Munich.
But it depends on your other plans and time schedule.

We are staying two days in Rothenberg and then going to Munich. Just trying to see if there is a bus from Rothenburg to Munich or other transportation to see some of the towns to the south. Dinkelsbuhl, Nordlingen, and Donansworth. If not, we’ll just take the train to Munich. Rather not drive

There are many nice towns that you might visit on the way to Munich from Rothenburg without a car.

The German Railways site shows a 9:05 train departure arriving 12:20 in Munich with one change of train in Steinach.

Towns of interest on the Romantic Road you will pass through on the way include Augsburg and Donauwoerth. If you choose to get off in Donauwoerth, you can do a short detour off the route to Munich in order to see Noerdlingen or Harburg, other Romantic Road towns.

You could route yourselves to Munich via Nuremberg instead - it's quite a fabulous city, and though larger, it has much to do and a very handsome old-town core:

https://www.sostravel.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/AdobeStock_254461862-1-1024x615.jpeg

Augsburg and Nuremberg each have lockers for bag storage at their stations; the other towns do not.

How many days are you in Rothenburg? Rothenburg takes no more than a day. If bags are an issue and you have a couple of days there, you can leave the bags at your hotel in Rothenburg and visit other nice places nearby on a separate day using the train system, then return to R'burg in the evening... Wuerzburg, Marktbreit, Ochsenfurt, and Bad Windsheim are worthwhile towns nearby.

Wuerzburg: https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/germany/wuerzburg

Marktbreit:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3e/Marktbreit_BW_6.JPG
https://www.marktbreit.de/freizeit-tourismus/tourist-information/sehenswuerdigkeiten/sights-in-english-version

Ochsenfurt: https://www.ochsenfurt.de/fileadmin/Dateien/Website/Dateien/Tourismus_Kultur/Prospekte/Walk_through_the_old_town_ENGLISCH_2025.pdf

Bad Windsheim and it's great open-air museum:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g198421-d284746-Reviews-Frankisches_Freilandmuseum-Bad_Windsheim_Middle_Franconia_Franconia_Bavaria.html

It's very cheap to use the trains on these day outings and to travel to Munich as well thanks to the day passes which are available locally. Figure 25-40 Euros round trip for two, or one way to Munich.

If you are going from Rothenburg to Munich on the same day, Augsburg (a small city, not a village) or Nuremberg (larger) are your best options without a car. Check out the train times:

https://www.bahn.de/

First, understand that the Romantic Road is not about a road. The road itself is just a two lane country road, clogged with cars, lorries, and tourist buses. It's about the towns on the road. The Romantic Road is a series of towns from what has been described as the Romanic Era. The towns formed a trade route from the Alps to northern Germany in that era. After WWII, German tourism packaged these towns to form a tourist attraction.

I started traveling seriously in Germany in 2000. By 2007, I was pretty good at figuring out the transportation system. I kept hearing about how you needed a car to do the Romantic Road, but I could see that wasn't true. At the time, the Romantic Road bus went from Frankfurt to Munich in a day, stopping for lunch in Rothenburg, but never staying longer in any other city to really see the real Romantic Road. I could see that the bus was not the way to travel the RR.

So, in 2007, I devised a plan to prove that you didn't need a car to properly see the Romantic Road. I used buses and trains to travel the Road, spending most of my time in the towns. I started at Wieskirche, not Füssen, because I had already been to Füssen 2 times. After lunch in Wieskirche I headed north by bus up to Schongau, a walled city. I saw several site in Schongau, then went up the RR to Landsberg for the night. I found Landsberg to be interesting, with a partial wall, and the prison where Adolf Hitler wrote Mein Kampf. I spent the first night in Landsberg.

The next morning I took the train via Kaufering and Augsburg to Donauwörth, where I saw the statute of the maiden, "young Danube" at the confluence of the Wörnitz and the Danube and the ruins of a thousand year old castle, the Mangoldfelsen, now just a pile of rocks.

From Donauwörth, I went north to see Harburg castle, then went on to Nördlingen for the night.

I arrived in Nördlingen late in the afternoon, but still had time to see the town before night. Nördlingen is Rothenburg's little sister, far less touristy, but with a Wehrgang you can walk around. I loved Nördlingen, and hated to leave it. At noon I took a bus to Dinkelsbühl, spent of few hours there, then went on to Feuchtwangen for the night.

The next morning I went by bus to Rothenburg. Since I had already been to Rothenburg twice, I just had lunch at the train station and then went on to Weikersheim for the night.

I spent some time in Weikersheim, saw the palace there, then want on to Bad Mergentheim and the castle of the Teutonic Nights (Deutsches Ordnung). I went from Bad Mergentheim to Würzburg by train.

So, if you want to do the Romantic Road properly, i.e., spend some time on it, but not see it perhaps as intently as I did, start in Würzburg, skip Bad Mergentheim and Weikersheim, go directly by train to Rothenburg and spend the night there. Then go by bus via Dinkelsbühl to Nördlingen, spend the night there, then skip the southern part and go by train via Augsburg to Munich.

It can be done with public transportation. Go to https://int.bahn.de/en
Put in Rothenburg ob der Tauber to Munich, then click on local transport only. Next click on stopovers and specify stopovers of 2 hours in Dinkelbuehl and Noerdlingen.

You will see a bus departing Rothenburg at 9:32 am, with a change at Dombuehl, arriving at Dinkelsbuehl at 11:18 am, then a bus departing at 13:39, arriving at Noerdlingen at 14:30, then a train departing at 17:03, arriving at Donauwoerth at 17:36, connecting to a train to Augsburg departing at 17:57, arriving at 18:27, connecting to a train to Munich, departing at 18:38, arriving at 19:23.

There. 2 hours in Dinkelsbuehl, 2 hours in Noerdligen, and passing through Donauwoerth and Augsburg. You could stop off at these places, keeping in mind you need to catch a last train to Munich.

RR tourist bus: I took it in 1978. It's been around for many decades, but it was never a great idea because 1) almost no one wanted to be on a bus for as long as it takes to do the whole trip, 2) there were only 1-2 buses each day in each direction, and 3) there was almost no time at all for sightseeing in the RR towns. The only good thing about it was that when you got off for your 15-minute stop, you could leave your bags on the bus. Today it's a day trip from Frankfurt, so it doesn't apply to your situation.

Public transport for the RR today: Sam has crafted a schedule which provides time in Dinkelsbuehl and Noerdlingen. Both are nice towns. Clearly, you will need to be OK with keeping a tight schedule in order to make this trip. I am not sure where meals fit in. Also, neither town has lockers at the train station or at the bus stop for your bags, which will need to be carried around during those 4 sightseeing hours. And if you check the schedule, as Sam recommends, you will see that on Sat and Sun, the buses you must take for R'burg > D'buehl > N'lingen are not normal buses but the RUFBUS variety... it may be a car, or an oversized taxi, or a mini-bus that picks you up, and the RUFBUS will only be there at the scheduled time if you call the RUFBUS number in advance for a reservation. If others have also reserved a ride, you'll be riding with them in whatever vehicle shows up.

Lee has made some solid comments about the journey... it's not about the ride or the drive (which is not so scenic.) And it takes some time - more than just a quick drive-through - to really see more than just a town or two.

Lee also mentions that "German tourism packaged these towns to form a tourist attraction." It was intended as a driving route, with the further intention that people stay overnight and spend their German Marks in these towns - not as a one-day journey. If after staying in Rothenburg, you really feel that you need to see more RR towns, perhaps you would enjoy this day more fully if you made it a two-day trip to Munich. Stay overnight in whatever town suits you.

Personally, after doing Rothenburg, I don't think the other small RR towns are all that necessary, since it appears that you have only one day, and you have to travel from Rothenburg to Munich in that same day. You could do as I outlined in my previous post and stop over in Augsburg (on the RR, with lockers.) But I'd choose instead to spend the bulk of our day in the more interesting town of Nuremberg. Sample travel schedule using regional transport, from the DBsite; fare for two is 44 Euros.

• Lv. Rothenburg 9:32

• Drop bags in a locker. 5.75 hours in Nuremberg. it's a walkable town... this video shows the highlights well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kK5FuX4__W0&t=20s

• Rick on Nuremberg: https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/germany/nuernberg

• Ar. Munich 18:55

if you check the schedule, as Sam recommends, you will see that on Sat
and Sun, the buses you must take for R'burg > D'buehl > N'lingen are
not normal buses but the RUFBUS variety

I don't think anyone said anything about Sat and Sun. If you go during the week, there won't be any need for a RUF bus.

Assuming the OP wasn't planning on this trip tomorrow, I picked a weekday in September, and I found at bus, 807, leaving Rothenburg at 11:32, with a 35 minute change in Dombühl to bus 8:13, getting to Dinkelsbühl at 13:35. I stopped for 4 hours in Dinkelsbühl, but didn't find anything more to see after about 2 hours, but I had to kill time until the next bus. Anyway, after 2:20 in Dinkelsbühl, there is a bus, 501, at 15:55 to Nördlingen, arriving at 15:49. I'd spend the night in Nördlingen, do a little sightseeing in the morning, then take a train to Munich via Donauwörth and Augsburg.

I would like to have found an earlier bus than 11:32, but the next earlier bus on the day I picked was 7:32, and I think that early is uncivilized.