First Germany Christmas Markets & Castle Day Tours

I'm in Frankfurt now. The Christmas markets here officially open on Monday. (Some are already open and many are already service food and drink at night.)

If you do make Frankfurt one of your bases--make sure you take the excellent Frankfurt on Foot walking tour.

Are you aware that somewhere between a third and a half of Rothenburg is actually a reconstruction? Much was destroyed in WWII. There are other medeival towns to visit that are less reconstructed and less crowded.

With Frankfurt as a home base, you can easily visit the medieval towns of Marburg, Limburg, Büdingen, Seligenstadt, Michelstadt, Idstein, Gelnhausen, to name a few as well as visit the historic city of Mainz or go to Heidelberg. You are also close to Hessen Park Open Air museum which has a lovely Christmas market.
You are only an hour from the Rhein, where you can take trains up and down both sides of the river to see the castles. There is often 1 ship a day, but I wouldn't count on it. You can certainly get a room for less than 200$ per night in most cities in Germany.

We’d like to see Rothenburg (medieval) as it is a must.... The idea is
to stay somewhere where we can see maybe 1 or 2 (or more) really nice
castles on day trips from each home base city, and also see Xmas
Markets in that home city... We are thinking of Neuschwanstein as a
must see... We’re thinking Munich and Frankfurt maybe as our 2 cities,
but we are open to suggestions for best Castles and Markets
combinations.

Neuschwanstein: built in the late 19th century to look like a real castle - concrete and plumbing were used! But it's not. Whether that matters is up to you. Germans refer to it as a residential palace. Take a tour there from Munich if you are comfortable with tours and do not wish to use trains + buses.

There are lots of other interesting residential palaces all around Germany as well. If you will be staying in MUNICH, and you wish to tour palaces, then you should consider a visit to Nymphenburg Palace, which is right there in Munich:

https://www.theworldisabook.com/16991/munich-with-kids-nymphenburg-palace/
https://schloss-nymphenburg.de/englisch/palace/index.htm

If you aren't interested in using trains/buses/subways within Munich, you will either be doing a ton of walking or totally dependent on pre-packaged tours or taxis.

Maybe a smaller city would be more walkable and would suit you better. REGENSBURG qualifies. It is largely overlooked by Rick Steves, but unlike Rothenburg and Füssen, Regensburg has UNESCO World Heritage Site status for its well preserved old town center. It also has a Christmas Market. From Regensburg there are direct trains to Nuremberg (wonderful walkable old town, Christmas Market + Kaiserburg Castle), to Munich, to Landshut (adorable town with Christmas Market + Trausnitz Castle) AND to MUC Airport. No changes of train at all.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regensburg

As for Rothenburg, not sure what to tell you. It's at the end of a trunk railway and you will need to make train connections to get there no matter where you choose to stay. One basetown option for visiting Rothenburg might be Würzburg (also on the Romantic Road, 1.5 hours by direct train from Frankfurt airport. You'll change trains, but it doesn't take long from there, and it's a very nice city with a fabulous residential palace (the Residenz.)

For daytrips from Regensburg check buswelt.de

This year they offer tours from Regensburg for ex with 1 overnight stay Salzburg/Berchtesgaden from 150 Euro pp
Overnight in Hotel in Siegsdorf half board

For one day trips check Soellner Reisen from 46 Euro pp

So you can stay in Regensburg and dont need a car or public transport Just go by bustravel to the places you like.

Thank you everyone. You have already helped. We are now thinking maybe the best plan is to pick 2 cities. Frankfurt and Nuremberg to stay for 4-5 days each and see the Christmas markets there and then do train/day trips to see “medieval” cities and forego focusing on Castles. So, does anyone have a recommendation for hotel stay in Frankfurt and Nuremberg to be close to Christmas markets? We would like full hotel (not rooming house or other) that is walkable to Christmas Markets and not too noisy and with a good reputation in around $200 -$250 Euro per night.

I was in Nuremberg three weeks ago and many of the Christmas Market food stalls were up and running.

I stayed at the Adina Nuremberg.

It's an aparthotel located a few blocks from the main Christmas markets. It's fairly quiet--the only noise came from the street with the windows open. Each room has a kitchen and most rooms have a combo washer/dryer in them. (Small but handy as the hotel supplies the laundry soap tablets.)

There's an Ubahn station a block away. The main train station is one stop form the station above or about a 15 minute walk from the hotel.

Don't forget a trip to the Nuremberg Trials courtroom.

Using Nuremberg as a travel base was not one of the suggestions on this thread, possibly because it's the most heavily-trafficked of the Christmas markets and we got the sense that large crowds might not be your thing.

As long as you can handle the crowds at the market and at the station - and the fact that you'll need to use multiple means of public transport for Rothenburg (2 changes of train, about 1.25 - 1.5 hrs) and probably for Bamberg (direct train from Nuremberg in 50 minutes, but buses eliminate the hefty walk from the train station to the old town) - Nuremberg is a great base town. From there you will find direct trains to Regensburg (about 1 hour each way) and Bayreuth (also 1 hr.) as well as to Würzburg (about 1.2 hrs.) Nuremberg itself also has LOTS of other interesting little things to do once the Christmas markets all start looking the same or the weather gets nasty. I suggest you make a list of what you find interesting:

https://museums.nuernberg.de/about-us/film-portraits
https://tourismus.nuernberg.de/en/discover/museums/science-technology-museums/
https://tourismus.nuernberg.de/en/discover/museums/unusual-museums/

Artisans Courtyard, near the station: https://www.nuernberg.de/internet/handwerkerhof_e/layout.html
Pubs: http://www.europeanbeerguide.net/nurnpubs.htm
Local tours: https://tourismus.nuernberg.de/en/guidedtours/

Suggest you fly into and out of Frankfurt with your plans. Spend your final night in Frankfurt to ensure timely arrival at FRA airport and allocate 2/3 of your nights to Nuremberg and surroundings, the remaining 1/3 to Frankfurt and environs.

Where to stay in Nuremberg: if you'll be making mulitiple outings by train, you might want a hotel closer to the station rather than one right in the market zone. Reviews on popular travel sites like booking.com and tripadvisor.com should provide the best picture of hotel options for you; use price, ratings, and the other criteria that are important to you. (I am very biased toward hotels that get high marks for their breakfast offerings.)

My hotel recommendations for Frankfurt would be Motel One, Hilton City Center, Westin, Flemings City Cernter, Steigenberger Franfkurter Hof.
All are central and close to the market and public transport.
For medieval towns close to Frankfurt, Limburg, Marburg (starts 1 Dec), and Seligenstadt will have their Christmas markets the whole time as will Rüdesheim. On that first weekend in Dec. you could visit Idstein, Frankfurt Höchst, & Oberursel Medieval Market. Büdingen begins 6 Dec. These towns are all a direct, short train ride from Frankfurt, except Büdingen which needs a transfer in Gelnhausen.