First time to Germany, Must go places?

Trier is in the very west of Germany, spitting distance from France. It is on the Mosel. My thought would be to rent a car in Trier (to avoid country-to-country drop-off charges), and make your way down the Mosel. There are many lovely small towns. You can go to Burg Eltz (a wonderful castle) with a vineyard, and do a winetasting. In Traben-Trarbach, you can go to interesting small restaurants - we were there in 1986, so I won't use names. If you wish to stay in apartments, google "ferienwohnung traben trarbach" - I get 150 different ones in this small town.

After getting to Koblenz, you can continue down the Rhine to Munchen. You might wish to go to Leipzig, Dresden, and Nurenberg before getting to Munchen. With 21 days in Germany, you have plenty of time. Rothenberg an der Tauber is a well-known town. Passau is also a place I would like to go to. We are watching Victoria on PBS, and have decided that we must go to Coburg when next in Germany. All of these towns are in the Southern half of Germany. Dresden and Leipzig are not in Bavaria, but are not far.

"We land in Paris and will make our way through Germany to visit our daughter in Trier..."

This sounds misstated. You will not pass through much of Germany at all between Paris and Trier. Trier isn't far from the French border.

"As we made our way from Paris to Tier... where should we stop..."

It sounds like you may intend spend some time in FRANCE on your way from Paris to Trier. Perhaps later, after your time in Germany, you'll also spend some time in Austria on your way to Vienna. So to me it's unclear how much time you might actually have in Germany.

After Trier, your plan is to "...head off on to Munich..." That is actually a very long trip with a lot of interesting destinations in between. Paul has pointed to the Mosel and Rhine rivers for starters - a good plan. The area that is most often a "must see" here lies between Trier and Koblenz (Mosel River) and then Koblenz and Bingen (Rhine River.) Think castles, old-world villages, vineyards, etc. Here's a train line map where you can find these places.

Please note however that it's not possible to "continue down the Rhine to Munchen" as Paul has indicated. Not only are you heading "up"stream when you travel south, but the Rhine doesn't go to Munich - you will end up in SWITZERLAND.

Here instead are several suggestions for good destinations that lie on or near the route to Munich. All except Mainz are in northern Bavarai. It would be very easy to spend a couple of weeks in these places (which is probably more time than you have if you are also stopping in France and Austria on the way to Vienna:

Mainz
Würzburg
Bamberg
Nuremberg
Rothenburg
Iphofen
Bad Windsheim

(Like most places in Germany, all these places are doable by train.)

One person's "must-see" is another's "must-skip" - so do your own research to see what YOU find most interesting. There's a lot of time before your trip begins.

My family of 3 has often done as Paul suggested - rent a a Ferienwohnung (apartment) for several days and do short day trips to nearby destinations. It works out pretty well as a rule. We are avid train users, so we limit our searches to apartments that lie within reasonable walking distance of a train station; most often, we've used apartments in smaller , well-positioned towns in the Rhine/Mosel region and northern Bavaria. Here's a place we stayed in St. Goar (Rhine) as an example.

I suggest picking up comprehensive guidebooks to France, Germany and Austria (they needn't be current, and you can borrow from your library). Read about the geographically-appropriate areas.

• For France, that would be the area roughly between Paris and Strasbourg.
  
• For Germany, it depends on how much time you'll actually have in that country; just looking at the map, I think you'd probably do best not to go much farther north than Trier.
  
• For Austria, I'd stick to the northern half of the country between Innsbruck and Vienna.

See what interests you. We don't know what would appeal to your family (outdoor activities? art? music? religious sights? wine or beer? etc.). Make dots on a map of each country (you can print them from the internet), showing the places that sound most intriguing and figure out a semi-logical path from Paris to Trier, then Munich, then Vienna that allows you to see some of your top choices.

Folks here can comment on your initial list and help you cull it.

I know 30 days seems like a long time, but it is not. There are charming towns galore in the area you'll be covering. You'll have to be brutal in building your list of destinations. I'd suggest focusing on different types of experiences: rivers, mountains, lake towns, a castle or two, Baroque architecture, half-timbered buildings, etc. It is easy to fall in love with one particular thing (I have a weakness for half-timbered towns myself) and scurry from one such sight to the next, to the point that the trip becomes unbalanced and lacks variety.