German towns....bad choice?

Hi again Jo,

We've been to all 3 you mentioned. Skip Reutte. We stopped here twice during our stays in Fuessen. I don't get the Rick Steves recommendation, plus Reutte is only about 20 minutes from Fuessen. Fuessen and Mittenwald are 2 of our favorites and we stayed in both twice. Fuessen is a very charming old town just 10 minutes from Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau castles. Very close to the castles is the Tegelberg cable car and the Tegelberg luge ride (Sommerrodelbahn). The luge ride is a lot of fun.mittenwald is the postcard perfect Bavarian village with an alpine backdrop. The Karwendelbahn cable car in Mittenwald is better (IMO) than Tegelberg and half the cost of the Zugspitze trip in nearby Garmisch.

Hope this helps.

Paul

"planned on seeing some of the towns along the Romantic Road until reading made it sounds almost impossible to get to"

Not true. In 2007 I traveled almost the entire Romantic Road using public transportation. I started at Wieskirche because I had already been to Füssen several times and went north to Rothenburg, then to Würzburg. Some of the most interesting towns on the Road, Nördlingen and Rothenburg are easily accessible by train, others are accessible by bus.

But I can't see spending 3 nights in Reutte and another 3 nights in Füssen. I would prefer to spend a few nights in Pfronten, IMO a much nicer town. From Pfronten you can take the gondola up the Breitenberg to see the whole valley including Ludwig's "last" castle at Falkenstein (which you can hike up to). From Pfronten you can make a day trip to Füssen and see both Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau.

Thank you both for the very much needed help, I'll keep working on this trip.

It is not difficult to visit any of the towns on the Romantic Road. You just need to pick out the ones you want to visit and plan accordingly.

Personally, I prefer the towns on the Half-Timbered Route as many of them are less touristy and have the architecture I enjoy seeing. See if any of them are close to the towns or cities you are already visiting.
http://www.deutsche-fachwerkstrasse.de/uk/index.php

"We were thinking of staying 3 nights in each town and doing day trips from each ......After 3 nights in Innsbruck we planned on Reutte, Fussen and Mittenwald. Is this a bad idea? What towns would be a better choice?... planned on seeing some of the towns along the Romantic Road until reading made it sounds almost impossible to get to."

Reutte and Füssen are only 45 minutes from each other by direct bus. So one would be a base, the other a destination. But I'd have to agree with the others that Reutte isn't that worthwhile.

Bus travel between towns in Bavaria often eats up a lot of time. If possible, try to pick day-trip destinations that can be seen by train, and base yourselves in a train "hub." Based on what you've said so far, I'd suggest the following base towns. Travel times are by train:

Garmisch-Partenkirchen: Mittenwald (direct train) is 25 minutes. Oberammergau, 45 min. G-P is only about 80 minutes from Innsbruck - so you could even day trip from G-P to Innsbruck if you wished. G-P offers guests a visitors card that permits free local transport and other freebies and discounts:

Ga-Pa visitors card

Augsburg: Augsburg is a Romantic Road city about 2 hours from G-P. It has lots of services and serves as a good base for visiting other RR towns. From there you can reach RR/Danube River town Donauwörth in about 25 min. - and RR town Harburg is about 10 minutes more. RR town Nördlingen is 75 min. from Augsburg. RR town Landsberg is about 50 min. from Augsburg.

About Füssen: Nearby Neuschwanstein (not a real castle, 30-minute tour) is the biggest tourist draw in this town that lies at the southern end of a north-south train line. If you must visit, it is possible to do so as you move between Garmisch and Augsburg: 2 hours bus ride from G-P to Füssen (use lockers at station or stay overnight) plus 2 hours train ride to Augsburg. Alternatively, you could spend the same amount of time doing a day trip there from Augsburg (by train) or from Garmisch (by bus) but it's 2 hours less altogether if you see Füssen on the way to Augsburg.

Possible 3rd base:
I agree with Ms. Jo's comments about the half-timbered towns. Other parts of Germany tend to have more of them than Bavaria, as you'll see at the link she provided. But you can find some in northern Bavaria; visit the northern Romantic Road towns (Würzburg, which is about 2-2.5 hours from Augsburg, and Rothenburg ob der Tauber) then you'll also be close to Iphofen and Ochsenfurt; both are easy day trips by train from Würzburg:

Photos of Iphofen (about 25 min. from Würzburg)

Ochsenfurt, half-timbered street (under 20 min. from Würzburg, on the way to Rothenburg)

Rothenburg is about 70 minutes from Würzburg.

As for Harburg, the castle is, I think, intact (i.e., never destroyed) and quite impressive from the outside. However, as I found out in 2007, there is no public transportation in the town. The Bahnhof is about a 1 km (not unpleasant), more-or-less flat walk into town from the south, then there is a steep climb from town up to the castle.

There are no lockers at the Bahnhof. If you are traveling with luggage, I'd advise to leave it in a locker in Donauwörth, go to Harburg (about 11 minutes by train), then come back to Donauwörth to pick up your luggage. There are trains each direction every hour.