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Germany trip

Hi
My husband and I are trying to put the last leg of our trip together.
We are going in September. So far we fly into Amsterdam and drive to Cochem for two nights
Then 3 nights in Bacharach
Then on to Munich for 3 nights
We are thinking of going to Nueschwanstein Castle then overnight in Lindau.
We have 2 nights in Rothenburg booked right now . We have one more night before we spend 3 nights in Amsterdam. Our questions are :
Should we spend only one night in Rothenburg and then go to
Heidelberg for a night and then stop in Cologne for a night so the ride to Amsterdam is not too long.
We feel the drive from Heidelberg to Amsterdam would be too long

Posted by
1477 posts

We spend two days in Rothenburg so we can devote one day walking down into the Tauber Valley, visiting the Peter and Paul Church in Detwang. It is one of our rare chances of getting a walk into the countryside. Most folks only spend one day in Rothenburg. That will cover the most common tourist sights.

Posted by
4730 posts

Keep the two nights in Rothenburg and consider taking one night from in Bacharach and using it for Heidelberg. Just a suggestion.

Posted by
6590 posts

The narrative style itinerary is tricky to follow. This is my guess at your plan. Is it correct?

0 nights A'dam
2 nights Cochem
3 nights Bacharach
3 nights Munich
1 night Lindau (stop at N'stein first)

then...
2 nights Rothenburg
1 night somewhere
or...
1 night Rothenburg
1 night Heidelberg
1 night Cologne

finally...
3 nights A'dam

Considerations:

  • Driving all the way from AMS to Cochem (4 hours under best conditions) is a bad idea immediately after an international flight (jet lag, driving in new surroundings, + possible traffic problems increase the potential for problems of all sorts.) Do your 3 nights in A'dam first.

  • Reduce 1-night stops if possible.

  • You have a LOT of driving in mind already. The Lindau - Heidelberg zig-zag detour is rushed and adds hours to your drive without much pay-off IMO. I'd drop them and day trip to other places near Rothenburg (like Bad Windsheim or Marktbreit or Würzburg) if you have the time (and you should - Rothenberg doesn't take long.) Accordingly...

Plan C: 3 nights A'dam - 3 nights Bacharach - 3 nights Munich - N'stein, then 1 night somewhere on the Romantic Road (perhaps Nördlingen?) - 2 nights Rothenburg - 2 nights Cochem - 1 night AMS (w/ possible stop in Cologne.) (Cochem to AMS will be a lot wiser than AMS-Cochem on Day 1.)

Posted by
1275 posts

My opinion: Go to Heidelberg. If you are going all the way to the Bodensee, then spend some time there.

Posted by
20 posts

Hi
Thanks for suggestions. We are having trouble booking hotels in Munich so close to Octoberfest. Tried to go to Heidelberg before Munich but then unable to book hotels in Munich .
One other question . Would you stay in Saint Goar or Bacharach? Hotels are hard to find around the 12 th of September .
Thanks again,

Posted by
19052 posts

Although I, personally, would prefer St. Goar, I think either St. Goar or Bacharach would be satisfactory. And, consider Boppard. It's a larger town with perhaps more accommodation options.

I agree with Russ. Don't arrive after an all-night trans-Atlantic flight and jump immediately into a car and drive for four hours. Driving while jetlagged is akin to driving drunk. I try to make my first day's travel no more than a couple of hours, and then by train only.

I also more or less agree with Gary, don't take any time from Rothenburg. At least two nights with a full day in between is, in my opinion, the minimum you need for Rothenburg. There is too much there for just one night.

You are really shorting Lindau. Rick doesn't mention it in his book, so no one from here goes there, but it is a really beautiful place. I'd spend at least two nights there and have time to explore the island. Last October, we spent three days there and, on one of the days, took a ship across to Switzerland, then came back by train around the lake, stopping in Bregenz, Austria, for a trip up the Pfänderbahn for a great panoramic view of Bodensee.

Lastly, looking at your proposed itinerary, you have 15 days and are planning 6 days for change of venue and only 9 days to see 6 places. True, two travel days, Cochem to Bacharach and Lindau to Rothenburg, are short. You can add half a day to Cochem or Bacharach and half a day to Lindau or Rothenburg, but three other days, Bacharach to Munich (4½ hrs), Rothenburg to Amsterdam (over 6 hours), and Munich to Lindau via Hohenschwangau (6½ hrs with a 3 hr stop for Neuschwanstein), are effectively all-day trips. Remember, for travel days, you have to add to the time on the road, packing, checking out, checking in, and unpacking, at least another two hours.

Hotels are hard to find around the 12 th of September .

How are you searching? If you are using booking websites, remember, hotels only give a fraction of their rooms to the booking website, especially at popular times, when they know they will be filled regardless. Try to find the address of the hotel and write directly. For my last trip, I spent three nights in mid-October in a small town in the Allgäu. Although I intended to book directly, I first looked at Booking.com for availability and Booking said nothing was available. So I email the hotel, and there were plenty of rooms available.

For Bacharach, have you tried writing Im Malerwinkel directly. It's in a beautiful location far enough away from the train tracks to be quiet.

Posted by
20 posts

Thanks again for all the great input. We have contacted many hotels directly. Im Malerwinkel was one of those who we spoke to by phone and they had no availability .

Posted by
19052 posts

There are half a dozen or more hotels right around the KD dock and Market square in St. Goar. You can see them on Google Maps. If you click on them, Google will show you the email address and, probably, the phone number.

I don't know how many of the hotels on the Rhine, particularly around the market in St. Goar, might have had to close for renovations after the floods this winter, but I don't think Im Malerwinkel is low enough to have been affected.