Help with Germany travel plans, I'm perpexed

"We are open to any suggestions!"

There's a small museum with dolls and teddy bears in St. Goar:
Deutsches Puppen- und Bärenmuseum

St. Goar is home to Rheinfels Castle too. It's an informal tour-it-yourself experience.

St. Goar is north of Bacharach by about 10 minutes (by train, that is.)

If you can do without a car in Italy then I would cancel the car reservation for Germany, one of the best countries for train travel on the planet. Train service to your destinations is not only frequent and dependable - it's less expensive, especially if you're booking rooms and scheduling trips... A pre-purchased, train-specific ticket for 2 adults and 2 kids from Bacharach to R'burg can be had for a total price of €49 (the kids travel free) by booking a saver fare ticket ahead at the DB website - I see that price available right now for your June 20 trip leaving Bacharach at 8:30 for Rothenburg. Other departure times are priced the same or maybe a little more expensive. The other trips after Rothenburg can be done flexibly by train with a "Bavaria Ticket" day pass for your family - €28 per day. The initial trip to Bacharach and any day trips along the Rhine will be similarly inexpensive. You'll likely pay less than you would for gas alone.

Prices rise as those saver fare tickets sell, so buy the trip to R'burg ASAP from the DB site. All the other tickets can be bought as you go.

Good that you're staying several nights each place, and Rothenburg and the Füssen area are musts. I'd do just three nights in Füssen, and an extra night in Munich. Lots to see and do there, and lots of easy day trips via train (including Salzburg).

There are car people and train people on the Rick Steves forum. I fall in and, therefore, outside both camps. For the Germany trip you are describing, I would recommend that you stick with the car, but make use of trains at times. That is heresy for those who believe, accurately, that is it a waste of money to pay for both rail and rental car in one day.

But a car lets you get out of the Rhein Valley to visit the most scenic parts of the Mosel, as well as Maria Laach Abbey and easier access to Berg Eltz. But for visiting Cologne Cathedral, for instance, it is worth the expense to park the car and take the train there and back.

Also, for tourist traps like Rottenberg and even Ludwig's castles, a car allows you to avoid the tour buses in the day by visiting nearby sites during the day, or at least the afternoon, and have the place to yourselves, and other overnight guests in the evening, when the daytrippers have left.

As for time in each location, I would recommend three nights in each, but that is your call.

About the Mosel and trains... It's true that a train won't get you to every last destination on or near the Mosel. The Mosel River alone is over 500km long. If you had 2 weeks there you might indeed like to have a car to visit some places trains don't go. But you have just 3 nights in Bacharach, so I'm guessing at most a day for the Mosel. And fortuitously enough, trains provide hourly service (or better) to those Mosel towns that are closest to Bacharach. Between Koblenz and Cochem (roughly a mid-way point on the way to Trier) tracks follow the riverbank the entire way and make around 15 stops; beyond Cochem trains follow the river as well, stopping in Ediger-eller, Neef and Bullay. From Bullay, a secondary line takes you to Reil and Traben-Trarbach, also popular riverfront towns. It is exceedingly unlikely that you will run out of great scenery and cute towns (there are 20 or so stops in riverside towns) if you make a day trip there from the Rhine during your short stay. Some places you could go by train:

Winningen
Cochem
Neef
Bullay
Mosel train line map
Mosel train line scenery

I appreciate the responses and information! You may be right Russ that we wouldn't need a car the entire time. I am a little nervous about driving out of Frankfurt after a long flight even though we arrive mid morning. Is it easy to get a train to Bacharach? Then we could get a car in Koblenz perhaps? I would like to drive around the Rothenburg area and the Fussen area. For some reason, I just have my heart set on that. I like the suggestion of staying 3 nights in each area (Rhine Valley, Rothenburg, Fussen and Munich). Probably better for the kids too. Do you think it is worth driving to Innsbruck Austria to the Alpenzoo?

Be sure you can drive outside the country you rent it in.

I also would not recommend driving immediately after arriving on an overseas flight, especially by Frankfurt. Once you've had a good night sleep, though, a rental car is a reasonable option.

Count me amongst those who thinks Rothenburg is overblown. Very pretty, yes, but not remotely as unique as the tourist literature makes you believe. See it if you must, but I imagine the girls will probably enjoy it.

Roy mentioned Maria Lach, which I think is one of those great historic sites that's right under the nose of most travelers (it's right off the Mosel), but almost never mentioned on this website. Very easy to reach by car from areas that many people visit anyway.

If driving, then consider the Steiff teddy bear museum in Giengen - on the way from R'burg to Fussen

"Is it easy to get a train to Bacharach?"

Yes. Direct regional express trains take less than one hour; leave Frankfurt airport's Regionalbahnhof station for Bacharach at 9:24 and 11:24. There's also a 9:29 train, a 9:59, a 10:29, a 10:37, and a 10:59 in between - these will have a layover in Mainz.

Follow directional signs inside the terminal to the underground Regionalbahnhof.
Ticket machines with touch-screen, English option. A RMV group day ticket for €34 gets you all to Bacharach.
Regionalbahnhof platforms. Note luggage carts in case you fail to pack ala Rick Steves' advice.
Mainz' modern station, lots of shops, cafes.
Bacharach's small outdoor station

You can probably get a car in Koblenz at the main railway station if you arrange that with Autoeurope. I dropped a car once at a dealership just behind the station there. Emmelshausen is another Autoeurope option - a small town not far from Boppard (another Rhine village I like enormously) that you can reach by a scenic railway line (steepest tracks north of the alps, they say.) However, you could just as easily travel from Bacharach to Würzburg (near Rothenburg) by train (saver fare ticket) and pick up a car right there at the station. I did that myself about 15 years ago. (Not that anyone really needs a car for the area around Rothenburg either.)

The train normally offers improved sightseeing since it separates you from the asphalt and road traffic - and the one who would otherwise be driving can enjoy it as well. You can picnic as you go. Or even enjoy a glass of wine. No potty stops or relegation to the back seat for companions. Fun for people-watching too. (As a slow-to-learn sort, I used to drive Germany, but I finally graduated.)

BTW, If Maria Laach (which I suspect Rick has never visited) is actually on some train-traveler's list of destinations, a car, while handy, is not an absolute necessity. Catch a train along the Rhine to Andernach; a bus takes you from there.

One place I'd strongly suggest for families (or anyone, really) near Rothenburg is the Franconian Freilandmuseum (Bad Windsheim) with its excellent collection of centuries-old farmhouses and other buildings.

Russ makes some good points. He has built a good case for trains. If I were relying solely on trains, that's advice I would follow. But some of the evidence is a bit one-sided and makes too many assumptions about North Americans' comfort level on trips to the countryside involving both trains and buses. Also, there is no good reason for a driver to use Cochem as the halfway point on the Mosel; with a car, when you could choose any of several places to enter and leave the valley. But my main concern is that travelers let the situation and their comfort level with each determine what mode of transportation they choose. Here goes:

I am not much of a romantic, but I fell in love with Germany more than 40 years ago on a train from Trier that reentered the Mosel Valley a few miles west of Cochem; those few miles of vinyard covered hills above the river were the most beautiful countryside I had ever seen. But it was not until years later, when I took my wife there in a car, that I realized how much I had missed.

Look at the bahn map and you will see what I mean: trains avoid those bends in the river, which are there because of vineyard-covered mountains on either side. Try driving the 40 miles or so from Cochem to Bernkastel-Kues, which is in my opinion a much more scenic town than Cochem, passing small towns and villages like Traben-Trarbach and Zell along the way, then go over the mountains, actually a plateau, for a shorter return to Bacarach. There’s also the aforementioned Burg Eltz and Maria Laach Abbey north of the Mosel and west of the Rhine. Or you can spend all day taking trains and buses or hiking to one of them.

That’s an example of a car being the best mode of transportation. I have already mentioned destinations, like Cologne Cathedral, which are best reached by train; to that I would add the Brühl mansion with its own train station south of Bonn.

The main problem with depending solely on trains for transportation in rural areas is that, unless you are a great hiker, the tracks become an umbilical cord. You are never more than a mile from the train tracks. You may love what you see but you never know what lies on the other side of the hill.

There are two other problems with trains that their advocates seldom mention. The tracks spoil otherwise beautiful vistas and the noise of passing trains night and day can be pretty disturbing. In cities you can use public transportation to get away from the tracks, but you cannot escape them along the Rhine and the less scenic parts of the Mosel. The same goes for small towns and villages nearly everywhere.

On the matter of buses, we got on the wrong bus once and took a long tour of the residential area of Brugge. Fortunately, the driver understood enough English and took mercy on us, making a detour to drop us off at the train station. That was my fault, but I would not want to risk that in the countryside. With a train, you are less likely to be stuck in the middle of nowhere. And you can use a GPS to find your way back if you get lost in a car.

I am not a train person. 4 nights, 3 days with a car should give you time to see the highlights you want/choose in southern Bavaria. If you want to go further to the East, then, maybe stay the last night in that direction before heading back to Munich.

I always recommend a walk around the Schwansee when staying around Füssen. The difference between the half mile from the Ludwig II castles and all the tourists and quiet of the Schwansee is amazing. If the weather is warm you can swim here too. A walk around the lake will give you great views of the castles. There are parking areas here, but do a map recon. http://www.allgaeu-urlauber.de/freizeit/schwansee-bei-fuessen.html

if you go east, I would recommend a stay and visit at the Königssee and German National Park (near Berchtesgaden) taking the electric boat to St Batholomaia the last day/night, but you may not have the time, or have to adjust. Stay away from the Kehlsteinhaus/Eagle's Nest. http://www.koenigssee.com/en/
http://www.koenigssee.com/en/nationalpark-berchtesgaden.htm

I have no problem with your original plan to pick up the car in Frankfurt airport and drop in Munich. That's usually a good value with four people sharing, gives you full flexibility, and some drives are more "direct" than multiple train connections. If/when you choose train, the two kids are free on either train tickets or a German Rail Pass (list them when booking either one), so that price comparison is not the same as for 4 adults.

For the record I did not intend to provide a "balanced" assessment of train vs. car travel - just to point out some facts about trains on the Mosel and aspects of train travel that newcomers unfamiliar with train travel simply do not consider.

"What's on the other side of the hill?" is a valid question - for a longer, more exploratory stay than the nancykay is undertaking. NK is staying in Bacharach and (likely) has little time at all for the Mosel - if any time at all - and probably none at all for more distant Mosel locations like Bernkastel. In fact, nancykay didn't even mention the Mosel, only the Rhine. 3 nights on the Rhine, with Day 1 as a settle-in day, means 2 days of sightseeing, which she may be intending to fill closer to Bacharach - an entirely feasible idea since there's so much to see and do on the Rhine. I mentioned specific Mosel towns to address the mistaken notion that only less scenic places are accessible by train. I suggested Winningen (on the Mosel) also because it is a mere 9-minute train ride from the Rhine - where NK is staying - and a very lovely town.

Roy writes, "The tracks spoil otherwise beautiful vistas and the noise of passing trains night and day can be pretty disturbing." This is a huge complaint in Bacharach - the noise, anyway (not sure I've ever heard tracks are ugly and roads are not.) Lots of accommodations are pretty close to the tracks. So nancykay, you must be selective about your room location there or you may end up somewhere like THIS. A car of course allows you to stay away from tracks. But you can overnight away from the tracks almost everywhere if you wish. Noise isn't a problem in most other towns. In Cochem, for example, trains are underground near the old town zone. In Boppard, accommodations lie well away from the tracks in most cases. Even in Bacharach you can avoid train noise by staying in one of the Blücherstrasse locations.

In Germany I am basically a train and bus person, came to rely on them over 40 years ago on my first trip to Europe, when I spent seven out 12 weeks traveling in (West) Germany in 1971. True, that on some occasions being motorised was a great advantage in terms of flexiblity and getting to more places, instead of waiting for the next bus or train. On the more recent trips being in that car saved me time and allowed to cover more ground getting out to those villages in historic Brandenburg, seeing the countryside when you take the Landstrasse.