Help with Itinerary

Posted by dbrockma10 on 11/12/18 01:16 AM

Looking to do around 12 days in March. Not an experienced planner so looking for feedback. Unfortunately the travel agents I spoke with had not been to Germany and were only familiar with booking tours. I have seen on other posts it may be better to plan train travel vs car rental? Also would greatly appreciate feedback on itinerary..Would like to hit the following places but not sure how many nights to stay in each area: want to see as much as possible but not be overwhelmed .

Flying into Frankfurt on 7th -and possibly drive to Paderborn for 1 night- but possibly skip this destination
Then soccer game in Dortmond on the 9th. (1 night)
Cologne / Heidelberg - (is Heidelberg recommended ? (1 night)
Rothenburg ob der Tauber (1 or 2 ? nights) Combine with Nurnburg ?
Nurnberg (1)
Fussen/Bavaria (2)
Salzburg or Berchesgaden (1-2)
Munich. (3)

Thank You

Posted by joe32F

Edmonds, WA 🌨 ☂

11/12/18 01:56 AM

11891 posts

Staying just one night anywhere gives you no real time to visit/explore it. You get a quick view when you arrive and check in and a bit as you check out and leave to move to the next place.

If you cannot stay at least two nights, you probably are trying to go to too many places.

"less is more", is quite often true, especially with travel

My $0.02

Posted by David

Huntsville, AL, USA

11/12/18 01:58 AM

8319 posts

You really might want to start by checking out your desired towns on a map. You want to travel from city to city in as straight line as possible. These cities hop scotch all over the place.

If you have not locked down the flights, Munich might be a better city to fly into.
I too have gone into this region in March, but we always waited until the very last couple of days of the month to get Winter airfares. Two or three weeks later might be a better time for the trip weatherwise, as often it breaks into Spring then in the mountains.

Posted by Sam

Green Bay

11/12/18 02:38 AM

21184 posts

For what you want to do, trains work great. And yes, travel agents don't have a clue.

Actually if you are set with the football match in Dortmund on the 9th, fly into Duesseldof if you can. You could probably stay in Cologne for several days. It is just a local day ticket to Dortmund and back. Train to the Dortmund Borussia stadium takes about 1 hour 45 minutes on regional trains. That is 30.50 EUR with an NRW day ticket.

You might look at doing 3 city stays, Cologne, Nuremberg, and Munich. You can get to everywhere you want from these 3 cities using regional day tickets, costing 20 to 25 EUR per day.

Fly home from Munich.

Research trains at https://www.bahn.com/en/view/index.shtml
Check out the regional offers section. https://www.bahn.com/en/view/offers/regional/index.shtml?dbkanal_007=L04_S02_D002_KIN0059_FLYOUT-ANGEBOTE-REGIONAL-ANGEBOTE_LZ01

Posted by Mark

Houston, TX

11/12/18 08:38 PM

69 posts

I'm not sure exactly whether your above itinerary is in chronological order or just a list of places you want to go in no particular order yet. If it's chronological, you might want to look at a map and reorder the stops in a way that makes more sense geographically.

Once that's don I'd say visit Rothenburg for a few hours on your way to Nurnberg from Heidelburg, and spend more time in Nurnberg. A little Rothenberg goes a long way. It's kinda kitschy.

Also, consider adding Bamburg to your itinerary if you can.