Itinerary advice for 10 days in Germany

Your answer is beautiful town of Augsburg as base and spend last day in Bavaria at Bamberg before heading on to Berlin.

Take care to have as many full days as possible for huge Berlin full of very interestting sights.

It's good that you have May 4,5, and 6 for seeing Berlin, as well as several hours on May 3 (assuming mid-day arrival.)

I think that after Mannheim, it's probably a mistake to attempt so much of Bavaria with just 4 days. I would eliminate Munich, Regensburg and Neuschwanstein, all of which add to your train travel time and expense; even the Bavaria that surrounds Nuremberg is far more than you can handle in that short time. You'll spend half a day May 2) in transit to Nuremberg to start with. So with 3.5 days of sightseeing you will still face hard choices. Nuremberg itself could occupy 2 days. Nuremberg is also a good travel hub... Bamberg (45 min.) and Rothenburg (1.25 hrs) are only two of the potential day trip options... there's also Bad Windsheim (55 min.) and its excellent open-air museum, the town of Bayreuth (55 min.) and its opulent opera house (UNESCO World Heritage status,) the Main River city of Würzburg (1.25 hrs,) and the tiny and adorable walled town of artists and winemakers, Iphofen (45 min.) A day trip from Nuremberg into Munich for a few sights there would be possible as well.

There are those who might disagree, but I think the broader Nuremberg area offers much more variety and an altogether superior experience for first-timers to Germany than Berlin does. I could easily see April 29 - May 4 in your Nuremberg base. Train to Berlin to fly out. (Nuremberg has an airport as well, if you aren't already locked into Berlin; access via the Nuremberg subway system is easy.)

As for castles... Nuremberg has one, and you may have a chance to visit one or two from your Mannheim base. N'stein would be an extraordinary journey away from your route, considering it offers but a 30-minute tour (and it's not a genuine castle, but a late 19th-century residential palace.)

Russ is right, there's no way you can do everything you have planned in Bavaria in the time allotted. ALL of the towns you list are going to take 2-3 days just to see the old parts of the city. If you stay in Nuremberg, which I recommend, take a look at the places he's listed and plan on maybe get two of them done. (I recommend Bad Windsheim and Rothenburg odT.) Regensburg, Byreuth, Amberg, Ansbach, etc...all these historical cities are within an hours drive of N'berg, and you can spend days in any of them.

Mannheim is nice, but you're going to have local guides and you'll find you still won't see all of that area; Nuremberg has more to see and do.

Be advised that if you have allergies the time you're going may be an issue. The hills will be covered in Mustard and other flowers, and pollen counts can get high. But it's very pretty.

Last, there's a lot of castles out there. You can find 20+ within an hour of N'berg with Google maps if you include all the Schloss's (which are more like palaces than fortifications).

Instead of train, look into renting a car-- more flexibility and likely cheaper for two. We were in our 20s when we started driving around Germany, & it is the way to go. If you decide to drive, & have questions, you can contact me at kb1942@yahoo.com

As tourist attractions go, Munich is third rate. So is Berlin unless you like museums in which case it elevates Berlin to a second rate tourist sight.
If you must go to Munich, see the recent forum topic "Need Input on Munich Itinerary"

May 1 is a public holiday. Plan accordingly.

I’ll offer a different opinion on Berlin. I love it... to the point of spending 27 nights there in the last 3 years. I’m headed back for 12 more this year between May and October trips. There are indeed a lot of museums, but there is a ton of other stuff to do.

Can't imagine thinking either Berlin or Munich are 2nd rate attractions. They are big cities and some people don't like big cities, but they're the two most tourist-visited cities in Germany, so of course it has attractions that people enjoy.

That said, Nurnberg is a little more accessible for a tourist, is closer to Mannheim, and has great sites nearby. With the amount of time you have, Nurnberg with a day trip to Bamberg and another day trip to a Romantic Road city (doesn't have to be Rothenburg, Noerdlingen and Dinklesbuhl are quite wonderful as well).

I like going to both, Berlin and Munich but given a choice of one or the other usually due to time constraint, Berlin wins hand down. Munich is convenient, a hub for night trains and day trains, great museums, historical both prior to Hitler and the war, but it's also provincial. Aside from the Documentation Center, I suggest the Odeon Platz and the nearby Feldherrnhalle for on site historical places.

On the other hand, one never gets tired of Berlin and its attractions...tons of them, tons of places to go and see, if you where to look pertaining to which historical period, culturally, militarily, politically, and architecture too.

Since the first post -retirement trip in 2009, I have finally counted up the days spent in Berlin from 2009 to last summer's trip...73 days, and I'll be back this summer...mostly likely in late June or July as things stand now...still uncertain and in flux.