Logistics - EGAD! Help! Munich to Rothenburg to Cochem to Lucerne; beer/wine/food trip

Regarding walking up hills: We've had some quite senior tour members make it uphill to Andechs monastery. And with a car, you can park pretty close to most castles, including Rheinfels above St. Goar and Burg Eltz above Moselkern, as well as some shuttle services run during the tourist season.

Thanks Laura!

You have a better idea about your travel pace than I do. I will say that I would not try to do all of this in 6-7 days, especially traveling north to Cochem and then south to Luzern. There are so many great places to visit in Germany that it is not necessary to concentrate on the hotspots in Rick's book. If Luzern is important, I would skip Rothenburg (one of my favorites) & Cochem, and travel straight across southern Germany to Switzerland. If Rothenburg and Cochem have a higher priority, I would skip Luzern and travel from the Mosel to Paris. You still have a full schedule in either case.

You seem to indicate that you expect to return at a later date. Slow down and get real value out of this time.

*What to do and when with the car? Drive to Mosul,

Mosul is a bit of a rough place these days...

I agree with the poster above, for this trip I think Cochem is really out of your way. You would be spending your entire trip in the car. Personally, I would spend time in the Alps/Southern Germany, so you are not going North to go back South.

I would divide my time between:
Munich
Salzburg/Berchtesgaden (the Königsee has a boat trip and make sure to hike to the Obersee, it is beautiful)
Oberammergau or Mittenwald or Garmisch-Partenkirchen (Beautiful towns with houses/building painted with fairy tales, Bavarian themes, etc, Zugspitze the highest peak in Germany, Weisskirche is a nondescript church from the outside, but it is ornately decorated on the inside, Woodcarving)
Konstanz (You can take a boat trip on the lake, see the Rheinfalls, the gardens at the Island of Mianau, Wine)

Then you are a hop skip and a jump from Lucerne

Hearty congratulations. Hope you have a nice, romantic trip. Cochem is one of the most romantic little towns in Germany but yes, a bit far. Just look at your route. You're starting in Munich and have maybe 3-4 days to get to Luzern... and you say you want to go to Rothenburg for a night, and you want to get into some culture. But Rothenburg is a super-touristy place with a few thousand residents who serve 2.5 million tourists every year - so it's more like a theme park to be shared with other international tourists than a cultural experience. It's also way out of your way if you're heading to Luzern. I wouldn't waste the time.

Instead, take a look at the more DIRECT route to Zurich and Luzern from Munich. Some beautiful towns for you to visit and stay in on the way might include... The Romantic Road town of Landsberg am Lech... Lindau and Meersburg (on lake Constance.)

Also, I would reconsider the car decision. The above towns lie on a direct train route to Zurich from Munich.

Thank you so much. We have nixed Rothenburg and I can't wait to research your suggestions. We have about a week in Germany begiinning in Munich early September for two travelers. We want to experience the beer, wine, and German culture more than museums etc and would love to venture to a smallish town that so many of us think "typical" to Germany. I'm not much of a very strenous hiker and we are going to skip Ludwigs castles this trip most likely as well .. So how to break down this week in Germany before heading to Lucerne - that is what is perplexing me.

I started out with the Rhine and wanted to add beer bc - hey, it's Germany - and we booked into Munich. I'm sure I have made better decisions but as of yet nothing is set in stone except the flight into Munich - we don't even have a set number of days to be in Munich as hotels are set yet and i'm overwhelmed about what is the best thing to do :)

There's nothing wrong at all with visiting Munich for a few days and spending a few days enroute to Switzerland. Meersburg (which I mentioned above) is well known for its wine culture. Maybe you could stay there or visit there during the Meersburg Weinfest, Sept. 8-10. Meersburg has several things to see and do, including its own castle. The ferry (Fähre) across the lake to Konstanz is popular as well - https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g198537-Activities-Meersburg_Bodensee_Baden_Wurttemberg.html

On your way from this area to Zurich, you can arrange your route to travel via Schaffhausen to check out the Rheinfall, one of Europe's more impressive waterfalls.

The places I've mentioned are just ones that I've visited - do some further research and I'll sure you can turn up more. I've never been to Insel Mainau, but it's enormously well-liked and a short detour from this Munich-Zurich route. You may want to do a short detour to Oberstdorf as well - a very scenic place as I recall (but I was there for only a couple of hours.)

THanks again! I'm on the hunt. AFter many hours I found the below link which I was led to believe was the routes of just the
fast speed trains. I am not sure of how to get to Lucerne but plan on studying this map and try to find a cool city to get to Lucerne from. I thought that would be Freiburg when we were coming from the north bc it was told to me to go to Lucerne thru Basel but if we decide not to do the Rhine/Mosel that would open more towns to get to Lucerne.

https://www.bahn.com/en/view/mdb/bahnintern/fahrplan_und_buchung/reiseauskunftsmedien/fahrplanmedien-download/2016/mdb_228122_583_icec_liniennetz_2016_v3.pdf

From your map, coming from Schaffhausen and Lindau, you will have to go to Zurich first, then change to a train to Luzern, about an hour southwest. From Basel, it is a direct train to Luzern, also about an hour.

I was going to give you a few tips on visiting the Mosel Valley, like being there on a weekend to go to a Strassenweinfest. Not too many Americans visit the area, but the Dutch, who have a nose for a good party, show up in droves. It is a small town atmosphere, and there are many all over Germany.

Please do give me Mosel/Rhine tips. It was the whole reason we started talking abou Germany in the first place. I haven't ruled it out.

Mosel tips and logistics:

Let's use Cochem as a sample base town since it's a lovely place and the town you mentioned.

Train travel is very orderly and efficient as a rule. For travel to/from small towns you will normally need to change trains. This isn't something to be feared, just managed. You can use the German Railways site to find connections between any towns you like. It is not necessary to find "the perfect town" to travel to Luzern from - you can get anywhere from anywhere. At the GR (DB) site you can find departure and arrival times, platform numbers, layover times at a given station, and more.

The travel legs below are the major legs you must take at a minimum. (Side trips from Cochem might additionally include travel to common local destinations like Trier, Bernkastel, Beilstein, and Burg Eltz - or other places within an hour's drive, train ride or boat ride.)

1.) Munich-Cochem = 7 hours on 2-3 different trains.
2.) Cochem-Luzern = 7 hours on 3-4 different trains.

Driving routes and times using the fastest routes (Does not include car pick-up or drop-off time, traffic or weather problems, fill-up time or break/meal time, or parking time.) Use www.viamichelin.com for details.
1.) Munich-Cochem = 5.5 hours
2.) Cochem-Luzern = 5 hours

(I think you'll find the train and the car travel times pretty similar once the extras are considered.)

Now it's not necessary to do either leg 1 or 2 all at once if you want to overnight somewhere in between. By train, just have a look at the specific train itinerary to find an intermediate stopover town where you could spend a night on the way.

If you skip the Mosel Valley and take a more direct route to Luzern, you'll save substantial ground time (which was the reason the others and I suggested skipping the Mosel.)

By train, Munich-Luzern = 5 hours on 2 trains (or 1 German Railways bus + 1 train.) Of course you will have some short detours or side trips along this route as well, just as on the Mosel.

Saving 9 hours of ground travel time is not insignificant. It's of course possible to visit the Mosel instead if you prefer - but it will subtract from your boots-on-the-ground time.

Do spend some time at the German Railways site - there's a learning curve to using it, but it has just about all the info you need for train travel.

Hope this helps.

all great thoughts! Thank you so much for taking the time! Keep em coming!

Investigating the southern route and abandoning my previous plan - along with some of the cute towns mentioned above I saw one called Tubingen (although I don't know how to do special characters) so Southern Germany does hold a big draw! So max nix the Rhine. I woujld have about a week to do Munich and Southern Germany.

If I do decide to do the Rhine instead, I had these thoughts:
Sun arrive in Munich
Wednesday: fm Munich 2 ½ hr Drive to Rothenburg spend the night Rothenburg could detour along way if want
Thursday: drive fm Rothenburg to Bacharach via A6 2 hours and 35 mins or could detour and drive 1 1/2 hours to Heidlelberg for lunch or elsewhere along the way and the drive to Bacharach 1 hour 12 mins for a total of about 3 hours adding more time for lunch etc
Stay in Bacharach thursday and friday night if no car drop on the rhine then
Saturday - drive to Mainz and drop the car (40 mins drove time plus then add time for drop etc)
catch train from Mainz to Lucerne 4:25 mins train rome2rio says 5 hours
or if can drop car on Rhine then go Bacharach to Lucerne 5:29 hours on 9:30-15:05 train

fm rome2rio and bahn website I used these stats:
Rothenburg to Mainz northwest route goes close to Wurzburg 2 hours 10 mins driving; or
Rothenburg to Bacharach 2 hours 35 mins close to Heidelburg, Worms driving no detour included;
or
Rothenburg to Heidelburg via A6 1 hr 35 lunch there and then drive to Bacharach 1hr 12 mins more;
Bacharach to Mainz 40 mins;
Mainz to Lucern 4:25 mins train rio says 5