Munich to Rothenburg to Paris

It's 2:30-3:00 from Munich to Rothenburg by train, so I see no reason for driving. It will probably be slower and more expensive to rent a car.

And with a Bayern Ticket, it is only 31 EUR to Rothenburg. Leave after 9 am weekdays and take only regional trains. Then purchase Super Sparpreis Europa tickets Rothenburg to Paris.

"Trying to limit the travel time if possible."

That's a wise thing to do. FYI the most direct route to Paris from Munich requires 6 - 6.5 hours of train time; trains are either direct or require only one change. However, when you splice Rothenburg into this journey, you end up spending a ridiculous 10 - 12 hours on 6-10 different trains to reach Paris. The problem is your choice of Rothenburg, which lies at the end of a trunk railway well away from the ideal Munich - Paris trajectory.

So the reasonable question here is whether you might find some alternative to Rothenburg that happens to be on or near the best train route.

No doubt Rick has hornswoggled you (as he has many others) into thinking R'burg is an absolute must. But if you have a look at the Munich > Augsburg > Ulm > Stuttgart routing to Paris you can surely find some interesting places that are either similar or suitable replacements for Rothenburg.

Esslingen is a very handsome old-world town, one with a real life of its own quite apart from the heavy-handed tourism that saturates Rothenburg.

Kids the ages of yours will typically vote for Legoland Deutschland in Günzburg.

Both these places lie right on the same tracks that take you to Paris. Perhaps you would have time to visit both.

Or... if you take an ever-so-slight detour from Stuttgart, you could visit Ludwigsburg Palace and nearby the old-world wine town of Besigheim.

There are other options as well that won't force you into a dozen changes of train or into a rental car. By his own admission Rick is very selective; he provides a very incomplete set of options for Germany in his books and materials and for small towns emphasizes only Rothenburg and a handful of similar small places. And he isn't careful about his uber enthusiasm for R'burg. "...Rothenburg is still Germany's best-preserved walled town," he claims, but it is in fact restored - nearly half of it was destroyed in WW II.

I am a fan of Rothenburg, especially in the off season. It is good evenings all year as much of its tourist trade is day trippers. It was about 40 percent destroyed in the war; that is not the part where you will likely spend your time. It is a very photogenic small town with lots of atmosphere.

Rothenburg is cumbersome to get to by train unless you are passing through that area. It lies at the end of a spur line.

Esslingen is a pretty small town but a very different feel from Rothenburg. We were there for the Christmas Market and again in the early spring. Without the market, there was little to do.

https://mcchelsea.smugmug.com/Other-1/Esslingen-2013/

The palace grounds at Ludwigsburg has a fairy tale garden. Young children might enjoy that.

Munich to RodT is faster by car than by train. I've done it both ways, multiple times. But, that being said, the train isn't that much slower, and will save you a couple hundred Euros since you'd have to rent the car. Sam is right about how to get there cheap.

From RodT to Paris I'd seriously look at train to Nuremberg and then flying a regional like JetBlue. You can train right to the airport in less than an hour, and the flight should only take a hour and a half, and cost around $120 per person. That would basically give you another half day in Paris, cheap at the price.