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One more hotel for Dec trip--Nordlingen or Dinkelsbuhl. Help!

Posted by (Nova Scotia, Canada) on

Help! I know there is great knowledge in this group around the Christmas markets.

We have booked almost everything we need for a trip to the Christmas Markets in December. The last hole is near the end of our trip. We have 2 nights in Rothenberg odT Dec 8-9 (checking out on the 10th) and then a night in Munich Dec 11. We wanted to stay in Dinkelsbuhl or Nordlingen for the night of the 10th. but can't seem to find what we want. It's a Saturday so probably high demand. (Just 2 of us, not a big party.)

Are we looking for the right thing? We want to be IN the town with the market we will visit that day, so we don't have to worry about having a gluhwein (or two) and getting home. Plus we have heard that traffic can be completely closed, or if open, very difficult on market weekends. We're willing to drive to the town and get ourselves parked by 10 or 11 am on Saturday, and then not move the car til we head to Munich the next morning. But we'd also prefer secure parking for the car, not catch-as-catch-can street parking.

Does anyone know of a place that meets our wants in one of these towns?

I know a lot of people use trains for the markets. We don't plan more than one market that day, but maybe a good train connection would be better if we knew of a good spot somewhere near by. Not sure how well served Dinkelsbuhl or Nordlingen are.

I thought I had a booking in Dinkelsbuhl at the Mesier Altstadt (reviews said they had parking) but on contacting the hotel directly they said there is no private parking inside the walls. There's an odd situation with the Meiser, hard to find the Altstadt property as most links refer to a different Meiser hotel, so I don't feel great about that reservation.

Help please! I feel fortunate that we only have one missing night--but we need to get it sorted, as I expect it will only get harder to find places.

Posted by
2332 posts

I thought I had a booking in Dinkelsbuhl at the Mesier Altstadt (reviews said they had parking) but on contacting the hotel directly they said there is no private parking inside the walls.

There is a Meiser Hotel at the Weinmarkt in the historic center and a Meiser Hotel (run by the same family) about 1 km outside the old town in a rather boring commercial district. As far as I know, only the latter has its own parking. And I also doubt that parking can be easily found inside the walls; hat's hard enough at normal times of the year. Turning the (small) town into a Christmas market and providing parkings is simply mutually exclusive. But along the walls there are quite a few parking spaces and it is absolutely common for visitors to leave their cars there overnight. The situation in Noerdlingen is similar. And neither Dinkelsbühl nor Nördlingen are particularly notorious for crime.

Posted by
7661 posts

I lived in Augsburg, Germany for four years and did the Romantic Road. You can see Dinkelsbuhl and Nordlingen in a full day. Consider staying in Augsburg, it is over 2000 years old and worth a stay.

Posted by
4 posts

You’re probably already aware of this tip, but it’s a good idea to check each hotel’s website in addition to third party booking sites. Recently I was looking for a hotel in Salzburg for late November-early December and the place I liked showed no weekend availability on OTAs but did have it on their own site along with additional room types and a better cancellation policy.

Posted by
233 posts

Thanks, I think the Winemarkt is the one that Booking.com calls "Altstadt"...took me a bit to figure that out! I think we need to get used to the idea that the car won't be on hotel property, and also figure out exactly how we find a spot.

Augsberg does look neat, thanks for the tip.

Liz in NS (hey neighbour!) also a good reminder. I have been primarily using Booking.com to find stuff, then checking their website before I book with Booking, but haven't always dug deeply on the ones that Booking says are sold out.

Posted by
19092 posts

During my public transportation trip on the Romantic Road in 2007, I spent a night in Nördlingen and loved the town. Nördlingen has an intact, or nearly intact, wall surrounding it, and the wall has a Wehrgang you can walk on (Dindelsbühl does not). I think of Nördlingen as Rothenburg odT's little sister, with all of the charm of a middle age walled town, but without the tourist traps of a Christmas Shop or Crime and Punishment Museum. However, Nördlingen does have the Ries Museum, dedicated to the ancient meteor crater, in which Nördlingen sits. Our Apollo astronauts trained on the walls of that crater because it was thought that its terrain resembled those of the moon.

On my 2007, 5 day trip, up the Romantic Road, I spent 20 hours (overnight) in Nördlingen and regretted having to leave.

In 2007, I stayed at and enjoyed a Gasthaus run by Uli Wenger just outside the city walls at Deininger Tor. Uli has since moved to a new building inside the city wall, on Löpsinger Str. , called Wengers Brettl. If it is anything like their former business in 2007, I would heartily recommend them.

Posted by
233 posts

Thank you all, with a bit of back-and-forth, we are booked at the Goldenes Lamm in Dinkelsbuhl. When I contacted directly, they told me they were full--I had requested a double--but Booking.com offered us a triple. Happy to take a slightly larger room, for not a lot more.

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