October Itinerary help please

Day 6 and 7 are awfully vague, but for ease of sightseeing, I'd opt to rent a car when leaving Munich and return it on the way back to Frankfurt. I'd only sleep in Bacharach the night before departure if the flight was a later afternoon one. Youll need to be at the airport by 11:00. You just never know what kind of snafus you could encounter. Up to you.

Gracie - The open jaw flight plan is excellent but I feel the itinerary is filled with too many stops on your journey. You will be checking in and out of hotels 5X in different towns in a span of 10 days. Can you reduce it down to at least 3 then day trip to other places or skip a destination. For this short trip, it's quite a bit to cover.

Info: Frankfurt will be filled up 4-5 days before Oct 16 due to International Book Fair.

I agree with CJean that a car will offer you more flexibility with your plans. Pick it up when leaving Munich and drop it close to Frankfurt. I understand that Mainz is a good place to overnight before a flight from Frankfurt. You could drop the car there and take then take the train to the airport on departure day.

Driving in Germany in easy. You will need an International Drivers Permit (IDP), which you can obtain at any AAA office. I suggest renting the smallest car possible. I had a minivan on my first trip and had trouble finding suitable parking at times.

In Rothenburg we stayed at Hotel Uhl, which is above Cafe Uhl. The location was excellent. It was just inside one of the gates, so we were able to park just outside of the gate but still have the car nearby. I discovered that the location of the hotel/cafe is at maybe the most photographed place in town. Be sure to take the Night Watchman's walking tour. It was fun and informative.

We did a tour of Dachau through Radius Tours. They are located at the train station in Munich. It's not difficult to tour Dachau on your own, but we felt that we got more out of it by not only having the guide at Dachau, but also having her talk to us about it on the way to and from there. Their guides are all native English speakers and they only allow people who speak English on their tour. We saw them turn away a family because they didn't all speak English. When I asked about it, I was told that it takes too much time and distracts from the tour for them to have to stop while people translate.

I also fly out of SMF. I don't know where you live, but we have a Sacramento travel group that was started through this forum 9 years ago. We meet the 3rd Saturday of each month in North Natomas. If you would like more information you can look at the postings for Travel Group Meetings under the Tips and Trip Report Heading on this travel forum.

With a 2:00 pm flight, there is no problem spending the night before in Bacharach.

I don’t think you are staying too many places.

I don’t believe that you need the IDP to drive in Germany, but you do in Austris

If you don't know about the International Book Fair in Frankfurt, you may not understand the serious nature of MarkK's post.

This is one of the largest conferences anywhere (285,024 people in 2018!). Like Mardi Gras in New Orleans, people come every year, and they book their following year's accommodation as they're leaving. Rooms in the entire region can be sold out, and what's available will be very marked up in price.

So, do be sure you can get a room in Frankfurt, or even anywhere near Frankfurt, before you commit to your plan. You may need to reverse the order of your trip in order to make it work.

"Info: Frankfurt will be filled up 4-5 days before Oct 16 due to International Book Fair."

Even if you do not intend to use a booking website to make final reservations, it makes sense to test your itinerary on a booking website, like HRS.Com. I do so even before I make my plane reservations. One year I was planning to go from Munich to Frankfurt and found that my plan only worked if I reversed the route.

For the Book Fair you will have trouble in Mainz as well.

Thank you for the heads up on the book fair dates. I checked the Hilton at the airport (literally in the airport) and they have rooms available.

We did Fussen as a day trip from Munich, it worked out well. Took the train and then used buses to get to Castles. Going back to Munich to sleep would save you a one night stay in Fussen. The route to Rothenburg through Augsburg from Munich is in my opinion (from reading in the new RS Rothenburg & The Rhine book) is better than the section from Fussen to Augsburg. I would rent a car in Munich and drive to Rothenburg hit the stops at Augsburg - Harburg - Nordlingen - Dinkelsbuhl (the route in the new RS book pgs 46-48 backwards). Then sleep in Rothenburg, enjoy the town at night when the day trippers are gone then explore all day the next day, sleep again there and move on to Bacharach via Wurzburg. We did the Rhine cruise using our Eurorail pass it was wonderful you can get off when ever you want and visit the towns. Hope this was helpful. You are gonna have a blast no matter what you do. FYI Oktoberfest in Munich ends Oct 6th, we aren't big party animals but love the event will be there with friends again this year.

Frankfurt hotels are not going to fill up a week before the book fair. 1 day before, yes, but not 4-5 days before.
There is no reason to sleep at an airport hotel when Frankfurt is 11 min. away by train.

Any and all feedback would be appreciated.
We are mostly interested in quaint villages, castles, countryside,
medieval towns.

That's a set of interests you share with many. It's curious that you are choosing to spend 4 nights in Munich. And Salzburg is no village either. After that, it's 4 nights in Füssen and Rothenburg, smaller places, but not necessarily quaint German towns. Both have an extraordinarily large tourist infrastructure because of the throngs of visitors that go there. This is definitely the "beaten-to-death path."

Day 9 - Rhine Valley - Sleep in Bacharach Day 10 - Rhine Valley -
Return car / Train to Frankfurt Airport? - Sleep in Bacharach or
Frankfurt airport

You probably don't have adequate time here, especially if you overnight in Frankfurt or at FRA the last night. This is where the genuine medieval castles are, where you'll find great landscapes and nice fall scenery, where old-world towns cluster together conveniently and don't require long day trips to visit.

Thank you for all replies! Truth be told... I became so overwhelmed with information that I decided to scrap the trip and travel somewhere in the U.S. Then I read through the different responses and became re-energized.

Obviously, my itinerary needs some work.

Louise, it sounds like the Rhine cruise is a must.
Andrea, thank you for the hotel and tour suggestions and the info on the travel group. I hope to join at some point.
Russ, a lot of my plan/info came from the Rick Steves book. But I do see now that we need more time in Bacharach. We will likely eliminate 1 night in Munich. Would you suggest 2 or 3 nights?

I'm still confused on the Romantic Road. Can we not drive from Fussen and still see the towns Louise suggested? From what I can tell, it adds an hour drive time.. I think.

Thanks again!

"We will likely eliminate 1 night in Munich."

That's all? If your priority is what you said - "quaint villages" and "medieval towns," etc. - a three-night stay in Munich still doesn't compute - not unless there are alot of things you haven't mentioned that you want to see and do in Munich. Germany has wonderful SMALL towns in spades.

"We prefer to train between locations..."

So why are you renting a car for six days?

I'm not trying to pester you to death. It just seems like you have a stated vision for this trip, and that you should follow your heart when you plan it. If you see yourselves taking the train from quaint town to castle to medieval town to scenic countryside spot - with a river cruise here or there - you can make that happen! You just have to free yourselves from Rick's rules/priorities for Germany. One size does not fit all.

I feel obliged to show you what I mean... Here's a scenic spot one near the German Alps one hour by train from Munich with one of King Ludwig II's fabulous palaces - Herrenchiemsee (on the island.)

Louise mentions the Romantic Road "Augsburg - Harburg - Nordlingen" driving route. Augsburg is actually a city of some size (maybe not what you are looking for) but it's very easy to reach from Munich by train - and accessible from Füssen as well. And the attractive towns of Harburg and Nördlingen are just a short trip from Augsburg - or from Munich by train. Heck, there are even direct trains between Munich and these towns!

And near Rothenburg there are others. Bad Windsheim has a fantastic outdoor museum - the Freilandmuseum - where you can step into local history. And of course you can get to Rothenburg by train, and from there you can ride the train to Bad Windsheim on a day trip.

You mentioned Würzburg... right on the train line between Rothenburg and Würzburg are two attractive Main River towns - Ochsenfurt and Marktbreit.

I could go on but it's much the same for the rest on the way to the Rhine and once you are there - and you might already have gotten the picture.

And does Dachau really fit well into your travel priorities? If it does, fine, but keep in mind that its inclusion in Rick's travel materials does not necessarily call for the same in your plans.