October Trip to Germany - Tentative Itinerary - Thoughts?

Posted by lieslg01 on 08/21/16 05:44 PM

Hello all! We will be flying into Frankfurt the morning of 14/10 and flying out of Frankfurt the morning of 27/10, so we have almost two full weeks. Below is my tentative itinerary. Would you mind taking a look and letting me know how many days/nights you would advise for each city? All travels will be via train or bus/tram. The only purchase so far has been our airfare.

Fri., 14/10 - fly into Frankfurt and head to Cologne (1-2 nights in Cologne?)*

*I was thinking of skipping Cologne and heading straight to Berlin...thoughts?

Sun., 16/10 - early morning departure for Berlin (3 nights in Berlin)

Weds., 19/10 - early morning departure for Dresden (1 night in Dresden)

Thurs., 20/10 - departure for Rothenberg (1 night in Rothenberg)*

*We would like to check out Nuremberg, too. Should we allow one day/night in each?

Fri., 21/10 or Sat., 22/10 - ideally we'd like to follow Romantic Road (by train?) to Munich. Doable?

Sat., 22/10 - we begin our travels in and around Munich. Munich is a city we want to check out and enjoy. How many days/nights should we devote to just Munich? While here, we also definitely want to do a side trip to Salzburg, Neuchwanstein Castle (leave Munich one evening and spend night in Fussen for early morning castle trip?), Dachau, and possibly Hitler's Eagles Nest (include while on Neuchwanstein side trip?)

We need to be back in Frankfurt by the evening of Weds., 26/10 as our flight is early on Thurs., 27/10. We really want to enjoy Munich and all side trips are pretty much must-do's (with exception of Eagles Nest, which in my opinion, can be dropped if needed.) For these reasons, should we drop Cologne?

I very much appreciate any and all input, advice, etc. and I apologize if this message is too detailed! Thank you :)

Posted by Lee

Lakewood, Colorado

08/21/16 07:53 PM

19275 posts

Weds., 19/10 - early morning departure for Dresden

Berlin to Dresden is less than 2 hours by Eurocity (EC) train. They run every 2 hours; the first one leaves at 7:03.

Fri., 21/10 or Sat., 22/10 - ideally we'd like to follow Romantic Road
(by train?) to Munich. Doable?

Not really. The Romantic Road consists of a lot of little towns connected by one designated road. Most of these towns are not connected by rail. The exceptions are two hours between Nördlingen and Landsberg (w/ RR towns of Augsburg, Donauwörth, and Harburg) and an hour between Würzburg and Weikersheim (w/ Bad Mergentheim). The rest of the towns are all connected by bus.

In my opinion, the RR is just another two lane country lane clogged with trucks, buses, and farm traffic. It's the towns that make it interesting, and most of them are unexceptional.

I did the entire RR (except Füssen to Wieskirche) by public transportation in 2007. in my opinioin, the only places at all worth seeing are Landsberg, Augsburg, Donauwörth, Harburg, Nördlingen, Rothenburg, and Bad Mergentheim, and all of these are accessible by rail.

... Dachau, and possibly Hitler's Eagles Nest (include while on
Neuchwanstein side trip?)

Dachau is a suburb of Munich. The Memorial is a 40 minute trip by S-Bahn and bus from downtown. Do Dachau as part of your Munich sightseeing. To get from Füssen to Berchtesgaden (Eagles Nest), the fastest way goes back through Munich. They're more like separate day trips. And, just going from Munich to Berchtesgaden, seeing the Nest, and coming back to Munich would be a awful long day trip just to see the Nest.