Reasonable Itinerary?

Frankfurt - Nuremberg - Rothenburg - Munich - (Dachau) - Hohenschwangau ("castles") - Munich - Salzburg - Salzburg countryside - Vienna - Prague

It appears that in 10 days you have 9 substantial train trips (10 with Dachau.) You'll have only 1 day, really, in Vienna, only 1.5 days in Prague, maybe a few jet-lagged hours in Nuremberg, only one day for Munich (and Dachau) sightseeing. And you are doing the check in, unpack, pack up, check-out routine 5 times. You need some streamlining to achieve some time in these places; otherwise, they are just goals you are checking off your list while you ride around on the train or in your car.

8/14: Munich in the morning for 4 nights. Day 1 is mostly a crapshoot (jet-lag? flight delays? ) You might make it out of FRA by 9:00. Just see what you are able to see in Munich. Or if you feel you are up to it, plan a stop on the way in the Romantic Road city of Würzburg, a town you must pass through to reach Munich anyway, and a worthwhile stop. Stow bags in a locker and visit the Residenz and adjacent Hofkirche, investigate the old town area. Total train time this day is about 3.5 - 4 hours (the same as with your plan to do Nuremberg and Rothenburg.)

8/15-17: Munich, day trip to Dachau, day trip to Salzburg (do this one on Sat or Sun so you can have a long day out using the Bayern Ticket daypass.) The day trip to Neuschwanstein would take 5 hours train + bus travel round trip (N'stein is not a castle, by the way, but a late 19th century palace, not worth considering IMO just for the $17, 30-minute tour.) You could visit the impressive Nymphenburg Palace (right in Munich) instead.

8/18: Nuremberg for 3 nights. The Kaiserburg castle complex, the old town, the Fraunkirche and Lorenzkirche, the Dürerhaus, the beer pubs, the Nazi Doc Center and Rally grounds, all in all a great place to visit and a good place for short, easy day trips.

8/19 & 20: Nuremberg, day trip to Rothenburg, or?? ( If you've been sold on the somewhat hokey Nightwatchman tour, you can see it and still get back to Nuremberg on the 10 pm train.) Daytrips to Bamberg (fabulous old-world city with UNESCO World Heritage recognition) and IPHOFEN (lovely old-world walled town with emphasis on wine and art - much more pleasant than overcrowded Rothenburg IMO) are also possibilities. Too bad there isn't more time.

8/21: Prague for 3 nights.

Vienna is a fine city but it requires more time to visit and to get there than you have.
There is no reason all of the above cannot be done by train (or in the case of Prague, maybe the new DB IC-bus, which is faster than the train.) The Frankfurt - Würzburg - Munich journey and the Nuremberg - Prague journey should be pre-purchased at the DB site as soon as possible for the best prices - your cost will rise if you wait. The other trips can be done by local daypass - just buy as you go (Bayern Ticket.)

Be cautious about locking in train tickets for the day of your flight arrival; if you miss that train, the advance-discount tickets cannot be exchanged or refunded. Full fare, 2nd-class tickets upon arrival cost 100 euro per person from Frankfurt to Munich. You probably are more ready to commit to a date and time to get a discount on the Nuernburg-Prague direct bus, sold by DB (full fare 53 euros).

A German pass for 3 days of travel within a month starts at $225 per person, reservations not required, and extra days cost $15-20 per day, per person. Nuernburg-Prague bus reservation when using a rail pass travel day costs 20 euros. The rates are the same for adults traveling together on a Twin pass and for youths under 26 traveling separately on youth passes, which could be a useful split if your son wants his pass to cover a few more, longer days in Germany. However, the pass does not necessarily save money for the route Russ describes.

If you went to Vienna, I'd want at least 4 nights (3 full days) there.

"Be cautious about locking in train tickets for the day of your flight arrival; if you miss that train, the advance-discount tickets cannot be exchanged or refunded. Full fare, 2nd-class tickets upon arrival cost 100 euro per person from Frankfurt to Munich."

This is a legitimate concern - one that I would handle as follows in your case. Allow yourselves a 2.5-hour window or so after your scheduled arrival time at FRA before your train. The 9:37 departure from FRA arrives in Würzburg just after 11:00. When you buy your ticket at the DB site, schedule a 4-hour (or thereabouts) stopover in Würzburg w/ departure at 15:29, arrival in Munich at 17:47. The entire trip from FRA to Munich can be booked today for €49 for two adults.

If disaster strikes and your plane is very late at FRA, and you can't get on the 9:37, then you can buy a ticket for some later train to Würzburg at the regular price; the 10:02 and 11:02 regional train departures from FRA pull into Würzburg about 2.3 hours later. Even with the 11:02, you will still have 2 hours in Würzburg and you can still use the 2nd leg of your original saver fare ticket to reach Munich - that part is still valid. How much for the 10:02 or 11:02 ticket to Würzburg? Only €52 for two w/ the Quer Durchs Land ticket (daypass good for all of Germany.)

So if your flight luck holds, the 2 of you get to Munich for €49. If not, it will be €101 total. There is no need with this plan to suffer a disastrous €200 hit for tickets on the spot (on top of the lost €49 savings) for FRA - Munich.

I'm with Russ. You are trying to see too much and your time is too short. A typical day will go like this:

Get up at 7 a.m. including waking the kids and getting them moving. Pack up your bags, have breakfast and get to the train station, possibly in rush hour traffic. Allow at least 15 minutes - more if you need to buy tickets - a lot more if it's busy and you have to wait in line - at the train station to find out which track you need and get to the train. Spend 2 hours or more on the train. Get off the train and make your way to your hotel to check in and drop your luggage.

To give you an idea: From Frankfurt to Nuremburg is pretty easy. You can stay at a good location that is a 10-15 minute walk from the train station. Buy your tickets the evening before. If you are efficient you can make the 9 a.m. train and you're in Nuremburg 2 hours later. Now you have to check your luggage. You'll have 4-6 hours to sightsee and have lunch before going back to the train station to pick up your luggage, buy tickets and spend 2 hours on the train to Rothenburg. You now have to go to your hotel to check in, drop your luggage, and think about dinner. It's probably at least 8 p.m. and it's only your second day, and you're still getting over jetlag. Try to get a good night's sleep because first thing in the morning you have to get everyone up, packed, fed and out the door to sightsee. Remember, you have to go back to your hotel to pick up your bags, then make your way to the train station for a 4-hour trip to Munich. I'm already getting cranky just thinking about it.

When you schedule a four hour stopover in Würzburg, like Russ suggests, you can go into the Means of Transport and remove ICE, IC/EC, and D from the means for the first leg, FRA to Würzburg. Then, you will be scheduled by regional trains from FRA to Würzburg via Frankfurt Hbf, and by the Vor-und Nachlauf rule, you can take any regional train on the same route, FRA to Ffm Hbf to Würzburg at any time that day; only the ICE from Würzburg will be specified.

If the plane arrives on time, take any S-Bahn from the close-in Regional Bhf up until 9:02 to the Frankfurt Hbf and catch the 9:30 RE to Würzburg. It arrives in Würzburg at 11:24, only 20 minutes later than the 9:37 ICE.

If the worst happens, and you cannot catch an S-Bahn in time to make the 9:30 RE from the Hbf, you can probably still catch the 10:02 S-Bahn from the Regionalbhf and the 10:34 train from the Hbf and get to Würzburg by 12:24. In fact, as long as you get to the Regionalbhf in time to catch the 13:02 S-Bahn, you can still catch the specified ICE to Munich.

However, if you get to the Regionalbhf earlier, you can take an earlier S-Bahn to the Hbf and have more time to catch the same RE. If you get to the Regionalbhf even earlier, you can catch the 8:08 Regional Express (RE 12193) to the ground level of the Hbf and catch the earlier RE to Würzburg, arriving at 10:24.

In all these cases, you still take the 15:29 ICE from Würzburg to Munich at 17:47.

This gives you more flexibility and almost no risk of having to by more tickets if you are late.

Thank you Russ, Laura, Chani and Lee for your insight.

Russ & Chani, thanks for the frank assessment of our ambitious plan. We have discussed that feedback and are reworking the schedule concentrate on a smaller geographic area. We'll forego Vienna and, regretfully, Prague for this this trip. I appreciate the specific advice on Wurzburg & Nuremberg and especially Russ' web links.

Laura & Lee, I had not yet started to educate myself on the train options, so thanks for focusing our attention there. Sounds like we need to get our gameplan soon. Hopefully I can download that task to one of the recent grads.

Congratulations on your great forum, with so many willing and thoughtful contributors!

The best place for train schedules for Europe is the official German rail site bahn.de . I choose UK English from the language menu because I've had trouble with the US English site in the past. You have to use the German names for places, but the autofill function helps a lot, "Hbf" is main train station.

If you don't have your tickets yet, fly back from Munich.