Reposted — Help with Itinerary Please

Stuttgart , mid-way between Franconia and the Alsace, might be the Neckar-River city-break you're looking for. Nice combo of auto museums, wine regions, palaces, and local (Swabian) culture.

https://one-million-places.com/en/germany/stuttgart-top-15-sights-photo-spots
https://www.stuttgart-tourist.de/en/sights/stuttgart-in-1-2-3-days
https://www.schloss-ludwigsburg.de/en/home (north of Stuttgart)
https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Swabian_cultural_region

I can count the hours I've spent in Stuttgart on three hands, so don't consider Stuttgart a strong personal recommendation from me. And the time I've spent there was mostly passing through - to Switzerland, to the Black Forest towns, to Tübingen. But it's a lively and likable place as I've experienced it and I've wanted to return at some point. It might sound really crazy and it probably is, but half the reason for my interest in returning is that this quirky-looking place:

https://www.schweinemuseum.de/news-en

The other half is the car museums.

A few years back my wife and I made the 2.5-hr. train ride between Nuremberg (a good Franconian base town) and Stuttgart on our way to a small town named Ettlingen near the French border. If you're in the mood for some nice scenery, this very lovely route, served by direct Regional Express trains, is highly underrated. Sample Saturday schedule:

Lv. N'berg 8:37, ar. Stuttgart 11:03

Fare for 4 adults: Just €63 total on the "Quer durchs Land" day pass. Buy at N'berg station from a ticket machine.

On our list are Nuremberg, Wurzburg, and Bamberg. We’re looking for a
couple of small towns in the region.

Nuremberg is a superior base town for visiting W'burg and Bamberg by train.

I think Iphofen, Bad Windsheim (great open-air museum,) Sommerhausen, Marktbreit, and Ochsenfurt are charming places to spend some time and near the cities you name. The last three are Main River towns upstream from Würzburg.

Neustadt an der Aisch (in German but scroll for photos) has served as a travel base town on two separate occasions for us - a quiet little normal town with very little tourist traffic. Along with nearby Iphofen it shares the main railway between Würzburg and Nuremberg - so local outings are quite convenient (and inexpensive) by train... if you are looking at small towns as BASE TOWN options rather than destinations, that is.

Without researching your first post...
Heidelberg (Neckar Valley). Maybe that's the mix-up you are looking for?
Train travel limits visits to many small towns.
Coburg (Albert, Prince Consort) with a side trip to Kronach might be in order.
I enjoy the Franken wine region outside Würzburg, and the Fränkischen Schweiz area (north/northeast from Nürnberg), but again without a car travel will be limited and/or time consuming. Maybe a visit to Forchheim at the edge of the Fränkischen Schweiz? From there a trip out to the Walberla (Kelten and witch site). https://www.walberla.de/

Giechburg from Bamberg could be nice on a good weather day, but looks to be a hike too.

Thank you, all, for the great ideas! I will definitely check them out.

Hi, Russ! I remember you from my Germany trip almost 4 years ago. I remember that you're a fan of Mainz. I'm wondering if you think Mainz might be a good place to recover from jet lag after landing at Frankfurt. If so, do you have a recommendation on where to stay? Or, if you like Frankfurt, where we should stay in Frankfurt?

E.

I'm wondering if you think Mainz might be a good place to recover
from jet lag after landing at Frankfurt.

Sure. Mainz is a great place for wandering around - the huge tangle of pedestrians-only streets (in pink on the linked map) along with several interesting sightseeing options, the small-city vibe, and the outdoor cafes around the Market Square all make for a pleasant way to reset your inner clock.

Mainz hugs the west bank of the Rhine about 20-25 minutes by direct train from FRA. If you catch the S-Bahn, the first stop after crossing the river is the Mainz Römisches Theater station. It goes without saying that there's a connection between this peculiar name and the ancient Roman theater which was unearthed there in recent years. Anyway, if you want to stay in/near the old town zone, the Zitadelle, the manicured Mainz City Park (Stadtpark) or the riverfront, this is your stop. I've used the Ibis (just a block away) a couple of times as well as the DJH hostel (a longer walk through the Stadtpark and the Volkspark, an "official" German hostel with private rooms and a very good one - or at least it was 20 years ago when I last stayed there!) Back then the Hof Ehrenfels, situated in a perfect old-town location just off the Augustinerstrasse, was in somewhat sad shape. But the word is that it's quite a nice place to stay now. Then there's the The Hyatt Regency on the waterfront and the Favorite Parkhotel, with an attractive location inside the Stadtpark, both of which have always been budget-busters for me.

The alternative hotel area is near the Mainz Hbf station. See that tunnel that lies just beyond the MRT station in the linked photo? Trains from the MRT station dive in there and emerge at the Hbf station just a few minutes later. This is not a bad are area to stay in - just a longer walk from Mainz's principal attractions, more traffic, not as pedestrian-friendly or interesting. There are lots of hotels here to choose from, from the modern B&B Hotel to pricier options. The Königshof tends to be a popular choice.

From Mainz Hbf you can catch a direct ICE train to Würzburg in the morning in just under 2 hours. Longer journeys with a change of train are also possible.

From the suburban Mainz Römisches Theater station, one change of train and 15 more minutes would be needed for the same trip.

If you were to instead stay at/near the Frankfurt Hbf station, your direct train to Würzburg would take just 1.5 hours. But IMHO the minimal additional required for a Mainz stay is worth it.

The 3rd alternative might work for you too... Skip both Mainz and Frankfurt and take the 1.5-hr. train ride straight to Würzburg after your flight, then do your unwinding/resetting thing there.

You may get some ideas from the appropriate sections of this trip report:
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/baltic-germany-fachwerke-landesgartenschau
(Note that the section headed Fachwerkstraße is not just about Fachwerke towns.)

Although it may seem that Alsace is far from Paris, it's quite easy to TGV directly from the airport to Strasbourg. This may be better left for a subsequent trip, because there is so much to see in Germany. For example, you don't mention the former East Germany, which would pair well with Franconia, and eliminate any possible Covid problems with changing countries. I know it sounds like I'm trying to get you to change your plans, but we did one trip that was just the former East, and one trip that was just driving-Alsace, but ending with three days in Avignon, then TGV.

You don't mention the Black Forest. Is that part of this trip?

Tim, I'm open to recasting the trip toward eastern Germany. I haven't been there since 1985. That was an East German government chaperoned trip. We visited Erfurt, Weimar (including Buchenwald), and Dresden. I can't say I was impressed back then, but that had a lot to do with the strictness of the government and its impact on the people. I understand everything is different now.

The Romantic Road goes from Wurzburg to Garmisch. Many great medieval walled towns as well as Augsburg, Oberammergau and Fussen.
Rothenburg ob der Tauber and Dinkelsbuhl are the best.

Elizabeth, it sounds like you are an experienced visitor to Germany, and don't really need much advice.

I was only suggesting something to pair with Franconia, not saying Ostalgia is better. I had business in East Berlin in 1987. I have no idea if Erfurt and Weimar are different today, but they were both rich destinations for our "East" trip. So I can't say you should go again. Did you visit the EGAPark garden in Erfurt? Did you visit Meissen and take a steamboat to Saxon Switzerland? Leipzig is loaded with history and even modern art ("The Leipzig School".) Dessau-Wörlitz is a great summertime UNESCO WHS destination. Will you have a car? I only ask because it's hard to do three or four towns in one day without one.

Different people find different things they like: I couldn't care less about BMW, but we did drive-by a plant to see Zaha Hadid's architecture, near Leipzig. We didn't have time to visit the Karl Zeiss science museum in Jena (! obscure attraction), because of all the Zeiss planetarium projectors I remember. I assume there's a museum associated with Leica cameras. Quedlinburg was a must-see for me, as much for the church treasury as the exceptional old-town. And it turned out to be pifferling season, almost as big a German event as strawberry season.

I'm puzzled by your comment about half-timbered towns. We enjoyed our full day of half-timbered towns, because each was very different (no research of details done in advance), one or two had market days in the morning, and we found things like ruined estates in our walks. We also ran across interesting (contemporary) cemeteries and allotment gardens.

I mean, people often mention half-timbered glimpses in Frankfurt, but that's hardly a half-timber destination! We didn't go to Aschaffenberg for half-timber, although there's a bit there. It's a rich destination of a small city, which can't be exhausted in a single day. Nobody goes to Lorsch for the housing, but rather the UNESCO cloister remains and its museum. Did you find my report of the Felsenmeer intriguing? No, it's not a must-see, but it's very ... local.

Tim, you make really good points. I've been a lot of places in Germany, keep wanting to go back, and always find something new to see. I think I'm looking through the lens of my 17 year old and 22 year old and wondering what they'll like. They enjoyed our 2018 trip. Back then, we went to Paris for 5 days (best airfare) and then took the train to the Rhine/Mosel area, then Rothenburg, then Munich, Salzberg, etc. We had a good trip. I think mixing it up (city, small town, small town, city) helped. That trip was the inspiration for spending more time in the Franconia area. As we drove from Frankfurt to Rothenburg, I kept thinking "I want to spend more time here." I keep hearing that Quedlinburg is amazing. We have friends who were there right before Covid. In 1984-85, I lived in Goettingen. I spent a lot of time in the West Germany part of the Harz. The East German part was not an area that one could get to easily.