Rothenburg before GAS tour

Are you doing this in one day or will you be staying the night in Rothenburg? If you’re not staying at least the night, it’s not something I would do knowing how I feel after an international flight but we all do things differently.

We flew into Frankfurt and took the train to Rothenburg where we spent a couple of days before joining the GAS tour. Very doable even when jet lagged. You will have to make two changes. One in Wurzburg and one in ??. Both are very straight forward. If memory serves correctly, we did all the ticketing at the train station in the Frankfurt airport upon arrival.

Certainly doable, providing you aren't contemplating doing this all on your arrival day. Its about 3 hours by train to Rothenberg odT, with 2 changes. Then about 4 hours (in the opposite direction) to Koblenz, likewise with a couple of changes. As for how well you will handle this while jet lagged? Couldn't say - everyone reacts differently. I usually sleep well on red eyes, so jet lag usually doesnt hit me until dinner time. My daughter can rarely sleep, and is usually a zombie on arrival day.

My idea is to take the train from Frankfurt to Rothenberg and then
Rothenburg to Koblenz.. I think it’s around 3-4 hours with a couple of
transfers? Is it doable while I’m jet lagged? Any instructions/
insights would be helpful.

FRA > Rothenburg is 3 hours using the high-speed trains as as far as Würzburg.
The Rothenburg > Koblenz trip would be 4+ hours.

Because Rick's materials tend to over-promote Rothenburg and ignore similar towns, most of his fans don't know that there are many very good old-world towns they might visit instead of taking such long journeys.

May I suggest that you simply proceed from FRA to Koblenz by DIRECT regional train once you arrive. This is a journey you do not have to pre-ticket or reserve seats for since it's a regional train. Should your plane be late, you won't miss (and forfeit) a reserved train trip that you might have prepurchased for getting to Rothenburg. (At certain hours, the journey to Koblenz is also accomplished with one connection to make, often in Mainz. But the direct trains usually run every two hours, so your chances of getting one of those are reasonably good.)

There are very good old-world town options from your Koblenz base. Braubach and Marksburg Castle are just a few miles south of Koblenz on the east bank of the Rhine River:

https://delveintoeurope.com/braubach-germany/

https://www.marksburg.de/en/

Or you can take a regional train to the Mosel River town of Cochem in 35 minutes. Reichsburg Castle is there:

https://img.fotocommunity.com/reichsburg-cochem-mosel-d3c1f03b-fafb-44ea-ae46-aa69ba7ebdb7.jpg?height=1080

Bacharach is on the west bank of the Rhine, 35 minutes from Koblenz. You passed through Bacharach when you traveled to Koblenz by train:

https://media-cdn.holidaycheck.com/w_1024,h_768,c_fit,q_auto,f_auto/ugc/images/3c9cab8b-4d78-3c6d-9714-b8a207a380bf

Your tour won't take you to any of these nice places, so getting to Koblenz two days early wouldn't be a bad idea at all.

One in Wurzburg and one in ??.

The second stop is in Steinach bei Rothenburg. Steinach is a very small station, maybe 5 tracks. I think the trains from the north and south come into tracks 2 and 3, which are on a single island. (Edit: It looks like now the southbound train stops on track 4, so it's just a cross platform change.)There's an underpass to the next platform, tracks 4 and 5. As I remember all of the shuttle trains to Rothenburg leave from track 5. Just about everyone coming into the station will be going to Rothenburg so don't worry; just follow the herd.

People coming south from Würzburg have more time, 11 minutes to make the connection, more than enough time if you don't stop for coffee. (I've always come from the south, and we only had 4 minutes, but everyone made it. The shuttle is only taking people to Rothenburg, and they have plenty of time there before coming back, so they're pretty lenient about stragglers. The conductor will be standing on the platform watching and will not release the train while people are still boarding.

It’s doable altho quite busy. If you really want to see Rothenburg, then I would do it, but for a more relaxed start to your tour, I would do as Russ suggests.

I think I would also agree with Russ. Not that I don't like Rothenburg; I do. It's a little touristy, but walking the wall and observing the way they fortified the gates, the weakest points, is fascinating.

However, the trip using long distance trains to Würzburg is almost five hours with two changes, and a flexible, full fare ticket, usable on any train that day, is around 65€ per person. You can get much less expensive, advance purchase Saver Fare tickets, but they are usable only on the train for which they are booked. If your arrival on a trans-Atlantic flight is delayed, you lose the ticket and have to buy a new one at full price.

The last trip I made to Germany, on arrival we took regional trains to St Goar for two nights and on the intervening day took the train to Bingen and cruised (KD) back to St. Goar.

BTW, are you alone or doing this trip with someone. Might make a difference in fare.

I think if you really want to do Rothenburg, then you should. Its your vacation. When are you going?

I've landed in Frankfurt and trained to Rothenburg ob der Tauber on arrival day. To me, Rothenburg odT is a great place to recover from jet lag. The train journey takes up some or all of the time I need before checking into a hotel. Walking from the train station to the hotel helps me stay awake. Check in at hotel. Get settled in the room. Wander around town. Find a place for dinner. Wander a little more. Go to bed. Get up and see the many sites and museums in Rothenburg odT. I find the town to be especially enchanting in the evening after the "day tourists" leave. Enjoy your trip!

I think travelergirl has a good point about what to do with your time on Day 1 after you have landed, gotten your bags, passed through security, hit an ATM, and gotten yourself to the appropriate FRA railway station. If all of that happens by 9 am or so, maybe a lengthy train ride is what you would choose before a 3 pm check in, if the cost doesn't matter.

Personally, an overnight flight of many hours + the security/baggage lines leave me less than eager to spend additional hours catching 3-4 different trains. I'm ready get to my actual destination, drop my bags, and if it's too early to check in first, to instead get a decent cup of coffee or a meal and take a walk. Rick Steves seems to understand this dynamic - his itineraries begin in places that are fairly close to the fly-in airport (Koblenz, Hamburg) so that transport time, effort and costs are minimal.

People who DO have Rothenburg or other distant Bavarian destinations as their intended first stop, and wish to avoid a long trip, may want to spend their first night in Aschaffenburg, a stop on the way to Rothenburg that takes just one hour by direct regional train from FRA. The next morning, you're that much closer to Rothenburg.

Aschaffenburg is a pleasant city with nice parks and an old-town zone, and a good place to collect oneself after a long flight, and the train station is close in.

If you're heading to the Middle Rhine, all of the towns there - Koblenz, Boppard, etc. - are within a reasonable distance from FRA. If you want to ride the train after arrival in Boppard as a way of adjusting/relaxing, check with the front desk when you drop your bags there - ask for your Guest Ticket at that time so that you can take a scenic train ride along the river with it at no charge.

Thank you everyone for the input! I think
I will do Rothenburg before the tour. It sounds like I can purchase my train tickets upon arrival. I think it will be with the added cost and travel time. :)

If, as Russ suggested, you don't want to go all the way to Rothenburg on the arrival day, there is another alternative. If I were going to spend a day / night along the way, it would be in Wurzburg. The Prince Bishop's Residence there beats anything Aschaffenburg has to offer -- and I lived in both places for several years. But, to each his own. At any rate, a trip to W'burg to see the Residence will be well worth it. Do a Google search and see if it interest you.

Würzburg is further along on the route to Rothenburg and requires more time from FRA than Aschaffenburg, like 2.3 hours, with a connecting train to catch in Hanau, if you are planning to use the regional train from the airport. If you were instead to use the direct long-distance train options with a flex-preis ticket, W'burg might be around 1.5 hours.

Well I still believe that the OP would be better off going somewhere on the Rhein gorge, like St Goar, on the way to Kobenz, rather than going hours to the east and then having to come back even farther to get to Koblenz.

Like I said, I very much like Rothenburg, I just don't think it's worth traveling all that those hours to get there when there are also some worthwhile places to see in the other direction. I think the Rhein gorge and Rheinfels ruins are worth seeing.

The cost of a single Bahn ticket from FRA to St. Goar is 29,10. However, the cost of an RMC (Frankfurt metro) ticket to Mainz is 6,90€ and the cost of a Bahn ticket from there to St. Goar is 20€, a total of 26,90€. Even better, the cost of an RMV ticket to Bingen is 10,50€ and the cost of a Bahn ticket from Bingen to St Goar is 10,80€ for a total of 21,30€, so if you're willing to buy 2 separate tickets at the RegBF at the airport you can save a few euro.