Southern Germany Itinerary

we will spend the night at the airport

You might consider staying in a nearby town like Freising or Erding. Freising is
more pittoresque but Erding has a really good spa.

12 Sep: I'd add a stop in Landshut

15 sep: take the route through the Tauber valley and see Bad Mergentheim and / or
Weikersheim and the stunning Riemenschneider altar in Creglingen

13 Sep: suggestions for a walking tour here.

Your Freiburg - Füssen drive on 9/21 means 5 hours on the road, right? You didn't mention Insel Mainau, attractive Meersburg or Meersburg Castle, or the Zeppelin Museum, or Lindau. Then there's scenic Oberstdorf, which lengthens the list of nice places you are bypassing. So I thought I'd mention these places in the event that breaking up your drive to Tourist Central (Füssen) with some sort of overnight stay makes sense to you. You might in fact make Lake Constance a multi-night stay... On the 20th, your drive to the Wutachschlucht takes you nearly to the west end of Lake Constance. So to avoid backtracking to Freiburg just to sleep there again, I'd suggest either an overnight nearby in pretty Löffingen or driving on to a Lake Constance base town.

I agree with Russ and slowing down to see some of the beautiful and interesting sights along the northern and eastern shores of Lake Constance (Bodensee). We just returned from another stay in this region and for my sister in law, an avid birder, a highlight for her was to see nesting storks in a couple of towns near Überlingen. If you haven’t already seen storks in Hungary or someplace else on your multiple year journey, this would be an easy drive to see a village with about 20 storks before they migrate for the winter.

sla019 -- 12 Sept. am looking into Landshut; 13 Sept. have already planned (but didn't note) a walking tour in Nuremberg; 15 Sept. will follow your recommendation

Russ -- will add a day & stop on our drive between Freiburg to Fussen; like your idea on leaving F. and continuing to gorge and then finding a place to stay Note: packing up and moving on is a pain and therefore we have been trying to make various towns/cities base stops but as you noted it shouldn't be at the expense of back tracking

Mona -- have seen many species of storks but will check out the area you have noted ebird.com and if these storks are a species we have seen we will go to

Thanks and looking forward to more comments, recommendations, etc.

Russ or others: A recommendation for a base town for Lake Constance if we don't spend the night in Loffingen after driving to and hiking in Wutachschlucht?

How long does it take to walk/see Meersburg Castle or the Zeppelin Museum? Would like to stop for both.

You can check the driving distance and time but my favorite towns in order along the eastern shore of the lake are Überlingen, Meersburg and Lindau. The storks are 4km from lovely Überlingen. You can stroll around Meersburg and the old or new castle/palace in 2-3 hours. Friedrickshafen as a town doesn’t do anything for me but you can easily spend 2+ hours at the fascinating museum. Traffic can be slow on sunny weekend days along certain stretches of the lake.

Tripadvisor suggests 2-3 hours in the Zeppelin museum. I don't remember how long I spent there myself.

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g198398-d634545-Reviews-Zeppelin_Museum-Friedrichshafen_Baden_Wurttemberg.html

Meersburg: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g198537-d1852913-Reviews-Burg_Meersburg-Meersburg_Bodensee_Baden_Wurttemberg.html

The places I suggested are somewhat spread out so I suggest you identify the ones you are most likely to visit and look for geographic proximity and availability when you do your hotel search. If it's only Meersburg and the Zeppelin museum I'd look for a room at Meersburg first as it's the more attractive town. Then again you're only allocating one night, right, so as long as you find a room that meets your needs and a place to park your wheels...

I believe I have included everyone's recommendations into a less preliminary itinerary:

12 Sept. – leave Munich & drive by way of Landshut: gothic architecture and Regensburg (UNESCO) to Nuremburg
15 Sept – by way of Wurzburg – stop for Residenz (UNESCO) and Weikersheim and Creglingen: Riemenschneider altar at Herrgottskirche Church -- drive to Rothenburg ob der Tauber & explore
17 Sept – by way of High Road/Triberg Waterfall/German Clock Museum drive to Freiburg
20 Sept – drive and hike Wutachschlucht (gorge) for hike and drive on to Loffingen for night or on to Meersburg for the night
21 Sept – drive to Fussen by way of Lake Constance (drive northern shore) and then Zeppelin Museum and explore (drive is The Alpine Road)

Thank you very much for your insights and recommendations.

Traffic can be slow on sunny weekend days along certain stretches of the lake.

Please note that traffic on the B31 is always very dense even on workdays. That's all the more true this summer as there are no good alternative routes because those are full of construction sites. Last week it took me over an hour to drive from Tettnang to Salem instead of the forecast 35 min.

BTW, accommodation in the hinterland of the lake is generally cheaper. Therefore I'd include in the search places like Salem, Markdorf and Tettnang.

Sla019 we were in Tettnang last Sunday. Did you do the Hopwanderweg? Love that area.

@ Mona
We didn't walk at all since the heat was too oppressive for our taste. Our main objective was to see the "Carmen" at the Bregenz festival and to wander a bit around to visit some less known nice places such als Heiligenberg or Pfullendorf. We stayed in a small old fashioned pension outside of Tettnang in a tiny hamlet at small lake Muttelsee. Glad that you liked the region.