Start in Berlin and End in Paris

To avoid a steep rental drop-off fee, return the car before leaving Germany. You can easily catch a train from Nürnberg to Paris (won't be direct, however).

Day trips out of Nuremberg? Castles? In my opinion, Germany's best castle is Veste Coburg, overlooking the town of Coburg. If you like hiking, the region of Franconian Switzerland, to the north and east of Nürnberg is filled with castles, attractive old towns and interesting rock formations. Despite the name, it looks nothing like any region of Switzerland I have ever seen. Rothenburg ob der Tauber is a perpetual tourist favorite. Although not nearly as unique as advertised in my opinion, it is close and convenient to Nürnberg with a car, so no reason to skip it.

If driving from Dresden to Nürnberg, consider giving Leipzig a brief look. I would rate it as Germany's most underrated city, and one of the best places in the country if you want a glimpse into the wealth and opulence of the late 19th/early 20th centuries. Meißen outside of Dresden is also worth a brief stop.

Bamberg is also a visitor favorite, but I'll let Russ tell you more about it... but since you mentioned beer, Bamberg makes one the country's most unique brews, Rauchbier (smoked beer). Despite living in Germany for several years, I could only find this unique product sold in the city of it's birth, and not for lack of looking either!

"We are more interested in seeing smaller towns... Beer, Wine, food. I don't have a lot of interest in Munich just because it is a large city."

Makes sense to me. 3 days in Berlin, then see some small towns.

"Thinking about heading down to Nuremberg through Dresden. Maybe stay there for a 3-4 days and take day trips out of there. "Any suggestions on where to stay in Nuremberg?"

Huh? Both cities have populations around half a million. Same with Leipzig. Like Munich and Berlin they too were mostly demolished in WW II and rebuilt into modern metropolises; some attention was used to make some of the rebuilding historically authentic of course, but these are still very large places. And they're bad places to have a car unless you value traffic and parking fees at your hotel.

What I think you need to do is familiarize yourself with some smaller places and decide which ones would be interesting and doable on the route you have in mind.

Here's Herleshausen, a town of farm folks that about 30 years ago straddled the Iron Curtain. DW and I spent 4 nights there last spring and day-tripped by train to nearby towns of interest in the area (Eisenach, Mühlhausen, Erfurt, Schmalkalden, Bad Langensalza.) It was fun. I'm not suggesting that Herleshausen or any town of 3,000 is right for you - we have our own personal preferences - I only wish to emphasize that there's no need for you to bed down in impersonal hotels in these huge cities if you don't wish to be there. You will find rooms at small inns, private B&Bs, farms, and Grandma-apartments everywhere in Germany - in tiny villages, small-to-large towns, and small cities. In our case we had a roof-space apartment with a large living room, bath, kitchen and one bedroom in a 3-story home in town. Oh, and a view across rooftops and a nice meadow toward the castle ruins on a nearby hillside. We booked it through the regional tourist office website linked above.

If you want to stay in the general Nuremberg area, look into small towns like Iphofen, Bad Windsheim, Marktbreit, or smallish cities like Bayreuth (70k) Bamberg (80k) or Kitzingen (20k)

But you could literally toss a dart at a map of Germany and find lovely small towns. A Berlin - Rhine - Paris routing might take you through Goslar and/or Hannoversch Münden before you reach the Middle Rhine Valley, where places like Braubach, the home of Marksburg Castle, are in great number. The entire Rhine/Mosel region is filled with small towns in scenic places. You can have a look at some of the Rhine/Mosel options at Bavaria Ben's website, where you'll find a collection of very readable reports and reviews from independent travelers.

Just a 1-1/2 hour drive east of Dresden on the Polish border is the beautiful small city of Görlitz. So beautiful and varied is its architecture that it's used for location filming, and you can buy T-shirts locally with the legend "Görliwood". Very much worth a trip; not yet ridiculously touristy because of its rather isolated location, I assume. I believe there are over 1000 historic buildings ranging from half-timbered to art nouveau.

If your route onward takes you from Leipzig to Nuremberg, the following will not be terribly far off your driving route:

• the handsome university town of Erfurt, a very congenial place, very walkable.
• the very historic city of Weimar
• Buchenwald (just outside Weimar)
• Eisenach with its pretty old town and Wartburg Castle

Thinking about heading down to Nuremberg through Dresden. Maybe stay
there for a 3-4 days and take day trips out of there. We are more
interested in seeing smaller towns.

Both Nuremberg and Dresden are big cities. And both were destroyed in WW2.
If you follow a more or less direct route you will see plenty of preserved small towns and many other interesting places. I would recommend one of the following two routes. Have a look on a map.
(WHS = World Heritage Site)

Northern Route
Harz mountains+ with Quedlinburg++ (WHS), Wenigerode**, Goslar++ (WHS), Stolberg+
Duderstadt+
Hann. Münden++
Kassel Mountain Park++ (WHS)
Fritzlar
Marburg+
Wetzlar
Limburg
Middle Rhine++ (WHS)

Southern Route
Wittenberg++ (WHS)
Dessau-Wörlitz Garden Kingdom++ (WHS)
Dessau (Bauhaus)+ (WHS)
Naumburg+
Weimar++ (WHS)
Erfurt++
Gotha+
Eisenach (Wartburg castle++) (WHS)
Fulda+
Gelnhausen+
Middle Rhine++ (WHS)

Thank you very much for the information and the different routes. I am going to take a look at the suggestions and potentially modify our unconfirmed plans.

The only real places on my must-go places are Berlin and a town named Butzbach. Butzbach was the last place I lived many, many years ago. The only reason I was considering staying in Nuremberg was that it was on the route from Berlin to Paris and it seemed a travel agent suggested it as a launching point for day drives. I could just as easily stay in small towns.

Travel agent also suggested flying from Nuremberg to Paris. I have no interest in flying. Car or train so that we can see the countryside.

Thank you again!

Randy