Stuttgart -- hotel recomendations and schedule question Augsburg or Munich???

Car in Stuttgart? I suggest not to do that - the city is really filled up with car traffic.

For hotel suggestions your preferred style and price range will help to give relevant tips.

With a rental car at that time I would definitely recommend to drive German Alpine Road from Salzburg to Füssen. And why you do not use hotels on the way in countryside, e.g. around Neuschwanstein?

A chance that the men want to see cars with a three pointed emblem on the bonnet/hood?

Thanks Mark. We had considered staying in Fussen or other areas but the drive to Stuttgart seemed too much. We have a limited time (12 Nights) given my husband's work schedule. Our tentative plan is to start in Berlin (3 nights), take the train to Nuremburg stay there 2 nights and get a car for the rest of the travels to Rotenburg (1 night), and head to Munich for 3 nights. We considered going to Salzburg but it seemed like taking day trips from Munich appeared more practical. If you have thoughts on making that work better we haven't committed to anything yet other than our plane tickets (we fly into Berlin and leave from Frankfurt). We only plan to spend one night in Frankfurt before we fly out.

As far as accommodations I prefer not to splurge if possible, but willing to pay more for safety, cleanliness, and quiet. We are pretty low maintenance as we won't be spending a bunch of time in the hotel. Clean and comfortable is the only real requirement. Experiencing the culture is the point of the vacation so Gasthaus options are a big win to me. My husband speaks German (I am trying to learn) so English speaking staff is helpful but not required. We do have a teenager so 2 rooms would be ideal if affordable. Private bath is nice but not essential.

Thanks!

We like the City Hotel. It is within walking distance of the palaces and near public transportation. Good Breakfast and staff. The rooms are small but I think that is somewhat common in large cities. They had limited parking in front of the building.

http://www.cityhotel-stuttgart.de/www.cityhotel-stuttgart.de/index4beb.html?lang=en_&selItem=aufenthalt

Even if you do not want to book through a booking service, a quick query will tell you availability and give you other pertinent facts on the hotel. We like Hotel Reservation Service and find the ratings pretty useful.

https://www.hrs.com/?dynStartDate=1&singleRooms=0&doubleRooms=1&adults=2&customerid=410736001&extcmp=PS-uk-7631-GoogleUK_Desktop_Brand&HBX_PK=Hrs%20Com&HBX_OU=50

A chance that the men want to see cars with a three pointed emblem on the bonnet/hood?

That and I am sure there are some cars with a coat of arms and horse on the bonnet that they are interested in as well :-)

Augsburg: directly opposite the station (Victoriastrasse) there is the traditional and comfortable Hotel Riegele (price range approx. € 90-150 for a double room with breakfast). A few meters away are two Ibis hotels (Halder Strasse or Königsplatz). Other centrally located hotels in that category are: Hotel am Rathaus, Hotel am Dom and Hotel Augsburger Hof.

I would not backtrack to Minich after Fussen.
In Stuttgart we stayed at the Achat Comfort hotel which is close to the Porsche Museum and has parking.

The Mercedes-Benz museum is an absolute must, the Porsche Museum is, for me, only for hard-core marque-specific Porsche fans - too many variations on the same basic couple of designs. If you have some spare time, it would be worth visiting Gottlieb Daimler's preserved workshop as well.

A place you might be interested in staying at is the Neotel. I stayed there a couple of years ago and wouldn't usually recommend it here as it's very much a business-style hotel that is a bit out in the suburbs. However, because of the location it is easily accessible by car and has free car parking (there is a light rail station in easy walking distance with services to the city centre late into the evening). Further, if your menfolk are interested in larger vehicles than cars, the owner of the hotel is part of the family that used to own the German bus-manufacturing company Neoplan, and there is a small museum about the company attached to the hotel.

We stay in Böblingen when we are in the Stuttgart area. We found a business hotel there that suits our needs and it is about a 20 min drive into Stuttgart. We have a favorite beer garden there too. Schönbuch Bräu Brauhaus

But if your hubby and son are really into cars, this place has a really unique feature. Motorworld. https://www.motorworld.de/en/home/portfolio/

My dad and hubby completely geeked out here. They were like two kids in a candy store when they came out. It is a collection of privately owned cars that are out for display. It is on an old air field and there is a car themed hotel there. I don't know how expensive it is, but it may be worth it if they are into cars.

Lived in Stuttgart for 9 months, then over 3 years in Augsburg.

Several posts have provided good advice. The Germans call Stuttgart "stau city"

A stau is a backup on the autobahn due to heavy traffic. Stuttgart is not very car friendly. Also, the city is somewhat spread out, but does have a good public transport system. There is a brewery on the south end of Stuttgart (Schwaben Brau) that is near Patch Barracks (US Army facility). Also, it is near Sindelfingen where the Mercedes Factor is located. You can access the autobahn to Munich very easily.

If you have rented a car, parking will be more of a problem in Munich, or for that matter in any cities in Germany. Augsburg is a wonderful small city (population about 350K). If you go, be sure to visit the City Hall and the Fuggeri settlement.

Staying in Augsburg would be fine, but driving into Munich would be a pain with the traffic. Try to find hotels that provide free parking. You can always take the train into Munich from Augsburg, it is only 50 miles.

If you have time, since you are driving, do The Romantic Road from Wurzburg to Garmish/Fussen. It is wonderful and includes Rothenburg on the Tauber.

Thanks Everyone! This is all incredibly helpful. I appreciate the input and guidance.

If you have rented a car, parking will be more of a problem in Munich, or for that matter in any cities in Germany.

Do you mean Parking in general or just parking at hotels? Our plan would be to use the car for the Romantic Road tour and to get between cities (Munich--Stuttgart) (Stuttgart--Frankfurt) although we are looking into train options and returning car in Munich. Ideally we would only need parking at the hotel as we we would leave the car parked at the hotel and use public transport throughout the city when seeing the sites. We for sure don't want to deal with parking in a city. Do you think just parking at hotels would be an issue?

It may not be an issue but it almost certainly will be expensive. I would check with each of your hotels as what they charge. Some will be easy and won't, make sure that the hotel has its own carpark (they don't all) or you will be paying in a usually paying town or city one, and some hotel carparks have very low ceilings and lots of posts and walls, and narrow spaces.

I'd just check each place carefully.

Parking at a hotel can be expensive in big cities. For example, 30 years ago I lived in Germany and took an auto trip to Paris for 4 days. Because I worked for the US Army, I was able to stay in a hotel run for the French Military, which was great, but I still had to pay for parking. Even back 30 years ago it was about $10 US a day.

You have to do some research, before you book your hotels. Five or four star hotels in the inner city will likely charge while in areas away from the city center parking may not cost much or be free.

The hotel websites should state their parking policy.

We did a 28 day drive tour of Wales and England, but the largest cities we stayed at were Cardiff, York and Durham. Our hotels in York and Durham provided free parking, but the one in Cardiff had an arrangement with a multi-story car park three blocks from our hotel (our hotel was downtown in great location). We had to schlepp our luggage back and forth and the cost was about 7 pounds a night. Cardiff is what I would describe as a medium sized city. I would imagine Munich would cost more. Still, you may consider turning your car in at Munich after doing the Romantic Road, but you need to check rail prices to compare.

Research, Research, Research