Hi! I'm going to visit the Souther Germany in September for 10 days. I'm planning to rent a car and visit couple of towns and cities in Southern Germany like Lindau, HeidelBerg, Regensberg, Nurenberg, Rothenburg and Bamberg. But I don't know which cities or towns to stay to visit all those cities. How much do you think I should I spend days on each of those cities or daytrip is enough?
P.s: I will be also visiting Munich for 5 days (1 day in fussen to visit Neuwachstein Castle)
Thank you
Nobody can answer this question for you with any accuracy because we don’t know you. Look online or in travel guide books to decide what interests you, for how long, and what you want to spend.
I’ve spent 1/2 a day in Lindau, Bamberg, Nuremburg, 3 days in Heidelburg, 10 days in Rothenburg. None in Regensburg, although I would like to, especially since it is a Sister City of Tempe, AZ where I lived for 25 years.
It all depends on your interests. Spend at least one night in Rothenburg and take the Night Watchman’s tour. If you go to Lindau, spend a couple of days in the area ( Meersburg, lake dweller museum )
Nuremberg is a good base to visit Regensburg, Rothenburg ob der Tauber and Bamberg as it acts sort of like a hub with spokes and there is a lot of public transportation for day trips. I spent 4 nights (which equals about 3 days) in Nuremberg and managed two day trips - one to Regensburg and one to Bamberg. If you want to add in Rothenburg (which is a good idea - I did not because I have been there before), add another night. Or substitute Rothenburg for one of the other cities.
Here is one recent post that covered the same ground - you may want to review this: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/germany/where-to-stay-for-5-nights-in-franconia
Take Mardee's advice and use Nuremberg as a travel base town for Bamberg, Rothenburg, and Regensburg. I should think you'd spend 5 days just on these places. Other interesting day trip destinations s from Nuremberg include Bad Windsheim, Iphofen, Munich and Würzburg. It's quite simple to see how one might spend an entire week or longer in Nuremberg.
What no one has told you yet is that all these day trips will be easier and in the long run cheaper by train.
VGN Tagesticket Plus (day pass) - covers almost all the above destinations, usually by direct train. €22.10 max per day, no parking fees, no gas, no driving or car pick-up/drop-off hassles or traffic jams. Note that travel on Sunday is free if you have bought one of these day passes for Saturday. The map below shows why Nuremberg is such a good base for this region as well as which towns are within the VGN zone and accessible on the Tagesticket Plus.
https://www.vgn.de/media/verbundgebiet.pdf/
The Bayern Ticket day pass can cover day trips to Bayreuth, Munich and/or Würzburg.
The normal pricing you see above, while very good, is not as good as the upcoming €49 Ticket, which according to the best sources will actually be a for-real thing starting this spring - and it is good for all of Germany for one month on the same regional trains that the day passes cover, so for train travel, you can completely skip all that day pass information above. Like the day passes, you can buy it at any station.
As for Lindau and Heidelberg... Those are so far afield that you would need to visit those places separately from the others mentioned and separately from each other as well.
Wow you guys are correct! Nurenberg is the city that I should stay. I also search already what's the duration of the travel on each those cities through Nuremberg and it's similar if you're driving.
We enjoyed Nurnberg and Rothenburg ob der Tauber when we stayed in each. We enjoyed Regensburg when we visited while on a river cruise. We’ve visited Heidelberg years ago but never spent the night since our son was stationed near there with the military. Rothenburg ob der Tauber is very popular with tourists and can seem overrun with them during the day. To me, it is best experienced after they leave, but one full day there is adequate. The main part of Nuremberg can be seen in a day, but two days would be better. Regensburg was nice and would be perfect if you just wanted to relax for an evening, but one full day there would be sufficient.
Dachau is not too far away.
