Romantic road in Germany

I just checked in Romantic Road Coach schedule, I see what you mean.

You are going to land from a long, trans-Atlantic flight and then drive for several hours, visiting both Wuerzburg and Rothenburg on the same day? This seems a bit much, as well as dangerous. Driving while tired, is almost as bad as driving drunk. Better would be to take the train to Wuerzburg, stay overnight, rent your car and then drive on the next day. Or, you could go to Buedingen instead and stay there overnight, before continuing on your way. It is only an hour outside of Frankfurt, and though it is only on the Fachwerk Road, rather than the Romantic Road, it does offer stunning buildings, original city walls to walk, and a 13 sided palace.

Thank you for your suggestion. We've already booked hotel in Rothenburg and Augsburg. We can drive directly to Rothenburg in stead of stop at Wurzberg. Google map show 2 hours drive from Frankfurt to Rothenburg. Or if you could suggest what would be the best route to enjoy the most of the Romantic Road? would 3 days 2 night enough?

I have to agree with Jo. On several occasions I have had fairly lengthy train legs right after arrival in Frankfurt, and I fell asleep on the train. Thank goodness I wasn't driving. "Do you think this plan will be enough to stop and see all the town on Romantic road route?" All the towns? If all you want to do is wave at the towns as you go by, you'll have enough time. In 2007, I traveled the Romantic Road from Wieskirche to Rothenburg using trains and local buses (not the RR Coach), spending a lot more time in the towns than on the road, and it took me two full days plus two half days on either end. I'd be inclined to take regional buses from Rothenburg to Nördlingen, see Nördlingen, the most interesting town between Rothenburg and Augsburg, IMO, and the train from there to Augsburg, then the train the next day to Füssen. If you take the Romantic Road Coach, you can do the whole trip in one day, but most of the time, they stop in towns only long enough to pick up/let off passengers.

Echoing the others... don't drive to Rothenburg on the first day after a trans-Atlantic flight. Or at least, don't stop somewhere to explore before reaching your first overnight destination. As Jo mentioned, your reaction times will mimic that of a drunk. Combine that with never having driven the Autobahn network before, and your asking for trouble. The flow Autobahn traffic has a terrifying tendency to randomly change from 150 km/hr to a sudden drop to 50 km/hr. Most of the quoted driving times you will see are significant underestimations. Look up the definition of the word "Stau". You will be intimately familiar with the concept after a few hours of driving on the Autobahn.

Jo,Ralph, Lee and Tom thank you. We think we will drop the idea about driving. Any one know how the Romantic road coach work? Is it like hop on and hop off between town to town as long as we bought the whole way ticket?

There is only one bus (coach) per day each direction so if you get off for more than a few minutes at a town, you'll be there overnight. See the Romantic Road Coach schedule, page 2. For parts of the Road, the towns are connected by trains. Where they are not, there are regional buses. See the German Rail (Bahn) website for bus schedules. For example, enter "Rothenburg ob der Tauber Bahnhof" to "Noerdlingen (changes to Nördlingen) Busbahnhof" and deselekt the first five (rail) options under "means of transport" to see the bus connections. You can extend your stop in Dinkelsbuehl by entering it and the desired time under stopover.

We stayed in Rothenburg for about 24 hours, arriving in the afternoon after a long drive from Prague, then leaving the next afternoon for another town. Were we to do it again, we'd stay 2 nights. Highlights were being able to walk around the town at night and taking a leisurely stroll on the walls the next morning. There are lots of nooks and crannies to explore. My advice is to pick at least one gem on the Romantic Route and explore it well.

Do you know what is the different between Frankfurt (Main) and Frankfurt (Main)Hbf and Frankfurt (ober)? I'm flying from Boston to Frankfurt and planning to take Bahn train to Rothenburg.

"Do you know what is the different between Frankfurt (Main) and Frankfurt (Main)Hbf and Frankfurt (ober)?
I'm flying from Boston to Frankfurt and planning to take Bahn train to Rothenburg." Frankfurt an der Oder is a town east of Berlin, at the Polish border. You do NOT want to go there for this trip. Frankfurt am Main is the Frankfurt that you want. Hbf is Hauptbahnhof, which means main train station. But, since you're landing at the airport, you don't want that as your starting point either. There's a station right at the airport. When searching, use "Frankfurt(Main)Flugh" which means Frankfurt am Main Flughafen or Frankfurt Airport. Similarly, there's more than one Rothenburg. Use "Rothenburg ob der Tauber" to get the right one. Looking for tomorrow, I see that the trains leave from the Fernbahnhof section of the Frankfurt Airport station (that's the long distance train section; there's also a regional train section). You change at Wuertzburg and again at Steinach, and the total travel time is about 3 hours (varies with trains selected). Since you don't know when you'll be ready to get the train (depending on when the plane arrives, time spent retrieving bags, etc), I'd just buy the ticket upon arrival.

This is so helpful, thank you so much.