Need Advice for Train Trip in Germany

Have you priced your Prague-Zurich flight? Looks pricey. There is good bus service between Prague and Nuremburg. 3 hour, 40 min with a 19 euro savings fare. Rothenburg is only 1 hour, 10 minutes from Nuremberg, 29 euro for 2 using a Bayern ticket. As Ron suggested, flying direct to Prague might be the way to go. If you have to drop a spot, Heidelberg can wait as it is out of the way. Rothenburg to Munich is only about 3 1/2 hours from Rothenburg and 26 euro for 2 with the Bayern ticket.

If you are landing in Frankfurt, a day trip to Heidelberg works well, but to Nuremberg, it is 2 hours one way on the ICE, and to Rothenburg 2.5 hours with 2 changes. From Munich though, Nuremburg is only 1 hour away, so it makes more sense to day trip from there, rather than from Frankfurt. Rothenburg is your outlier, so you might want to consider visiting a similar town that is easier to get to. Büdingen is just an hour outside of Frankfurt, or you could also visit Michelstadt which is also just one hour away from Frankfurt, or one of the other medieval walled towns that abound throughout Germany.

I have to fly to Frankfurt first to meet up with my daughter who will be staying with a friend in Kaiserslaughten. They can meet me in Frankfurt or Heidelburg by train. It sounds like we should stay a night in Nurenburg instead of heading back to Frankfurt each night to be closer to getting to Rothenburg. Roundtrip flight to prague and ending in Zurich is under $300 and is a 1 hour flight each way saving lots of travel time. Is Rothenburg worth the trouble to try and visit?? Or should I spend more time in Saltzburg? Wasn't sure if Rothenburg was very similar to Nurenburg. Please let me know your thoughts, thank you!!

I have been looking at train schedules to go to nuremburg from Munich but they appear to only leave around 4 in the afternoon, no earlier trains so it doesn't leave much time to see the city, have dinner then catch a train back to munich which is around 8. It seems odd there aren't more trains, I'm not sure if I'm just not getting all the information on-line. Have thought about ordering the thomas cook schedule to be sure.

"Is Rothenburg worth the trouble to try and visit??" Not unless you're traveling in the general vicinity. It is, without question, an attractive town. But it isn't nearly as unique as a lot of the travel literature makes it seem. Germany is loaded with well-preserved historical towns. Most, unlike Rothenburg however, are not filled with trinket shops and tour buses. If you're traveling farther than two hours out of your way to visit Rothenburg, you have probably passed several good alternatives along the way. I don't know the Kaiserslautern area that well, but ask your hosts about some of the towns of the German Wine Road, like Bad Dürkheim and Neustadt. Also look into Speyer. Near Heidelberg, consider Heppenheim, Bennsheim, Weinheim, Lindenfels, Michelstadt and Erbach, Dilsberg, Hirschhorn, Neckarsteinach, and Bad Wimpfen.

Not sure where you are looking up your train information, but the Deutsche Bahn website (which is the one you should be using) shows a train every 30 min. all day long going from Munich to Nuremberg.

Yes, use www.bahn.com. I hope you are not using Raileurope. So if you want to see Rothenburg, its along the way between Frankfurt and Nuremberg. There is a fast nonstop ICE train every hour between Munich and Nuremberg, and trains that make stops running in between them.

Definitely, use the German Rail (Bahn) website to get the schedule of trains between Nuernberg and Munich. Most of the time, there will be two ICEs per hour, one of them non-stop, plus occasional regional trains (RE). Note: the Bahn website accepts a number of non-Germany spellings of Nürnberg, but to be certain, spell it "Nuernberg". If you are staying in the city of Nürnberg or just outside, you will be in the Verkehrsverbund Großraum Nürnberg (VGN, transit district greater Nuernberg). Rothenbuerg odT is also in the Verkehrsverbund and a VGN TagesTicket Plus (Verbundweit/10+T), for 16,80€, will cover a week day (or Sat and Sun) round trip from Nuernberg to Rothenburg for up 2 adults (6 travelers total).

Thank you all for the good advice, I see the other site has much better train schedules and helps me to rethink the plan. Can anyone suggest a very good tour company out of munich to schedule day trip to castles. There are so many, would like nice bus, good tour guide, a company that does it all, gets the tickets to castle in advance etc, so no waiting in lines. Thank you!!

IMO, the 3rd party tours are not worth the considerable price they charge just to get you there. It is easy to just do the trip yourself. See here for information. If you go out to Hohenschwangau on the train and bus you can be pretty sure of you arrival time so you can reserve tickets in advance at www.hohenschwangau.de. The pickup line for reserved tours is short to non-existent. Regardless of how you get there, you will be guided through the castle by the castle's own guides.