picking up a car in Munich and have 10 days to have fun.

Are you flying into Frankfort? Munich? Or somewhere else? If you are driving from Munich to Dusseldorf, you will be going from the southeast of Germany to the north central, north west of Germany, and will most likely drive near Frankfurt. About 1 hour or so south of Frankfurt is a storybook looking town of Rothenburg, Germany. It's the most quaint place I've ever seen. It is a famous vacation spot, the architecture is amazing. There are many places to stay overnight. Look here on TripAdvisor at photos and I'm sure you'll be enchanted: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Tourism-g187319-Rothenburg_ob_der_Tauber_Romantic_Road_Bavaria-Vacations.html

The airfare you're quoting seems to be about right. If your route of travel to Dusseldorf takes you anywhere near Heidelberg and Mannheim, and untouristy but beautiful towns interest you, I would recommend driving through north to Frankfurt along the Bergstraße. Several of the towns along or near this route -Schiesheim, Weinheim, Lorsch, Heppenheim, Bennsheim, Birkenau- are known locally for their wine, beautiful town centers, and castle ruins overlooking them from the mountains.

Trip Advisor, is not a good source of accommodations. You'll find reviews that might or might not be planted, but you won't find any links to the actual hotel websites. If you are looking for accommodations in Rothenburg, go to http://www.rothenburg.de. Find a link to a place you like on the Rothenburg website, then see if it's listed on TA. But quite frankly, in 10 years of finding accommodations using town websites, I never found one to complain about.

Congrats on the new car! Having to drive up to Dusseldorf will get you some awesome autobahn time with the Beemer. I assume the car needs to then be returned to Munich to be shipped to the states? My suggestion is take a day to pick up the car in Munich, head north to Nurnberg for a day, then have fun driving directly to Dusseldorf, just watch for traffic around Frankfurt. That way you can work your way back to Munich in your own time. On the way back I have three suggestions: 1. Dusseldorf-Heidelberg-Rothenberg-Ulm-Munich 2. Dusseldorf-Trier or Luxembourg for Lunch-stay in Metz, France-Heidelberg-Stuttgart (see Ludwig's palace in Ludwigsburg)-Munich
3. Dusseldorf-Heidelberg-Salzburg-Munich (this is the least attractive driving since you're doing some back tracking, but Salzburg is really picturesque)

Everyone's tastes about what to see is different. A guide book is a good place to start. The Michelin Green Guide is quite comprehensive and is geared more towards driving. There are a couple maps in the front that lay out sights/towns geographically. There are recommend touring routes that you can cut and paste to come up with something that goes where you want. Regards, Gary

>>Tangent alert, folks<< Kathy Did you say to stay in Metz? I must have driven by Metz at least 30 times and never had the slightest inclination to stop in the town. The crunchy centre must be better than the wrapper! What is it about Metz that attracts you? Thanks....

I've driven through Metz on the autoroute, and from there, it looks like one of the ugliest cities in Western Europe... but I have heard from people that have visited that the center is quite attractive.

Donald, where are you returning the BMW for shipping, Munich, Frankfurt, etc ? makes a difference on your itinerary. You could fly into Munich and the car/fly home from Frankfurt or Vienna. Strongly recommend you read at a minimum some of the Rick Steves Germany 2011 book, where you'll get ideas of what interests you. Personally I liked the drive from Salzburg to Vienna thru the Salzkammergut Lake District, not on the highway but the small roads. Outstanding scenery. The Welt is a very cool building and your car will look beautiful on the turntable!

Look up the Romantic highway. Bamberg, Rothenburg ob der tauber stay the evening and take the Night Watchman's tour, drive to Austria,,,,its an amazing breath taking drive. Airfare sounds right.
You will have an absolute blast!

Since you're checking air fares, I'm assuming that you haven't yet bought your ticket. It also looks like that your interests/obligations are at opposite corners of Germany (OK, Duesseldorf isn't exactly on a corner). It seems to me that the logical solution is to fly into Duesseldorf, take care of your familial obligations, and then take the train to Munich. I suspect that your close friends at BMW will most likely even pick you up at the Munich train station. Once you have your car, you can plan a logical itinerary firmly planted in Bavaria and western Austria. You have lots of choices of things to see and do: Salzburg, Berchtesgaden, Burghausen (longest castle fortification in Germany, about 1 KM long), Oberammergau, Linderhof, the Wieskirche, the royal castles ( Neuschwanstein, Hohenschwangau), Munich, Herrenchiemsee, side trip to Regensburg, etc. You probably won't do all of these, but can certainly pick and choose whatever strikes your fancy. At the end of your stay, ship the car and fly out of Munich.

That sounds like the best idea. Thanks Nick.

Mike, the Romantic Road, according to their official website, goes from Würzburg (at the northern end) to Bad Mergentheim to Rothenburg to Nördlingen to Donauwörth to Landsberg to Füssen. I've left out a lot of intermediary stops, but Würzburg is the northern terminus. BAMBERG, although lovely and worth a stop, is not on the Road.