Romantic Road

In my opinion, the Romantic Road is over hyped. In 2007 I made a dedicated trip on the Romantic Road, taking 4-5 days from Wieskirche to Wuerzburg. Most days I spent a few hours traveling and most of my time seeing towns. Driving the road itself is a bore. It's a winding, two lane road, with a 50 mph speed limit, which you can't do because of the congestion on the road. The major attractions are a few interesting towns on the Road. Probably the two towns between Fuessen and Rothenburg I found most interesting were Landsberg and Noerdlingen. But Noerdlingen is a smaller, less touristy version of Rothenburg, where you are already going. Above Rothenburg, between Rothenburg and Wuerzburg, I found Bad Mergentheim, with it's Deutsches Ordnung Museum the most interesting. As for Reutte, it you have a car, there might be some interesting places outside of town. Rick likes to stay at zum Schluxen. I stopped in Reutte for lunch in 2009 on my way from Mittenwald to Pfronten, and found the area around the Bahnhof to be disappointing. I would rather stay in Pfronten, just up the line from Reutte, a much more appealing town.

Lee, Thanks for the tip (s). You must travel a lot to Europe if you spent 4 to 5 days just on the Romantic Road! I'm asking if I should spend 4 to 5 hours! :) Thanks for the suggestion on Pfronten. Any place special to stay there? Thanks again for your input. Tom

I've spent over a hundren nights in Germany and Austria since 2000. In Pfronten, I stayed at a place called Loewen. It's a restaurant with a few rooms to rent. I think I paid €27 per night, single. However, in my walks around town, I found this place and I think next time I will stay here.

In ten years, I have become very familiar with German Rail and how you can use the Bahn website to travel economically. I kept hearing self appointed experts claim you needed a car for the Romantic Road, and I figured out how you could do it with public transportation. So in 2007, I decided to prove it. I also wanted to find out what was so all-fired great about the road and the towns and why we should tour it. Based on my experience, I have concluded that the Road is over-hyped. It certainly is not worth the driving experience, and there are a lot of other interesting towns in Bavaria.

Hi Tom, I agree with Lee. Skip driving the RR and skip staying in Reutte. We liked staying in Fuessen at the Hotel zum Hechten. We stayed here in '01 and '03. http://www.hotel-hechten.com http://www.fuessen.de/244.0.html You may want to try the luge ride (Sommerrodelbahn) and/or the cable car trip just a mile or so from Neuschwanstein at Tegelberg. Paul

Thanks Lee and Paul Much Appreciated. Tom

Germany is criss-crossed by several dozen Fereinstaßen, of which the Romantischestraße is the most well known in the US. The idea behind most of these routes isn't that the drive is necessarily any more scenic than, per se, driving on an autobahn, but that the roads link together several towns or sites of cultural or historical significance. I wouldn't say the drive along the Romantischestraße isn't scenic- it is. But as James pointed out, you would see much of the same driving along the A7 or any other secondary road in that region of Germany. Personally, I think naming that route "The Romantic Road" was a stroke of marketing genius. No, it wasn't the name traditionally ascribed by painters or poets, but it was brain-stormed by a committee promoting automobile tourism in the 1950s. Would anyone go out of their way to drive the "Scenic Towns of Western Bavarian Road" or the "Souvenir Shop Road" ( I think the latter is more of an accurate description than "Romantic")? Don't get me started on Reutte again...

Lee; Dinkelsbühl; Almost too cute Nördlingen; More a working town - climbed the bell tower for 360 degree views of the wall and countryside Donauwörth; The least interesting of the three More detail can be found at or blog; http://lee-reid2010.blogspot.com/2010/06/i-woke-up-early-this-morning-to-walk.html Tom; read the days before and after that blog entry to include the rest of our time in Germany. The blog mentions saving time by taking the motorway, which we DID do, but only north of RODT, not south of it. I realize that we spent too little time in the small towns to really judge them fairly. We were mostly looking for places to stretch our legs and break up the trip with a 30-90 minute stroll.

We did that drive (except ending in Füssen) and made at least three stops along the way to stroll towns. Still made it to our destination by 5pm easily. We stayed on the small roads as the savings in time over that short distance was not worth the diversion to the motorway, especially if you plan to stop along the way. Stay in Füssen. It's so much better and more convenient.

To All, Many thanks for the feedback. You have been a big help. Tom

Just out of curiosity, Randy, where did you stop and what was your opinion of that place/town.