We are traveling to Rothenburg,Germany soon and are just wondering if we should take the bus along the Romantic Road or rent a car? And that brings up another question- Can we rent in Rothenburg and return in Fuessen?
Thanks for any info
Jana Davidson
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19093 posts
Two years ago, I did the Romantic Road (Wieskirche to Rothenburg) in three+ days, traveling just a few hours per day and spending the rest of the time seeing the towns, Schongau, Landsberg (nt), Donauwoerth, Harburg, Noerdlingen (nt), Dinkelsbuehl, and Feuchtwangen(nt), along the way. I did it without the Romantic Road coach, which only makes one trip per day, or a rental car, which is fine for experiencing the traffic on the road, but much more expensive than necessary. I used a combination of rail (Landsberg to Noerdlingen) and regularly scheduled regional buses (Wieskirche to Landsberg and Noerdlingen to Rothenburg).
Of the towns along the way, the only one I thought was worth the stop was Noerdlingen. Some people like Dinkelsbuehl, but I saw Noerdlingen first, and Dinkelsbuehl was a poor second after Noerdlingen.
I would not advise trying to do it in one day.
Posted by
Ojai, CA
591 posts
The best way to see Bavaria & the Romantik Road is with a car. Many of the best places to visit are difficult to reach with public transportation. Driving is easy in Germany; excellent roads that are well sign-posted. For the Romantik Road I'd suggest spending a couple nights at the north end to see Rothenburg & Wurzburg, and then a couple nights at the south end to see Neuschwanstein Castle, Linderhof Palace, and the Weiskirche. IMO the towns of Nordlingen and Dinkelsbuhl are the best ones to visit in the midpart of the RR. Think about renting a car at the airport.
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19093 posts
"The best way to see Bavaria & the Romantik Road is with a car."
"Best" is a rather subjective term. Here is something objective.
In sixteen weeks of travel in Germany, over half of it in Bavaria, I have never found it necessary to rent a car. I have never found it too difficult to get to a place I wanted to be with public transportation. Before I took my trip on the Romantische Strasse (note correct spelling), I got competitive quotes for a compact car, one week, pickup in Munich, drop off in Wuerzburg. The best quote was for $272. Fuel (per ViaMichelin)would have added $75; $347 total. I did the one week trip with public transportation for $126, a saving of $220 (64%) for one week.
Is saving 65% best? You decide, but it is hard to give a good rationale for spending so much more money to see the same things.
Posted by
Brooklyn, NY, USA
20 posts
In response to Lee's comments: I myself have not yet travelled the romantic road (although I am planning to do it next summer). However, I think it is a bit silly to compare traveling methods so objectively: would you tell a person that staying in a hostel 30 minutes outside of the city is "best" because you save money? No, because your missing on experiences.
Last summer I rented a car and drove across Ireland. I didn't stop at any particular town and there was no need for me to not just take a plane/train/etc. However, the things I saw along the way, the people I met just by stopping at a farmhouse, the way I got to see locals live; I would trade that for much more that $220 any day.
The point is this: Don't try and use rigorous calculations to decide how you want to travel. If you feel the urge to drive a car through the romantic road then do it; if not, don't feel forced to. Mathematics doesn't really apply too well to these sorts of situations (this coming from a PhD student in Mathematics).
Posted by
Paradise
6648 posts
Jana: The RR Bus is a joke. It stops only momentarily in most of the towns and takes forever and a day to get you around.
The RR itself is also a bit of a joke. It has a few great towns on it (Rothenburg is one) but a good number of the towns are only on the RR because it was geographically convenient to put them there. If you only follow the RR you miss out hugely. Why go to Augsburg if you have to miss Bamberg or Nuremberg, for example? Fabulous little places like Eichstaett and Weissenburg and Schwaebisch Hall, not far from Rothenburg, get bypassed by the RR.
I'd stick with the train. At 28 Euros per day on a Bayern Ticket, you can go almost anywhere you want in Bavaria, even if you don't drive the RR with every other tourist that wants to drive the RR because that's what they've been advised to do.
You can do a little research on what to see in Bavaria, then use this train map of the rail lines to see how to get there:
http://www.bayern-takt.de/media/PDF-Files/Netzkarten/Netzkarte_Gesamt0608.pdf