Swiss Alps to Munich suggestions

On the German side (you can get here by ferry from Romanshorn) see the Zeppelin Museum in Friedrichshafen. Then take the train along the lake to Lindau, what was a walled medieval city on an island in the lake. From Lindau, go by train to Immenstadt im Allgäu, then up the spur line to Oberstdorf. There are many hiking opportunities around Oberstdorf,including the Austrian valley, Kleinwalsertal. Then go back towards Immenstadt as far as Sonthofen and take the bus up the side of a mountain outside of Hindelang (not for the faint of heart) to Oberjoch and via Pfronten to Füssen, and the castles. From Füssen, you can go by train to Munich.

Thanks Lee. I will check these out more thoroughly. So, it seems using rail through Switzerland is best. Should I rent a car in Munich for the Romantic road area? Thanks again Lee. - Brent

Lindau, Lindau, and then Lindau.

In my opinion, the Romantic Road is over-rated. In Oct '07, I did the RR (Wieskirche to Rothenburg) in three days. You can read my blog at www.germantravel-info.com/RR_journal.htm. If you go first to Füssen, then to Munich, and then to Rothenburg ob der Tauber, you will have seen the two most important sites on the road. Unless you have an asphalt fetish, just to drive a winding, two lane country road with a 35 mph speed limit and lots of cars, trucks, buses, and farm equipment is hardly worth the effort. The best thing about the Road is the towns along the way, and people who drive through in a day don't have much time to see them. I thought by far the most interesting town on the road was Nördlingen, but it is just a smaller, less touristy version of Rothenburg and easy to get to by train.

Brent, I wouldn't recommend using a car to travel the Romantic Road. I agree with Lee that it's somewhat "overrated". It's very easy to get from Munich to Rothenburg by train (at least one change in Steinach). Cheers!

If you are interested in seeing and experiencing the villages on the Romantic road, including Nordlingen, Dinkelsbuhl, Rothenberg, it is a lot easier by car. I would take the rural road, past the pig farms, and getting stuck behind tractors. Just relax, and stop in the villages along the way. Train only gets you to a few places- and all you se is the village. wurzburg to Munich - you can even go all the way to Fussen if that appeals. There are a number of villages that are quite different- some have castles, some have mediaeval walls. Not everyone enjoys the same things, thank goodness

"If you are interested in seeing and experiencing the villages on the Romantic road ... it is a lot easier by car." I certainly disagree with that statement. There might have been a few places where a car might have been more convenient, although I can only think of one place. Compare that with the inconvenience of having to constantly watch traffic and the road vs. sitting in a compfortable seat in a train coach, with freedom to watch the scenery, write in my journal, look at the pictures I just took. And what a price you pay for the convenience. During the planning phase, I got a quote for a very small car, pickup Munich Hbf, drop in Würzburg, without any collision insurance. When you included fuel (ViaMichelin) the total cost of having a car for a week on the road was $346. I did the whole trip for about €90, about $124 at the time. . . . . . . ¶ BTW, almost 70% of my trip was by bus, on the same roads you would have driven, and I did not see anything special about the road or the villages we went through.

"Train only gets you to a few places". Actually, of the 21 towns listed on the Road at the time, 12 have rail access, and the other 9 are accessible by bus. There was no need for a car to get to any of them.

I share half of Lee's opinion on the Romantic Road: for my vote, not worth going out of your way specifically to drive, but on a tight schedule, easier by car. Of all the many themed routes in Germany (Alpenstraße, Bergstraße, Burgenstraße, Deutche Weinstraße, Deutsche Fachwerkstraße, etc), I have found it the least special, and I'm amazed that it's the most well known. Not that the scenery isn't nice (it is), but you can see similar vistas on just about any secondary road in Bavaria. Meaning that without even trying, you'll see scenery as good or better as you travel from Switzerland to Munich, no matter which road or mode of travel you choose.

Lee and Others: Re Bus and Coach. Need your input. I have travelled Romantic Road by Europabus (many years ago) which then was convenient; also a little by train and most recently by car. I looked for but did not find what looked like a practical coach/bus service. (which I would be inclined to try)Which bus services have you found - and what villages/towns do they service

Europabus is convenient as a means to get from one end of the road to the other quickly, but it essentially travels straight through with only a few minutes stopover in most towns. Part of the road (Schongau or Landsberg to Nördlingen) is connected by direct trains. The rest, Füssen to Wieskirche to Rottenbuch to Landsburg am Lech and Nördlingen to Dinkelsbühl to Feuchtwangen to Rothenburg are connected by local buses. I don't know of any other coach service on the Road. You can find these bus connections on the Bahn website, http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en. Often, direct buses follow the road but take longer than trains which go around. You might have to force bus connections by going to "modes of transport" and unchecking rail service. . . . . . . . ¶ The buses on the southern end of the Road are RVO buses (Regional Verkehr Oberbayern) and are covered by a Bayern-Ticket. On the northern end, the bus from Dinkelsbühl to Rothenburg are entirely within the VGN (Verkehrverbund Grossraum Nürnberg) and therefore covered by the B-T. I'm not sure if the entire bus trip from Nördlingen to Dinkelsbühl is covered or just the part in the VGN, but for less than three people, you wouldn't want to use a B-T. It only cost me €13 for the buses between Nördlingen and Rothenburg in 2007.