Car Vs Train for a big family trip in Germany

One van for 8 people would be a big pain. You’d need one that seats 12 or so, in order to fit in all that luggage. Driving it and parking it would be a nightmare. Two big vehicles will be better, but you MUST pack light. We are a family of 4 and we rent cars most of the time. If everyone brings carry on size luggage and one day bag, you’ll be fine. You will NOT fit 4 large suitcases in the back of a mid size SUV. Cars are smaller in Europe.

I would sit down with a map and reconsider the order of the stops. Switzerland will throw a bit of a wrench in your plans. It’s closer to Munich than Rothenburg.

You don’t want a car in any city in Europe. We rent cars, but never when visiting cities. We’ll stay outside the city and take the train in, or pick up the car on our way out of the city heading to our next destination. We prefer to stay in smaller towns. Unless you need/want to explore tiny villages, the train might be better. You don’t mention ages of your group, so that may be a factor. On trains you have to handle your own luggage, so again, pack light. So consider why you feel cars are necessary. Rentals are ridiculously expensive now (2-3x normal), then there’s gas. Just be sure you REALLY need them.

Thank you! You bring up an good point. I just did a quick search for rentals and they are at a higher rate that I expected/ what people have told me. At least we dont have any children ( ages 23-50 in our group) My aunt wants to rent a car, she has been traveling to Europe for many years.. this is my first time ever traveling to Europe and I prefer to do trains. The point she brings is that is "cheaper to have a car and split it up than paying for the train individually"

But will be mapping this out to see if its really necessary to rent a car. Will be having a family meeting soon regarding this

Have you considered flying out of Zurich? Also , it's very expensive to return a car in another country from the pick up point. I vote for trains. Have a great trip!

Have not considered that. We are arriving to Berlin and leaving from Frankfurt (visiting Rhine Valley before leaving for Frankfurt) . Thank you for the best wishes, will keep in mind Zurich

One important aspect of train travel is that everyone needs to manage their own bags. Is each individual in your group able to do this?

I wonder if a combination of train travel and strategic rental cars might be a viable option for you?

Let me go over your itinerary as you have it planned if you took trains. Germany is far larger than most people realize and travel by car(s) is quite expensive with the current rental rates and extremely expensive gasoline.
Berlin to Dresden is an easy 2 hour train trip. No problem.
From Dresden to Nurnberg takes a change of trains, and it's just under 4 hours.
Rothenberg is about 60 miles west of Nurnberg, and it would be better to rent a couple of cars to run over there.
But from Nurnberg to Munich is easy at from 69 minutes to 1 hr. 39 minutes train ride--depending on which train you take.
Rothenberg to Munich takes a couple of train transfers and you're looking at about 3 hours.
From Munich to the Rhine River Valley is about 300 miles.
From the heart of the Rhine River to Zurich is about 300 miles. And that's on the northern edge of Switzerland.
Let me just stop there.
It is very difficult executing any European trip with 8 people. But when you're trying to see an entire region with many, many stops your trip will be almost impossible. You would do best to spend more time in a central location and doing day excursions from there. Then move on to another area. There are far more interesting cities to visit that are in close proximity to each other that would be easier to get to..

If you are doing local journeys within a German federal state (Bundesland) such as Bavaria train travel for a large group can be quite inexpensive. There is, for example, the Bayern Ticket. https://www.bahn.com/en/offers/regional/regional-day-ticket-for-bavaria The first person costs 27€ and up to 4 additional on the same ticket are only 9€ each. So 2x 4-person at 54€ is 108€ for the whole day for all the non-express trains, buses, S-Bahns, U-Bahns (urban subway-type transport) and other transport you can eat in a whole day, anywhere in Bavaria. Even includes trains into Salzburg Austria and Basel Switzerland. Just don't forget to write the names of all travellers on the tickets. Travel after 9am weekdays, but with a group of 8 that probably won't be a problem...

Another consideration when visiting Switzerland: if you intend to go to the most scenic places in the Alps, you will be taking cable cars to get there. That means either buying a train pass (which covers the cable cars), or paying for individual tickets (very expensive). If budget is an issue, Switzerland is VERY expensive. Consider Austria (Salzburg area) or the Garmisch Partenkirchen area of Germany.

Don’t forget about paying for parking, which can be very expensive in cities. And a large van will not fit in parking garages.

Train between cities. Public transport in cities. Rent a car to see out of the way rural areas or when train service is infrequent

I understand what you are saying about how car rental would be more cost effective than train travel for a large group of people. However, you have to think about the convenience. As everyone else has pointed out, dealing with a car large enough for a group would be really cumbersome and probably take as much if not more time than just traveling by train. Splitting everyone into 2 cars would less than difficulty but that brings it's own set of problems.

I think that the advice about using trains to travel from city to city and rent a car (or cars) for short durations to explore the countryside is a good idea.