Romantic Road bus tour

Try this:

http://www.touring.de/index.php?id=532&L=1

hmmm... not exactly sure what i want to do. i'm planning spring break for my parents and i! here's kind of what i'm thinking...

overnight flight from england (where i am right now) to munich

maybe spend the day and night in a small town (so it's cheaper... freising?) near munich

next day: get a bus to dinkelsbuhl and spend the day

go to rothenburg that night

spend maybe a few days there... making day trips to surrounding places...

I HAVE NO IDEA!

anyone have advice?? can help me out with transportation and ideas?

i'm open to anything!

The RR bus tour isn't a good idea, IMO. It stops for only a few minutes in towns along the way.

Rothenburg is touristy but really special. Not sure how many days you have, but I'd suggest flying in to either Munich or Frankfurt and catching a train to the Rothenburg area for several days. Your parents can use daypasses on the regional trains to visit other towns in the area too - Nuremberg, Bamberg, and Würzburg are especially worthwhile. The daypass is 28 Euros/day total for 2-5 people and is called a "Bayern Ticket" (Bavaria ticket.) Connections to the other cities are best from either Würzburg or Nuremberg - I like N'berg best.

If they have more than 3-4 days, they could move on to Munich and southern Bavaria on the Bayern Ticket too. The Garmisch/Mittenwald area is particularly scenic and good for outdoor activities.

Here's a map of the train system in Bavaria that will help:

www.bayerntakt.de/media/PDF-Files/Netzkarten/Netzkarte_Gesamt0608.pdf

Thank you, Russ! That sounds like a great idea and you mentioned some of the towns we were interested in visiting! Do you think that it would be more time wise to fly into Munich or Frankfurt... with the destination being Rothenburg?

I wonder... is it better to go with the bayern ticket or to get something like a eurail pass? We are also planning on visiting Switzerland, Ireland and Scotland? What do you think?

I agree with Russ. The bus doesn't stop long enough, except for lunch, to see any towns along the Road. Anyway, having made an extensive, five-day trip (by public transportation) on the Romantic Road last year, I can say that, except for Rothenburg and Füssen, the towns on the Road aren't that important. I did think Nördlingen was interesting, but it can be reached by train.

But, if you are still interested, try this site.

A Bayern-Ticket, at €14 per person for two people (€28), €20 for a single, covers more modes of transport (regional buses all over Bavaria and U-Bahn, trams, and buses in the cities) and will cost less than a day of a Eurail pass. A multi country Eurail pass is only available in 1st class, which makes it even more overpriced. A Eurail pass will cover express trains (ICE/IC/EC) AND regional trains, whereas the Bayern-Ticket is only valid on regional trains, but most of the travel you describe is only on regional trains anyway.

Regarding FRA or MUC - I haven't checked the travel times to Rothenburg. You can do this at...

http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en

You can use a Bayern Ticket from MUC to R'burg. To select itineraries for use with the Bayern ticket, stipulate "only local transport" under "means of transport".

From FRA, it's trickier to do this cheaply (you might schedule a railpass day for this trip just to keep it simple if it's not too much more $, but here's how you do it.) You'll need regular tickets to Kahl - the bavarian border town - and then the Bayern ticket is valid from there to Rothenburg. Buy both tickets at FRA. There are two different types of ticket machines. Get the Bayern Ticket from the DB machine (credit cards ok, English interface), and regular tickets from the RMV machine (cash.) Again, select "only local transport" for the trip itinerary so that you get a schedule for the trains valid with the Bayern ticket. You don't have to get off the train in Kahl - but your tickets must cover the whole route you're traveling.