Driving the Romantic Road in Germany: Your Ultimate Guide to Scenic Towns & Hidden Gems!

What Is The Romantische Straße?

According to Wikipedia:

The Romantic Road (German: Romantische Straße) is a “theme route” devised by promotion-minded travel agents in the 1950s. It describes the 460 kilometres (290 mi) of surface roads between Würzburg and Füssen in southern Germany, specifically in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, linking a number of picturesque towns and castles. In medieval times, part of it was a trade route that connected the center of Germany with the south.

Today, this region is thought by many international travellers to possess “quintessentially German” scenery and culture, in towns and cities such as Nördlingen, Dinkelsbühl and Rothenburg ob der Tauber and in castles such as Burg Harburg and the famous Neuschwanstein.

The Romantic Road Copyright © romantischestrasse.de

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Our Itinerary Made With Help From Friends

The area surrounding the romantic road is called Bavaria. Along the foothills of the Bavarian Alps you enter into Austria via the Romantic road. It’s just spellbinding!

For hotels, what we do is usually go directly to the government website and request a travel agent’s help in deciding an itinerary. Of course, if you book on our own, it’s actually much cheaper that way using Airbnb and Tripadvisor recommendations.

A few of the hotels we stayed along the way from Frankfurt to Munich:
Marriott Heidelberg Hotel
NH Klosterle Nordlingen
Hotel Spitzweg
King’s Hotel First Class

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My blogger friend who is German gave us tips:

I have found BAHN.DE website which looks great but does not give any tips for travel.

Especially Rothenburg is a city with a medieval touch (very idyllic – you can find a picture I took here: http://flic.kr/p/7kmVsk); my wife and I were there about four or five times, it’s really awesome. For accommodation I can recommend www.hotel.de.

If you want a clean hotel that is affordable you could also take a look at the Accor hotel group:
http://www.accorhotels.com/

This consists of various chains (Etap, Mercure, etc.) for different comfort and budget levels.
If you need any help with booking, just let me know.

As you’ll land in Frankfurt, I must tell you that Berlin and Munich are quite a distance from each other. And as you travel with two children, this could get stressful, as German highways tend to be more hectic than those in the US – I also drove cars in the US, so I can really compare ;-) .
If you’d concentrate on the South of Germany, you could see Munich, Heidelberg and Rothenburg. Not to forget: Straßburg in France is not too far away either!

Last but not least, I live in the Southwest near the French border, perhaps we could meet (we have a daughter who turns 3 in May). However, I cannot promise that 100%, since summer is the time in which I earn my money mostly (as a freelancer I have to accept seasonal ups and downs, photography is just a side business of mine), so this should not influence your planning!

About Berlin: I reaaally love it, but it is somehow not typical IMHO. A bit like New York City that is different from the rest of the US if you know what I mean – in a positive way though!

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My neighbor whose husband is German talks about Berlin:

We stayed in Berlin for a summer and here are my recommendations:
– the Reichstag (since you have kids under 7 the people in the red bundestag shirts will take you out of the long line and let you go thru a private entrance to the elevator),

– the Brandenberg gate,
– the memorial for the murdered Jews of Europe (young kids can tour the memorial but not the museum underground),
– the spielplatz (playground) in the Tiergarten,
– the Siegesaule (the victory column with the angel on top),
– both zoos and the aquarium that is part of the zoo,
– Deutches Technik Museum,
– Museum fur Naturkund,
– Pergamon Museum,
– Schloss Charlottenburg (palace and garden)
– If you kids are good walkers do the Original walking tour of Berlin which meets at the Haagen Das at Hackesher Markt. It was an excellent overview and run by history majors.
– I do not recommend the boat tours or Legoland – cheesy.
– Two great places to have lunch – the restaurant at the top of the TV Tower (on a clear day you can see the whole city and the restaurant revolves) and the Sony Center in Potsdamer Platz – very cool architecture.
– The kids loved sitting in the front seat on the top level of the double decker busses. You don’t need a car in Berlin. The trains and buses are very easy to use, very prompt, and take you everywhere.
– If you have time, take a train to Potsdam. Lots of history, palaces, and shops.
– A Lonely Planet book on Berlin was an excellent resource, too. If I can find it, I can bring it to you.

I’m sure there is a train or an inexpensive flight to Berlin Tegel airport. When we flew over to Sweden we used SAS airline and they were great.

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