We are a family of four (my husband and I and our two daughters, 12 and 15) and we are planning our early December holidays to the Romantic Road, being our principal target the Neuschwastein Castle.
We want to stay on the area for approximately 10 days, and since it is our first time along The Romantic Road, it would be lovely if someone would enlighten us so that we get to visit all castles and the best places of interest...���������������������������. and also stay at the nicest (and cute) hotels. We could arrive at either Munich or Frankfurt airports and from them start our journey.
Thanks a lot...
|||
When we visited Neuschwastein Castle we stayed at Hotel Rübezahl in Horn, and we loved the place. We%26#39;re going back to Horn in June 2006, but unfortunately the Hotel Rübezahl is a little out of our price range for this trip...but it was very nice.
I%26#39;m not sure if Castle Colmberg is on the Romantic Road, but it is a very authentic Castel Hotel with very nice rooms. It%26#39;s close to Rothenberg Odt. If you%26#39;re planning on being in that area you should check it out.
Other castle hotels where we%26#39;ve stayed include Castle Veldenstein (close to Nurnberg) and Castle Lauenstein (close to nothing of interest).
|||
Hello, what a wonderful experience for all of you and particularly for the young ladies! I found a lovely and very German little guesthouse near Neuschwanstein in the village of Schwangau. It%26#39;s called Hanselewirt and they have a website - hanselewirt.de - where you can look at pictures, etc. You should plan to see both castles there so I would plan on at least two full days in that area. The entire Romantic Road can be driven in a half a day if you don%26#39;t stop so you have plenty of time with a ten day holiday. Be sure to visit Dinklesbuhl and read about the history of the village - the children saved it from invaders several hundred years ago. Of course, be sure to visit Rothenburg ob der Tauber. There is a lovely castle hotel between Rothenburg and Frankfurt called Hornberg in the town of Neckarzimmern (www.castle-hotel-hornberg.com/). Another hotel I like near Dinklesbuhl and Rothenberg is the Greifen Post in Feuchtwangen (griefen.de) - lovely rooms and a great restaurant in a village a bit off the beaten path and not quite a touristy. Are you able to fly into either Frankfurt or Munich and back from the other? That might increase your time in the area you want to see. Hope this helps and I hope you have a wonderful holiday!
|||
Last year we were on the Romantic Road in May, and fell in love with Dinkelsbuhl.We had come in from Frankfurt. Great food and the town had a lot of shoppes. The town is so beautiful we had a hard time leaving.
We also spent a great deal of time driving back roads looking for small villages to see, and realized we needed to really do a better job of learning German for that. ;-) It was a comedy of errors when asking directions at a small tavern in a village, but it one of the times we remember best, and made friends with all there.
|||
You%26#39;ll probably find it tough to spend more than 3-4 days in the Romantic Road towns, but don%26#39;t worry - Bavaria has many other interesting towns that are NOT on the Romantic Road too. Nuremberg (terrific Christmas Market) Bamberg, Weissenburg, Eichstaett, Berchtesgaden, Garmisch, Mittenwald, and Oberstdorf are just some of the towns you might find interesting. Most of these towns are visited frequently by international tourists, and you shouldn%26#39;t have many problems if you speak a bit of English.
Families can use a %26quot;Bayern Ticket%26quot; (daypass) on the regional trains for almost unlimited travel within Bavaria for less than 25 euros/day.
|||
I consider the %26quot;must sees%26quot; on the Romantic Road the Residence in Wuerzburg, Rothenburg ob der Tauber (make sure to view the town from down below on the river), and Neuschwanstein Castle by Fuessen. For the rest of the places along it, you can probably see as much, or possibly more, by traveling other nearby roads. Germany is full of interestng places to visit, just get books about Germany full of pictures and pick places that YOU want to see. Although not on the romantic road, nearby Schwaebisch Hall is nice as is the nearby walled Comburg monastery. Ulm has the record height cathedral spire which can be climbed, and the baroque church at Steinhausen by Biberach has been described as the most beautiful village church in the world. Note that these places are in Baden-Wuerttemberg and not in Bavaria, and I would confine your travels to just these two German states and possibly Salzburg, Austria. I personally would select several different types of places to visit (walled towns, old town centers, churches, monasteries, castles, etc.).
Neuschwanstein Castle is my favorite place in Germany, and it is most delightful in the snow when we visit in February. In Hohenschwangau, the best place to stay is the Villa Jaegerhaus (two nights). We stay there whenever possible after trying other local hotels and finding it the best. It is close to, and has excellent views of the lit up by night Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau Castles. Make sure to get rooms facing Neuschwanstein. The rooms are in the old hunting lodge for the castles, the hotel is excellent as is its food. The musical in Fuessen is also enjoyable to attend. The palace at Linderhof is a pleasant drive through the Austrian Alps away, and the Wieskirche is also nearby. Driving along the northern part of the Alps to see Ludwig II%26#39;s other castle on an island (Herrenchiemsee) in the Chiemsee and continuing on to Salzburg is also nice.
As you will be visiting before Christmas, Christmas Markets are another thing to do. Stuttgart has Germany%26#39;s (Europe%26#39;s) largest Christmas Market (3.6 million visitors this year), and over a mllion visitors each to the Ludwigsburg baroque Christmmas Market and Esslingen%26#39;s midieval(?) Christmas Market, both reachable by public transport (S-bahn) from Stuttgart. Try not to visit such busy Christmas Markets on weekends, they are far too crowded. There is a lot of other things to see and do in Stuttgart and its surroundings.
As your primary destination appears to be Neuschwanstein Castle, I can also recommend your visiting Hohenzollern (Hechingen) and Lichtenstein Castles on the Schwaebische Alb with magnificent cliff side scenery a fairly short distance south of Stuttgart. All three of these castles are fairy tale-like, and all built about the same time in the mid-1800%26#39;s when royalty were more concerned about the esthetic quality of their palaces.
You should have a pleasant trip.
|||
Since you will be in Hohenschwangau to visit castles Linderhof is another castle about 1/2 drive away combined with Oberammergau and ettal abbey. Also Ottobeuren abbey is beautiful detour on way to castles.
|||
Thanks a lot for all the valuable and interesting tips you%26#39;ve all given us.
This way, we%26#39;ll be able to plan our trip to Germany this year and sure make the best of it.
Only one more question (for the moment), will we find snow by then?? (Dec.10th to 23rd), and if it%26#39;s so, is it recommendable to drive, or is it better to relay on public transportation???
Thanks a lot again to you all…
|||
As to snow, it can snow in Germany any time in December, but there usually isn%26#39;t enough snow to really affect driving. The roads you will probably travel on will usually be kept well plowed, sanded and salted if it snows. However, this last December there was considerable snow over most of Germany for a short time that did cause fairly severe driving problems in places. Just make sure that your rental car has snow tires. Snow is also largely elevation dependent and most times the valley in Stuttgart will have no snow where the higher elevations of the city two or more hundred meters higher may have a few centimeters of snow.
I would not really worry about snow, if there is any you probably won%26#39;t have problems, and it actually should add to your enjoyment of Christmas Markets, Neuschwanstein Castle, the Black Forest, or the Alps.
|||
We went to Christmas markets all over Germany and we found no snow. There was snow in Fussen area in March another year.
|||
I drove the Romantic Road last February in a wonderful snow storm - it was beautiful! The road was fine as long as you didn%26#39;t try to drive too fast. Just a few kilometers under the speed limit was no problem at all. The night before I was in a room with a view to Neuschwanstein and the huge snow flakes between me and the lit castle was just like a fairy tale!
No comments:
Post a Comment