Originally Posted by
Bearbear
I'm renting a car and can spend nights in hotels so longer trips are fine.
A couple specific questions:
My initial thoughts
A couple days local
A couple days legoland
A couple days Rhine
A couple days Black forest
I must visit Baden Baden or my sons Viola teacher won't forgive me.
A day Rothenburg
A few days away through Switzerland and looping back through Salzberg.
Your rough plan above will fill all of 14 days w/o any problems. It would be better if you had 21 days. Since you will have a car (get a van with aircon and automatic). Minus the 2 days in Heidelberg, you have net 12 days to cover what could be 2500+ km distance. Planning a logical flow for driving will save you sanity and time. We recently did a rather similar trip in the SW Germany and Alsace region. Here are my suggestions:
- 2 days in Heidelberg (if possible throw in Rothenburg, due to closeness; if overnight, add 1 more day here))
- 1 day Mid-Rhine, drive downstream, begin from Bingen along river to Koblenz. Spend 1 nite in St. Goar, Boppard or Koblenz.
- 1 day Moseltal, drive upstream from Koblenz to Trier. Spend 1 nite in Trier.
- 1 day. Do Trier in morning; drive from Trier to Baden Baden and spend night here.
- 2 days. Visit your friend and drive to Legoland, Black Forest. Can spend night anywhere convenient.
- 2 days. Drive from Black Forest to Zurich. Spend nights here and explore city and possibly Konstanz.
- 3 days. Drive to Salzburg (see if you could plug in the Alpine scenic routes along the way; much depends on time of year of travel). En-route visit Nueschwanstein Castle. Spend nights in Salzburg. Explore city and day trip to Salzberger Land if time permits.
-2 days (or what's remaining). Long drive back to Heidelberg. Take breaks along the way with stops at Augsburg; and, if further possible, add Mercedes Benz Museum near Stuggart (kid might enjoy too). Stay 1 night if you still have any left! But this might be packing it too much.
There is a lot more to explore in this part of Germany. I am afraid your time is limited. I particularly enjoyed Meersburg (as the Lawyer said) and the Bodensee area; Lindahof and Oberammergau are simply outstanding. Oh well, so much to see and so little time! That's reason for re-visits.
Oh, one more thing. Do plan your routes carefully to avoid wasting time looking for directions. I found these tools to be extremely useful:
mappy.com
viamichelin.com
AND most useful is the maps.ggogle.com
I organize daily trips with the above tools. Print out hard copies and with detailed "BLOW-UP" maps for every IN-TOWN and OUT-OF-TOWN episodes.
Enjoy your trip no matter what you decided to do!