Mix & Match: Bavaria & Beyond Self Drive

Welcome to Munich. Make your own way from the airport to your hotel.Once settled you may wish to explore the Bavarian capital. Marienplatz is the obvious starting point, where the New Town Hall Glockenspiel plays out a jousting tournament and the coopers dance twice each morning. The twin onion domes of the Frauenkirche rise behind it, and the Residenz, home to the Wittelsbach rulers for more than four centuries, sits a short walk north with its barrel-vaulted Antiquarium and a treasury of crowns and reliquaries.The Viktualienmarkt has traded produce since 1807, with stalls of Bavarian cheese, cured meats, honey and pretzels set around a maypole and a beer garden at its centre. From there it is level walking to the Hofbräuhaus, or north into the Englischer Garten, larger than Central Park, where surfers ride a standing wave on the Eisbach at the southern end. Alternatively, spend the afternoon at the Deutsches Museum on its island in the Isar, the largest science and technology museum in the world, or walk the Königsplatz galleries.Your rental car is not needed for the first two days, so leave the driving until Munich is behind you. Your evening is at leisure.Special InformationAirport transfers are not included. Our transfer portal may offer the option to book your airport transfers for an easier arrival experience (additional charges apply). Access to this portal will be available through your Traveller Hub once your booking is confirmed.

This morning after breakfast, join a Munich Introductory Walking Tour, a two hour shared walk through the old town with a local guide. It takes in Marienplatz and the New Town Hall, the Frauenkirche, the Residenz quarter and the lanes around the Viktualienmarkt, along with the stories behind them, from the Wittelsbachs to the rebuilding of the city after 1945.The rest of the day is your own. The Alte Pinakothek holds Rubens, Dürer and Altdorfer's Battle of Alexander at Issus. Nymphenburg Palace, the Wittelsbach summer residence, sits at the end of a canal in the west of the city with its Gallery of Beauties and 200 hectares of park. Both are reached easily on the tram and S-Bahn network. For something quieter, the Isar path runs south to the Flaucher, where locals swim and picnic on the gravel banks through summer.Alternatively, join an optional tour to the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site. Otherwise, the remainder of the day and the evening are yours at leisure.Inspiring HighlightsMunich - guided walking tour of the old townSpecial InformationYour walking tour voucher, the meeting point and the start time will be included in your final documentation.

This morning after breakfast, collect your automatic rental car in central Munich and head south on the A95 and B23 towards the Alps. The road crosses the Pfaffenwinkel, a stretch of moraine country and village spires, and the Wieskirche is a short signposted detour with its own car park, a rococo pilgrimage church of 1754 standing alone in a meadow and listed by UNESCO. The last stretch into Füssen runs along the Lech with the Ammergau Alps rising ahead.Above the town at Hohenschwangau, Neuschwanstein sits on its wooded crag, the castle King Ludwig II began in 1869 and never finished. Your ticket is included, with entry by guided tour or audio guide. The Throne Room and the Singers Hall are the set pieces, and the Marienbrücke footbridge over the Pöllat gorge gives the view the castle is known for. Cars are not permitted beyond the village, so use the paid car parks at Hohenschwangau and continue on foot or by shuttle.The Alpsee below takes about 40 minutes to walk around and is clear enough to swim in through summer. Continue to your accommodation in Füssen, your final stop for the day.Inspiring HighlightsNeuschwanstein Castle Special InformationYour Neuschwanstein Castle ticket is included and is issued for a set entry time. The walk up from Hohenschwangau takes around 40 minutes on a steep sealed road, and a shuttle bus and horse drawn carriage operate seasonally at additional cost.Your travel time today will be approximately 3 hours.Approximate distance driven: 140km (based on the suggested route)

Hohenschwangau sits ten minutes from Füssen, so there is time this morning after breakfast for a short run back to the Alpsee before turning north. The Museum of the Bavarian Kings, on the lake shore, is available as an optional tour today and takes about an hour. From Füssen, join the Romantic Road heading north, a route laid out in the 1950s between Füssen and Würzburg and signposted throughout as the Romantische Straße. It strings together walled towns and church spires across Swabia and Franconia on ordinary country roads rather than autobahn, so treat the day as a series of stages rather than one long drive. Landsberg am Lech and Augsburg both suit a first stop, Augsburg for the Fuggerei, the oldest social housing in the world, founded in 1521 and still charging its residents one Rhenish guilder a year.Nördlingen sits inside a crater 25 kilometres across, left by a meteorite around 15 million years ago, and its town wall is complete enough to walk the full circuit under cover. Dinkelsbühl, further north, came through the Thirty Years War untouched, leaving a centre of gabled merchant houses in ochre and dusty red.Rothenburg ob der Tauber stands above the Tauber valley behind its towers and gates, cobbled and half timbered, and is at its best in the evening once the day visitors have left. The old town inside the walls is largely closed to traffic, with signposted car parks around the outside. Continue to your accommodation, your final stop for the day.Special InformationYour travel time today will be approximately 5 hours. Times are estimates only and are affected by traffic and by how long you choose to stop along the way. The Romantic Road runs through a string of towns and villages with speed limits well below autobahn pace.Approximate distance driven: 250km (based on the suggested route)If you take the optional museum visit this morning, allow for a later start and plan on fewer stops along the Romantic Road.

This morning after breakfast, continue north to Würzburg, either on the last stretch of the Romantic Road or on the faster A7. The Residenz, built for the prince bishops between 1720 and 1744, carries Tiepolo's ceiling fresco above the staircase, the largest in the world and unsupported across its span. The Court Gardens are open without a ticket, and the Alte Mainbrücke below carries a line of stone saints across the river towards the Marienberg fortress. Würzburg sits at the head of the Franconian wine region, where Silvaner is bottled in the flat, round Bocksbeutel.From Würzburg the A3 runs west into Hesse and on to Frankfurt, the fastest driving of the tour. Return your rental car at the city centre depot on arrival, from which the hotel is a short walk or taxi ride.Frankfurt puts a bank district of glass towers directly beside the Römerberg, the rebuilt medieval square with its stepped gables and the Römer town hall, where emperors were crowned for three centuries. The Museumsufer runs along the south bank of the Main with the Städel and a dozen other museums in a row. Continue to your accommodation, your final stop for the day.Special InformationYour rental car is returned in central Frankfurt this afternoon.Your travel time today will be approximately 4 hours.Approximate distance driven: 200km (based on the suggested route)

This morning after breakfast, join the Rhine Valley tour, a full day into the Upper Middle Rhine gorge, the UNESCO listed stretch of 65 kilometres between Bingen and Koblenz that carries more castles than any other river in the world. With the car already returned, today and the days that follow are all covered on foot, by coach or by train.The route runs through terraced Riesling vineyards planted on slate so steep that some plots are still worked by winch. A cruise takes in the riverside villages of Bacharach, Kaub and St Goar and passes below the Lorelei, the 130 metre slate cliff of the siren legend, at the narrowest and deepest point of the Rhine. A tasting of the region's Riesling is part of the day.You return to Frankfurt in the evening, with the rest of the night at leisure.Inspiring HighlightsRhine Valley Special InformationYour Rhine Valley tour voucher, the meeting point and the departure time will be included in your final documentation. The river cruise section is seasonal and may be replaced by road transport outside the operating months or in high or low water.

Spend the day at leisure in Frankfurt. The Museumsufer on the south bank holds the Städel, with seven centuries of European painting, the Liebieghaus sculpture collection and the German Film Museum, all within a fifteen minute walk of one another along the river.In the centre, the Römerberg and the rebuilt lanes of the Neue Altstadt between the cathedral and the Römer make an easy morning on foot, with the Kleinmarkthalle nearby for lunch. The Palmengarten, twenty two hectares of glasshouses and planted grounds west of the centre, is level walking and quiet, and the promenade along the Main runs uninterrupted for several kilometres on both banks if you would rather stay by the water.For those wishing to head further afield, an optional half day excursion to Heidelberg is available today. Otherwise, the remainder of the day and the evening are at leisure.

After breakfast, check out of your hotel and make your own way to Frankfurt Airport, where your tour comes to an end.Take with you the memory of a drive from Munich through the Bavarian Alps and the walled towns of the Romantic Road to the Rhine.Thank you for travelling with Inspiring Vacations. We hope you had a memorable experience.Special InformationAirport transfers are not included. Our transfer portal offers the option to book your airport transfers for an easier departure (additional charges apply). Access to this portal will be available through your Traveller Hub once your booking is confirmed.