Bavaria, 3-5 days, self-drive, Würzburg to Füssen
The Romantische Straße runs about 350 kilometres from Würzburg down to the Alps, and most of the coach tours that cover it do it in two rushed days, stopping just long enough for a photo at each walled medieval town before moving on. Given the length of the drive, a self-driven version at half the pace turns the same route from a checklist into an actual trip.
Rothenburg ob der Tauber gets the postcard fame — and deserves it, a completely intact medieval walled town with half-timbered houses and a walkable town wall — but it’s also where every tour bus stops, which means staying overnight rather than day-tripping changes the town completely. After the last coach leaves around 5pm, Rothenburg empties out to something close to what it must have looked like a few centuries ago.
Dinkelsbühl and Nördlingen, an hour or so further south, get a fraction of Rothenburg’s visitors despite being nearly as well preserved — Nördlingen sits inside a crater from a meteor impact 15 million years ago, and its town walls can still be walked in full circuit, something Rothenburg’s crowds make considerably less pleasant.
The road ends, appropriately, at Neuschwanstein — the 19th-century fantasy castle that inspired Disney’s version and draws crowds to match, so a first entry slot booked well in advance is worth the effort. But the better view of it isn’t from inside the tour queue; it’s from the Marienbrücke bridge above the gorge, or better still, the hike up to it before opening hours, when the castle catches the early light with the valley still in shadow below.