The Romantic Road by Train and Bus
Travel Germany’s Romantische Straße Route on Public Transportation
Nov 24, 2007
Germany’s Romantic Road (Romantische Straße) holiday route is for many visitors a highlight of a trip to Bavaria. This 350-km (220-mile) route is littered with romantic sights including medieval castles (Schloss Harburg), wall-encircled towns (Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Dinkelsbühl, Nördlingen), palaces (Würzburg, Schillingsfürst), and churches (Wieskirche). A car is the easiest way to travel this route on the back roads of western Bavaria but the Romantic Road can also be toured on public transportation. Trains are available to some of the major sights and buses fill in most of the gaps.
- The Europabus has changed it route and from 2008 only stops at major sights and no longer run the full length of the Romantic Road as it used to do.
Trains on the Romantic Road
Trains generally do not follow the Romantic Road but several towns can be reached by rail. Railways often cross the Romantic Road with direct trains between stops on the route rare.
Augsburg and Würzburg are major junctions on high-speed railway lines and can thus be reached on regional as well as Inter-City and Inter-City-Express (ICE) trains. Regional trains stop at Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Bad Mergentheim, Tauberbischofsheim, Weikersheim, Nördlingen, Harburg, Donauwörth, Landshut, Schongau, Peiting, and Füssen.
Public Buses on the Romantic Road
Most towns on the Romantic Route are connected by bus services. However, these buses sometimes run only on weekdays or even only on school days making it sensible to double check schedules. Occasionally it may be wiser to use a taxi between nearby towns rather than make major detours due to scheduling difficulties.
The following sections of the Romantic Route present major bus or public transportation headaches:
- Creglingen and Rothenburg ob der Tauber
- Schillingsfürst and Feuchtwangen
- Dinkelsbühl and Nördlingen (on weekends and school holidays)
- Many towns south of Landsberg have bus connections only on weekdays
Public Transportation on the Romantic Road in the Tauber Valley
The Liebliches Taubertal (Sweet Tauber Valley) is in the state Baden-Württemberg. Rail services are available from Wertheim to Weikersheim, with at least two-hourly cross connections to Würzburg.
Buses run frequently between Weikersheim and Creglingen. Public transportation options between Creglingen to Rothenburg ob der Tauber are limited and infrequent. Long detours by train via Würzburg or Shrozberg may be necessary
Public Transportation on the Romantic Road in Romantic Franconia
Trains to Rothenburg ob der Tauber always require a transfer at Steinach, from where frequent connections are available to Würzburg. Trains from Nürnberg usually require a further transfer at Ansbach.
A few buses per day are available from Rothenburg to Schillingsfürst taking around half an hour. However, no direct connections are available from Schillingsfürst to Feuchtwangen. As a result, Rothenburg to Feuchtwangen, or Dinkelsbühl, requires major detours and multiple transfers – the journey generally takes more than two hours.
Frequent buses connect Feuchtwangen and Dinkelsbühl in less than half an hour. Buses between Dinkelsbühl and Nördlingen are available (45 minutes) most weekdays but not always on weekends.
- On some weekends, historical steam trains operate between Feuchtwangen and Nördlingen via Dinkelsbühl but the schedule is too limited to make it of much use to the average traveler.
Public Transportation on the Romantic Road in the Ries-Danube Region
The Ries-Danube region is the only part of the Romantic Road where railways regularly run alongside the holiday route. At least hourly trains run from Nördlingen via Harburg to Donauwörth taking half an hour.
Donauwörth has been an important railway junction for decades. Frequent connections are available to Augsburg as well as Ingolstadt, Regensburg, Treuchtlingen, Nürnberg, and Munich.
Public Transportation on the Romantic Road South of Augsburg
Augsburg has excellent rail connections to the rest of southern Germany. Romantic Road towns with direct links to Augsburg include nearby Friedberg (by bus) and Landsberg an der Lech, which can be reached by at least hourly train in 50 minutes.
From Landsberg further south, public transportation links are again problematic. Schongau, Peiting, and Füssen can be reached by rail but are on different lines often requiring long detours. Buses between towns are generally available on weekdays but not on weekends. Transportation from say Landsberg to the Wieskirche can easily exceed three hours and require up to three transfers.
Fortunately, public transportation at the popular last stops of the Romantic Route is better developed. Füssen can easily be reached by rail from Munich (and with transfers from Augsburg and Landsberg). Buses marked Königschlösser run from Füssen to Schwangau to see Mad King Ludwig’s fantasy castle Schloss Neuschwanstein.
- A few buses per day are available from Füssen to the Wieskirche (Church in the Meadow) but double check return times – the Wieskirche is literally in the middle of nowhere.
Deutsche Touring’s Europabus EB190 used to be ideal to visit minor stops on the Romantic Road but the new schedule in use from summer 2008 sped up the journey by cutting out the less popular stops. Bus and train schedules can be checked on the Deutsche Bahn (German Railways) site.
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