Germany Road trips

5 curated road trips in Germany — The Romantic Road, Black Forest High Road, German Alpine Road. Mapped stops, distance, duration, best season, and practical route notes.

These 5 routes range from 180 to 870 km and from 2 to 7 days, across 1 country. Top picks: The Romantic Road, Black Forest High Road, German Alpine Road.

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  IconicThe Romantic RoadGermany · 350 km · 3–4 daysGermany's most celebrated themed route, from the Residenz palace city of Würzburg through the medieval timber-framed perfection of Rothenburg ob der Tauber, the walled town of Dinkelsbühl, and the circular Nördlingen (built inside a meteor crater) to the fairy-tale pinnacles of Neuschwanstein Castle above Füssen. The idealised German Middle Ages through the most beautiful medieval townscapes in Europe.
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  IconicBlack Forest High RoadGermany · 180 km · 2–3 daysThe Schwarzwald-Hochstrasse (B500) runs along the ridge of Germany's most romantic mountain range, dense spruce forests, cuckoo clock villages, thermal spa towns, glass-clear lakes, and cake made with cream and kirsch.
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  IconicGerman Alpine RoadGermany · 480 km · 3–5 daysThe Deutsche Alpenstraße from Lake Constance to Berchtesgaden, through the Allgäu dairy country, Neuschwanstein Castle above its mountain lake, the Zugspitze (Germany's highest peak at 2,962m), the Bavarian alpine lakes of Walchensee and Chiemsee, and the Eagle's Nest above Berchtesgaden. Germany's most spectacular mountain drive.
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  NotableGerman Avenues RouteGermany · 868 km · 5–7 daysAn 868 km loop through four central German states, Saxony-Anhalt, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg, and Saxony, following the tree-lined baroque avenues commissioned by Prussian and Saxon nobles: 19,000 trees on 150 avenue roads, through Bauhaus Dessau, Worlitz Park (the first English landscape garden in Germany), and Quedlinburg's UNESCO-listed medieval hill.
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  NotableGerman Castle RoadGermany · 507 km · 4–6 daysFrom the Neckar Valley to the Franconian highlands, 507 km and over 370 castles, ruins, and fortresses following the Burgenstrasse from Mannheim through Heidelberg, the Tauber Valley medieval town of Rothenburg, and Wagner's Bayreuth. No road in Europe has a higher concentration of medieval fortifications.