Trip ideas & ready-made road trips

Tyskland

Knights, Kings & Fairytale Towers: Germany's Greatest Castles in 7 Days

There's hardly a more storybook drive in Europe than the one winding from the vineyard slopes of the Mosel down to the foot of the Bavarian Alps. The journey begins in Cochem, where Reichsburg towers over the river like something lifted straight from a Brothers Grimm tale, and that same afternoon you'll stand before Burg Eltz — the castle everyone's seen in photos but few have actually visited, tucked into its own hidden valley as if time forgot it existed. The next day carries you into the Rhine Valley, past the Knights' fortress Marksburg, the only Rhine castle never destroyed in war, and on to the sprawling ruins of Rheinfels in St. Goar, whose tunnels still hint at sieges that never quite succeeded. From the rivers, the route bends south to Heidelberg, where the castle ruin gazes over the Neckar valley and the Prince-Electors once threw legendary parties — these days it's students and wine lovers filling the old lanes instead. Via charming Tübingen, the road climbs into the Swabian hills to Burg Hohenzollern, ancestral seat of the Hohenzollern dynasty, rising from the mist like an illustration from a fantasy novel. The final stretch — with an optional detour to Ulm's towering cathedral — brings you down to Füssen for the moment everyone's been waiting for: Neuschwanstein, King Ludwig II's dream castle that inspired Disney's own fairy-tale towers, followed closely by his childhood home Hohenschwangau and the view from Marienbrücke that'll make your knees wobble for reasons beyond the height. Accommodation throughout is cosy gasthauses and small family-run hotels in wine villages and half-timbered lanes — the kind of places where breakfast is served by the same person who owns the house. Take this route and you won't just see Germany's most photographed castles — you'll feel the history breathing around every bend.

7 days12 stops~665 km

Slott & borgarGasthaus/PensionBil/Roadtrip

See the whole trip →

Recommended

Kingdom of the Fjords: Norway's Most Dramatic Drive

Wind, Cliffs & Fiddle Tunes: Ireland's Wild Atlantic Coast

Stone, Sun and Turquoise Seas Along the Dalmatian Coast

A Castle Road Trip Through Historic Scotland

Knights, Kings & Fairytale Towers: Germany's Greatest Castles in 7 Days

The Amalfi Coast: A Sun-Drenched Love Affair