Popular Tour Itineraries Featuring Rothenburg

Tiny Rothenburg has nothing that can't be seen with a little walking. With so many historic homes, beautiful gardens, narrow cobblestone streets, and charming viewpoints, walking is the way to get to know the town. If you would like to explore the surrounding Tauber River valley, we can offer a car and optionally a guide to show you around.

Rothenburg is often visited as a stop on the Romantic Road tourism route, but we highly recommend making it an overnight stop. This charming little town has a quite different atmosphere when the day trippers and group trips leave its city walls, and everything calms down. One of the best way how to experience the town after the dusk is to join our Night Watchman tour and listen to many stories about the town's peculiar history, by lantern light.

As a small town where everyone knows each other, in the most peaceful state in one of Europe's safest countries, Rothenburg is practically crime-free, but as always, don't leave your valuables unattended.

If you want the most festive time, come in December, when you can enjoy the Christmas market. If you want the best weather, come during spring, summer, or early fall. At other times of year, especially January and February, some sights may be closed or have limited opening hours.

Germany is still transitioning to cash, and that is especially true in rural areas. As Rothenburg is a small town, with only one bank (with short opening hours) in the center, we recommend exchanging money before you arrive, or using one of a handful of ATMs. If you are asked whether to be charged in Euros or your own currency, choose Euros, to avoid paying a useless fee and getting a worse exchange rate.

Rothenburg features an excellent Christmas market in December, but we highly recommend visiting in the beginning of September, to enjoy the Imperial City Festival, which features different historical groups dressed in various periods of the town's history marching by torchlight. The Master Draught celebration over Pentecost weekend (around the beginning of summer) celebrates a story from the Thirty Years' War, when the city was saved from destruction by a conquering army by the mayor, who impressed the enemy by drinking 3.25 liters of wine in one go. The event is retold by historical groups in the Kaisersaal Theater and elsewhere around town, but we don't recommend trying to match the mayor's record!

Rothenburg may be small, but its eateries still offer specialized options for vegans, those who eat gluten-free and more. For gluten-free options, we recommend visiting the Michelangelo Italian restaurant, or Louvre, a Japanese eatery.