Southern Germany in Autumn: The Best Road Trip for Fall Foliage in Bavaria and the Black Forest

Southern Germany in autumn is, in my opinion, one of the most underrated places in Europe to chase fall colours, and after ten days driving it in October I would send anyone who loves the season here before I sent them to the more obvious spots.

To this day, Southern Germany in October is one of my favourite road trips I have ever done, and I do not say that lightly. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you’d know all about my favourite roads trips in Europe and beyond. So why the road trip in southern Germany is so secial? Think of Medieval old towns you can happily get lost in. Vineyard slopes turning gold above the rivers. Alpine lakes, the Black Forest, and a castle hidden so well in the trees you do not spot it until you are almost on top of it. The driving is easy, the scenery is breathtaking and no two days looked the same.

I wanted to give you an honest version of my road trip with the route I actually drove. The stops worth your time, and the ones that are not. What the autumn colour is really like when you turn up. And where the whole thing can fall flat if you get your timing wrong.

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Why southern Germany in autumn

Two reasons why it beats the summer version of the same trip. First, the crowds lessen almost everywhere except the few icon sites, so the old towns feel like towns again rather than queues. Second, the landscape does the heavy lifting: Franconian vineyards, the beech and larch of the Alps, the dark conifer and gold of the Black Forest. You get architecture and nature in the same frame, which is rare.

Of course nothing is perfect because October in this part of Europe weather is a gamble, the light goes early, and one or two of the marquee sights stay busy no matter the season. I will be straight about all of that as we go.

When to go and the truth about foliage timing

Peak colour in the valleys and towns usually happens around mid to late October, while higher and more northern spots can turn earlier. That is a rough guide, not a promise, of course, but this is also the time we went- second half of October. To be honest, many trees were still a bit green, so I suspect that first half of November should also be fine. The exact peak shifts by a week or two every year with temperature and rainfall, so do not book around one fixed date expecting a wall of gold.

Practical tip: the last ten days of October tend to give you colour in the lowlands and the towns even if a few spots are already past their best. Bring layers, expect some grey days, and treat a bright afternoon as a gift to spend outdoors rather than in a museum.

The route we took for southern germany in autumn for foliage

The trip crosses four states: Frankfurt is in Hesse. Burg Eltz sits in the Moselle region in Rhineland-Palatinate. Baden-Baden is in the Black Forest in Baden-Württemberg. Nuremberg, Munich and Bamberg are all in Bavaria. That spread is why I am calling this a southern Germany road trip rather than a Bavaria one. The main reason for speading this road trip so much was that we really wanted to visit my family in Cologne. We took this opportunity to add a couple of stops on the way.

We landed and departured from Frankfurt. This is also a very popular and busy airport, so it is very likely that you’ll find many convenient flights. These are the stops we planned for:

1. Frankfurt
2. Cologne
3. Burg Eltz (west, in the Moselle valley)
4. Baden-Baden and the Black Forest (south)
5. Munich (base for one night)
6. Nuremberg (heading back north)
7. Bamberg
8. Frankfurt (departure)

Stop by stop

Here is how the trip actually looked like. Some of these stops earn a full day. One or two you pass through. I will tell you which is which.

Frankfurt (Hesse)

Let us be honest about Frankfurt. You are probably here because your flight landed here, not because you dreamed of it. I was too, and that is completely fine. Give it an evening. Wander the rebuilt old town around the Römer, walk the row of museums along the river, and do not feel bad about treating the city as a doorway rather than a destination. The autumn colour is not really in Frankfurt anyway (although the parks surprised me). It is a short drive out, in the Taunus hills and the vineyards of the Rheingau along the Rhine. That is where I would send you with a spare morning.

Burg Eltz (Rhineland-Palatinate)

If you only stop once on this whole trip, make it here. Burg Eltz doesn’t really wait for you. It hides. A medieval castle tucked down in a forested valley in the Moselle, held by the same family for centuries, and somehow never destroyed, which is why it still looks the way a castle should look instead of a ruin. You walk the path, you round a bend, and there it is, floating above the trees. In October the beech woods turn gold and copper around it and the whole thing looks made up. I guess a few days later, the colours would be even more insane. It is one of the most photographed castles in Germany. Stand there for two minutes and you will understand why.

Two things nobody warns you about. It is remote, and you have to walk a little. You park up above the valley and either walk down through the forest or take the shuttle, so leave the good shoes at the hotel. And it shuts for winter. It runs roughly from April into early November, so late October is cutting it fine. Check before you drive all that way. 

Baden-Baden and the Black Forest (Baden-Württemberg)

Baden-Baden is where you go to feel a little fancy. It is a spa town, all old money calm and tree lined promenades, and the Lichtentaler Allee walk is lovely this time of year. We stayed for a couple of days to relax in the spa.

But the real reason to come is the Black Forest wrapped around it. Drive the Schwarzwaldhochstraße, the old ridge road, and watch the forest shift from deep green to gold as you climb. That drive alone earns the detour. The town is the reward you park in afterwards.

Munich (Bavaria)

Munich is the big one, the anchor of the south, and it earns a couple of nights. For autumn colour, go straight to two places. The English Garden, which is enormous and genuinely beautiful when the leaves go, and the park at Nymphenburg Palace. Everything else, the old town, the Viktualienmarkt, the museums, is your rainy day plan. You will probably need one.

One warning: Oktoberfesthappens during the first days of October. Land then and Munich is heaving, with hotel pricesmuch higher than usually. So either throw yourself into it, or save Munich for later in the trip. There is no quiet middle option in early October. Overall, Munich wasn’t my favourite spot, so if you are short on time, you may as well skip it.

Nuremberg (Bavaria)

Nuremberg is the change of pace. Bigger, more of a real city, with a heavier history you should not skate past. The Imperial Castle looks out over the reconstructed old town, and in autumn the castle gardens and the parks along the old walls carry the colour. After a run of pretty little towns, the shift in scale is welcome rather than jarring. Give it a full day if the history is your thing, half a day if it does not. Overall, Nuremberg was beautiful and it is a city I would happily go back to.

Bamberg (Bavaria)

Bamberg might be your favourite. It is a lot of people’s and definitely was mine. The old town is UNESCO listed, the old town hall sits on its own little bridge over the river, and the fishermen’s houses of Little Venice line the water like something off a postcard. For the colour, head to the Hain park and the slopes below the cathedral. And if you have a spare day, drive east into Franconian Switzerland. Wooded hills, quiet valleys, little castles, and hardly anyone talking about it. It is the best foliage in the north of this whole trip.

One thing to know before you order a drink: this is smoked beer country. You will either love it or pull a face. There is no in between, and half the fun is finding out which one you are.

Where I would go with more time

A quick honesty note. I did not make it to any of these on this trip, so I am not going to pretend I did. But if your ten days stretch, or you are building a longer version of this route, here is where I would point you.

• Würzburg. It is located between Frankfurt and Bamberg. The Residence is one of the great baroque palaces, and in autumn the vineyards on the slopes above the Main turn gold right behind it. If you add one stop, add this one.
• Regensburg. Barely a detour on the way south from Nuremberg to Munich, and a proper stunner. A medieval city on the Danube, UNESCO listed, made for wandering with no plan.
• The Bavarian Alps. The real foliage jackpot, and an easy add from Munich. Füssen and Schwangau give you Neuschwanstein with the Alpsee and Forggensee below it, but book the castle ticket ahead and treat the lakes as the main event, because the castle stays mobbed all year round. Or go to Berchtesgaden for the Königssee, an emerald lake boxed in by steep forest that might be the most dramatic thing on this whole list. One catch. The Königssee sits right by the Austrian border, so if your driving strays into Austria you will need an Austrian vignette.
• The Romantic Road. Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Dinkelsbühl and Nördlingen, all worth a day if you cannot get enough of medieval streets and city walls.

Adding the Alps? Book Neuschwanstein before you leave home. The tickets are timed and they sell out, sometimes a few days ahead, and trust me, you do not want to drive all that way just to be turned away. Sort it early, along with a Königssee boat trip if you fancy one, on GetYourGuide.

Other towns worth squeezing in

Want to swap a stop or extend the route? A few more that are lovely in autumn: Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Mittenwald up in the Alps, the lakes just south of Munich like Tegernsee and Kochelsee, Passau where three rivers meet, Coburg with its huge palace and park, and, back near Burg Eltz, the Moselle wine villages of Cochem and Beilstein. Pick by what you are chasing. Medieval streets, river valleys, mountain water, or a good forest drive.

Driving in Germany, the honest bits

The driving is half the reason this trip works. Actually, it was not the first time I did a road trip in Germany (or drove through it). A few things I wish someone had told me:

• The roads are excellent and the signs are clear. A normal car does the whole route. You do not need anything chunky or high off the ground.
• Germany charges no toll or vignette for regular cars on the autobahn, so you can drive the entire German loop without buying a sticker. That is not true of Austria or Switzerland, which both want a vignette, so it only bites if you cross a border. 
• Yes, there are stretches of autobahn with no limit. There are also plenty with one, and the scenic roads are slow on purpose.
• Parking in the old towns means a garage, then a walk in. Budget for it. At Burg Eltz you park up top and walk or shuttle down.
• Fuel and food at the motorway services are steep. Wait for the towns. We also had to pay for toilets.

The honest downsides of souther germany road trip in autumn

Because I am not going to sell you a perfect trip that does not exist:

• October weather does whatever it likes. You might get crisp blue skies like we did, you might get three grey days back to back. There is no fixing it, so pack layers and drop your expectations a notch.
• The colour is a gamble. Peak moves by a week or two every year, so you are always rolling the dice a little. Sometimes you nail it, sometimes you are a touch early or late, and that is just how it goes.
• Burg Eltz makes you work for it. It is remote, there is a walk, and it shuts for winter, so late October means you are catching it right at the end of the season. Do your rseacrh so you doný find the gates closed.
• Neuschwanstein and central Munich stay busy no matter what. Autumn quietens down most of this trip, but not those two.
• Early October bumps into the tail of Oktoberfest. Brilliant if that is what you came for, painful if it is not, because Munich prices and crowds go through the roof.
• The light goes early. Do your scenic driving in the middle of the day, or you will be squinting at the best bits in the dark.

FAQ

Is Germany actually good for autumn colour? Yes, and it is criminally underrated for it. Forested river valleys, the Black Forest, and town parks give you colour in all sorts of settings, usually peaking mid to late October down in the lowlands.

How many days do you need? Ten is comfortable and leaves you room to slow down. You can do it in seven if you cut Baden-Baden or one of the Bavarian towns.

Do you need a car? For this route, yes. You can reach the towns by train, but Burg Eltz and the best foliage drives really want a car.

When does the colour peak? Roughly mid to late October in the lowlands and towns, but it moves every year, so check current reports before you book.

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