Deutsche Touring Started a New 2009 Schedule for Seeing Germany’s Romantische Straße
Europabus EB 190 connects Frankfurt and Füssen via much of the Romantic Road daily during summer. Stops include Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Augsburg, Nördlingen, Dinkelsbühl, Würzburg, and Munich (München).
The Romantic Road (Romantische Straße) was founded in 1950 as a tourism promotion project. This massively popular holiday route has since become a top destination for visitors to Germany. It is hugely popular with bus parties from all nations – notice the Japanese road signs.
Although a car is the easiest and most convenient way to travel the full 350-km (220-mile) route, the Romantic Road can also be done on public transportation. The easiest way is on the Europabus, which has been operating along this route since its inception.
- The routing of the Europabus on the Romantic Road has been changed drastically from summer 2008 – all previous timetables and routings are now completely redundant.
Changes to the Europabus Romantic Road Schedule from 2008
The Europabus EB190, operated by Deutsche Touring / Eurolines, is often referred to as the Romantische Straße Bus. EB190 used to run the full length of the Romantic Road from Würzburg to Füssen.
However, from summer 2008 the routing has been altered drastically:
- The Romantic Road bus, officially Europabus EB190, operate daily from early May to late October.
- The bus no longer covers the full Romantic Road. Still starting from Frankfurt, the new route goes directly from Würzburg to Rothenburg cutting out all previous stops in the Tauber Valley. From Augsburg, the bus detours to Munich and Ettal before rejoining the Romantic Road from Steingaden to Füssen.
- In addition to Munich, non Romantic Road towns Ettal and Oberammergau have been added to the schedule.
Stops on the Romantic Road Europabus EB190 from 2008
From May to October, Europbus EB190 departs daily at 8 am on the southbound route from Frankfurt am Main and at 08:00 from Füssen on the northbound route. Apart from obviously being in different directions, the route and stops are the same except that the southbound bus does not stop at the Wieskirche (as it is already closed in the early evening).
The new routing of the Europabus EB 190 is as follows where (30) indicates a half-hour stopover and (15) a fifteen-minute photo break:
Frankfurt – Wertheim Village – Würzburg – Rothenburg ob der Tauber (30) – Feuchtwangen – Dinkelsbühl (30) – Nördlingen (15) – Augsburg (30) – Friedberg – Munich / München – Ettal (15) – Oberammergau – Wieskirche (15 on the northbound bus only!) – Steingaden – Schwangau – Hohenschwangau (15) – Füssen.
Reservations for the Europabus are not compulsory but advisable (and free) especially in the high season. Bicycles can be transported for a small fee but reservations are required at least three working days in advance.
The Romantic Road is mostly traveled for the romantic small towns and sights along the route. It therefore makes little sense to travel the whole route in one go by bus. Only a few short stops are done by the Europabus en route. To explore more sights, it is necessary to stay over in towns and take the bus the following day.
In such case, it is worth exploring which Romantic Road towns can easily be reached by public transportation, as this will allow visitors to visit a few sights per day and not get stuck in towns where no further transportation is available to the next town.
