City guide

Aschaffenburg

Aschaffenburg is a quiet Bavarian river town that punches well above its size: a red-sandstone Renaissance castle looms over the Main, and a full-scale replica of a Pompeii villa sits improbably in its gardens. Locals half-jokingly call it "Bavarian Nice" for its mild, sunny microclimate. It's a slow, walkable place of half-timbered lanes and riverside beer gardens rather than headline attractions, best treated as a calm day-trip or a two-night pause rather than a destination in its own right.