Is a term coined by travel agents in the 1950s to describe the stretch of highway in southern Germany (in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg), between Würzburg and Füssen. This region is thought by travelers (especially from the United States) to possess "quintessentially" German scenery and culture, such as Rothenburg ob der Tauber.

No other German tourist route is as well known throughout the world as the Romantic Road. For example, according to a poll conducted in the nineties, 93 percent of the Japanese who are capable of travelling have heard of it, i.e., almost all. The future, when one in two Japanese will have travelled the Romantic Road seems close at hand when, shortly after nine, the morning tranquillity in the Pfaffenwinkel district is broken as coach after coach unloads its cargo of Japanese guests at the parking area near the famous Church in the Meadow.