Deutschland trip

[Gups]

I'm changing jobs and have three weeks off in between. First week will be skiing en famille. Then I have two weeks of freedom...

So I'm thinking of eine kleine trip to Germany. I want to go by train. 5 days, 2, possibly 3 places. Don't want to spend all my time travelling so we're probably looking at the western end of the country.

Any tips on places to go that are easily accessible? Cologne? Frankfurt? Dortmond? Hamburg (or is that too far?)

I wouldn't mind catching a footie match when I'm there. Hard to get tickets?

Train tickets from and to London are very reasonable - £59 to any German city, £109 for 1st class. Is there a pass you can get for internal travel in Germany?

[Zanza]

If you come by train from London, you would go to Cologne first anyway as that's where all trains from Belgium will come through - or possibly go onwards to Frankfurt immediately.

Both cities aren't that interesting. I guess you can see everything they have to offer in one day each. Cologne has a lot of nice bars and restaurants though, so it might be worth staying a bit longer.

Dortmund doesn't have anything of interest besides the admittedly awesome stadium. Go there if you can get tickets.

Travel time on the train from Cologne to Frankfurt is about 1:10h. Same for Cologne to Dortmund. So even if you visit each, you won't spend much time travelling.

Hamburg isn't well connected to Cologne. You need about 4h on the train.

Some stuff that might be of interest for you in Western Germany: Aachen has a beautiful cathedral with the grave of Charlemagne (<1h from Cologne), Essen has Zeche Zollverein, a well-made museum on Ruhr Area coal mining/steel production (maybe more for Tyr?, <1h from Cologne). You could also take the slow train from Cologne to Frankfurt (takes about 2.5h) that goes through the beautiful Rhine Valley. Bonn (<30 min from Cologne) has  a great museum on German history (Haus der Geschichte). 

[Capetan Mihali]

I'm looking into a possible trip to Germany this summer myself.  The idea would be to take my parents to Europe for real, since they've got some money to spend on themselves at the moment, aren't getting any younger, and haven't had the chance to visit other than an unpleasant cruise.

My more specific idea is a road trip through Germany, since my father and I like food/beer, my mother and I like museums, my pops like driving fast, and we've all enjoyed family vacations spent tooling around off the beaten path in Amerika.

I assume we fly into Frankfurt from New York.  If you were going to spend a solid week or 10 days taking a driving tour of Germany in the early summer, including some of the major cities, what route would you take?

I know very little about Germany, but my inclination would be to head west then north.  I'd really like to see the Baltic, I don't know why exactly.  Wander around the Mosel, then up through Düsseldorf and Köln to the Baltic, see Hamburg and some Hanseatic towns.  Personally, I'd love to visit Berlin, but it might be too ambitious.

On the other hand, I have the intuition that my parents may get a more satisfying experience of the celebrated Central European landscape (castles, rolling farmland, brightly colored villages, maybe even some dramatic cliffs) if we headed south from Frankfurt and made our way slowly over to München, perhaps even crossing over to a couple of Austrian or a Swiss town.

What do you think, native Germans and former tourists?  Or should we do something entirely different, like get a connecting flight to Berlin, spend a bunch of time there, then head down to Munich exploring only the Ost?

[mongers]

I'm changing jobs and have three weeks off in between. First week will be skiing en famille. Then I have two weeks of freedom...

So I'm thinking of eine kleine trip to Germany. I want to go by train. 5 days, 2, possibly 3 places. Don't want to spend all my time travelling so we're probably looking at the western end of the country.

Any tips on places to go that are easily accessible? Cologne? Frankfurt? Dortmond? Hamburg (or is that too far?)

I wouldn't mind catching a footie match when I'm there. Hard to get tickets?

Train tickets from and to London are very reasonable - £59 to any German city, £109 for 1st class. Is there a pass you can get for internal travel in Germany?

Gosh, that's a very good deal, any special place/website you need to get them from Gups?

[Richard Hakluyt]

The Germans have put together a variety of scenic routes, might be an idea for any road-trip :

http://gogermany.about.com/od/sightsandattractions/tp/scenic_drives_germany.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:German_tourist_routes

On my visits to Germany I have preferred the smaller towns and countryside to the cities.

[Admiral Yi]

Be sure to hit that industrial brothel where all the women sit with their naughty bits on display.

[Gups]

Zanza - thanks. Bonn sounds like a good idea. May use Cologne as a base and explore a bit from there. May change my mind and go to Munich instead and use that as a base.

Mongers- it's surprisingly good isn't it? It's a standard fare for Deutschebahn.

[Martinus]

There is a joke there somewhere involving Germany and trains.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

if you do come by train and if you do have to pass through Belgium, do take into account that there will be yet another strike on april 1st by the unions. Cause you know, striking really helps the economy and the budget.

[garbon]

Mongers- it's surprisingly good isn't it? It's a standard fare for Deutschebahn.

I'll have to file this away for potential later use.

[mongers]

Zanza - thanks. Bonn sounds like a good idea. May use Cologne as a base and explore a bit from there. May change my mind and go to Munich instead and use that as a base.

Mongers- it's surprisingly good isn't it? It's a standard fare for Deutschebahn.

Gups, thanks for that, as Garbon said, filling it for later use.

[Zanza]

Zanza - thanks. Bonn sounds like a good idea. May use Cologne as a base and explore a bit from there. May change my mind and go to Munich instead and use that as a base.

Mongers- it's surprisingly good isn't it? It's a standard fare for Deutschebahn.

Going to Munich by train from London takes at least 9:15h, whereas it only takes 4:30h to Cologne. If you want to go to Munich, I suggest you take a plane...

[Zanza]

What do you think, native Germans and former tourists?  Or should we do something entirely different, like get a connecting flight to Berlin, spend a bunch of time there, then head down to Munich exploring only the Ost?

Berlin is easily the most interesting city for tourists in Germany. Lots of history, lots of museums, lots of clubs/bars/restaurants, shopping, etc. Munich is second in all of these.

If you want to explore around one of these, Berlin doesn't have much in its direct vincinity. You could go to Rügen or Darß for a taste of the Baltic Sea. Munich is very close to the Alps and you could go there and maybe to Salzburg for a bit of Austria.

Or you drive from Berlin to Munich via Prague. That's obviously also very interesting.

[Duque de Bragança]

Is there a pass you can get for internal travel in Germany?

There's the Querdurchland ticket for one day all over Germany but it's only for regional trains so slow trains. Cheap though, even more so for families.
http://www.bahn.de/i/view/GBR/en/prices/germany/quer-durchs-land-ticket.shtml

There's also a cheaper one (Land-based) if you stay in a single German region. It may include local and metropolitan lines (U-Bahn and S-Bahn) depending on the region.

There's no Bahncard discovery offer for three months right now, that would have helped saving on fares for high-speed trains.

If you have time for Frankfurt, limit yourself to the Städel and possibly the Roman castle near Bad Homburg. Goethe's house if you really need to tell you were in Goethe's city.

Saver fares for trains, Sparpreis may be booked 2 or 3 before the trip, of course the sooner the cheaper.

For flying to Germany, Frankfurt is more central than Munich and has better connections anyways.

[garbon]

For flying to Germany, Frankfurt is more central than Munich and has better connections anyways.

But then you are in Frankfurt.