Hi everyone,

I've just discovered this site and love it already. Anyways, i will be traveling to Germany in March for a week from Monday until Sunday. My most ideal situation is landing in Hamburg and leaving from Berlin a week later to go back to Copenhagen. I heard you can take a 5 hour train back to Copenhagen in Hamburg but a flight back from Berlin is only $32 US dollars so I want to take the flight back since it is faster and more convenient

Anyways, so if I start in Hamburg and end in Berlin which cities should I visit in between the 7 days?

I heard the following cities were good: Hamburg, Luebeck, Munich, Frankfurt, Cologne, Rostock, Bremen, Brugge, and Berlin.

I obviously wont be able to travel to ALL these cities and all of them are kind of all over the place in Germany. Which cities can I realistically visit in the short time that I have in Germany, what order should I visit the cities in if I have to start in Hamburg and end in Berlin, and what railpasses are available that I can travel to all of these cities within Germany? I heard that there is a 4 day in 1 month railpass for $188 US with each additional day to be $14 US. Is that the best deal I can get? I heard it was also cheaper if I were to be "ready to go" once I bought my ticket (ie buy my ticket at the train station 30 or so minutes before it left)

I have never been in Germany before let alone travel in Europe so I deeply appreciate any advice, opinions, anything you can give me! thank you so much!

Interesting. If you have 7 days in Germany and you also want to see Hamburg and Berlin, I would just add one more city. I would try to see Munich but it is kind of out of your way from Hamburg to Berlin. If you know that you never come back to Germany, take your time and fly to Munich. There are plenty of LCC like Germanwings, dba, HLX, AirBerlin, etc. who serve HAM-MUC-TXL.

If you know that you come back anyway, stay up in the North of Germany and try to see another city like Rostock, Luebeck or Bremen.

Sorry, I am not to familiar with railpasses, if possible I try to avoid the German Railway but I have to admit that they got much better in the last few years. I hope somebody else can help you with that topic.


Make sure you leave us a little report after your trip. I am happy to further assist you.

by the way: Welcome to FT^

At the moment there is a promotion from germanwings going on. HAM-MUC-SXF would only cost about 60 Euros and would be way more comfortable than taking the train.
I would stick to the 3 cities and enjoy my time in Berlin, which by the way is a fantastic city.
Have Fun!

Beside the fact that Brugge is not in Germany.....

... I would suggest four places:

two nights in Hamburg
two nights in Berlin
one night in Dresden
two nights in Munich.

Hamburg to Berlin is quick train ride - about 90 minutes
Berlin to Dresden is a quick train ride - about 120 minutes
Hamburg to Munich has plenty of flights so has Munich to Berlin.

With these four you see four cities that could no be more different and all four are fascinating (Dresden appears to be the most beautiful of these four). Luebeck, Cologne, Rostock, Bremen are more "tier 2". Frankfurt is the financial center and not a "must" for a tourist visit.

Munich is great, and I think you can swing it cost/time wise if you hit Berlin and possibly one other.

I would add Munich by using flights on budget airlines like DuetscheBA, which I have used to fly from Hamburg to Munich many times.

Hamburg = nice, protestant (i.e., sedate and a tad boring) Germany

Munich = Bavarian Germany

Berlin = political Germany and a trendy, alternative party city

That is a good sampling of what Germany has to offer.

Beside the fact that Brugge is not in Germany.....

... I would suggest four places:

two nights in Hamburg
two nights in Berlin
one night in Dresden
two nights in Munich.

Hamburg to Berlin is quick train ride - about 90 minutes
Berlin to Dresden is a quick train ride - about 120 minutes
Hamburg to Munich has plenty of flights so has Munich to Berlin.

With these four you see four cities that could no be more different and all four are fascinating (Dresden appears to be the most beautiful of these four). Luebeck, Cologne, Rostock, Bremen are more "tier 2". Frankfurt is the financial center and not a "must" for a tourist visit.

Flying Lawer is an expert...I would give special attention to his advice.

In my case, for long distances, I love over-night trains and the German DB has a number of such modest cost options. In particular, I have taken overnights to Berlin from the south of Germany several times , visited the city, and then left to return to the south of Germany late the next night or at most the following night on the return night train. Again, wonderful use of time if you are not bent on seeing the countryside...and the train is your "hotel room" .

For someone just starting an adventure in Germany, I recommend the Rick Steves travel book, available from major US bookstores for about $US17 or your local library (of course get the book now) ...title is ~ Germany, Austria, and Swit. Also see the wonderful introduction to European train travel at www.seat61.com and pay particular note to his references, which include all info on Eurirail tics.

Have FUN!

PS...I very much like Munich myself. Although my arrival city is usually Frankfurt, I am on a train very quickly to other distinations as soon as my business obligations allow.

My picks would be Munich & Berlin (in that order) -- plenty to do in both for a week, let alone half a week. Like UAkls, I found Hamburg (and the other cities mentioned, including the lovely Belgian city of Brugge ;) ) less compelling than Munich and Berlin. The Dresden suggestion is a good one, but I'd still put that behind the other two.

My fiancee and I just did a 5 day trip to Germany, taking advantage of CO's ultra cheap EWR-CGN fares....

We did Cologne-Duesseldorf-Rhein River Drive-Konstanz-Munich (with a stop at Schloss Neuschwanstein)-Nuremburg-Cologne.

1500 kms in 5 days (166 euro Sixt Rental car, diesel, M-Benz E220, add fuel 150 euros).

We overnighted in Cologne, Konstanz, Munich and at the airport at CGN.

I have family in Konstanz and that is a beautiful city near the Swiss border, it is know for it's medieval architecture that didn't get bombed in WWII because the Allies thought is was Switzerland. However, it's out of the way (closer to Zurich) and more of a summer city.

Munich was wonderful, we wish we stayed a little longer, but the Hofbrauhaus was definitely worth it.

For your trip, I think Berlin and Munich would be great starts.

- HF

I am always curious to have these "10 cities in one day" ideas. What do you expect to do - mass siteseeing, just taking a picture to show "I was there!".

Please add which kind of things you are interested in, and also where you are coming from cause that would help.

Assuming that you do fly into Germany, I would say go for Munich for two days (and assuming you will fly in with a jetlag?) because Munic has its own architecture and some nice museums.

From there you can get cheap travel to Berlin - and dont be fooled by pure flight times! You will have to cater in airport time as well and that sometimes is more than just the time you need for train.

MUC Berlin in train does take 5:44 which sounds bad against an hour of flight, but realistically this means roughly 40 minutes going to the airport by sbahn, having at least 1,5 hours there before plane goes off, fly, get your baggage, get around the airport and get into the city.

train is a main station to station transfer.

you will be able to use bahn.de in english and you should be able to print out online tickets from there as well.

after muc I would suggest getting to berlin and then perhaps a short hop to Hamburg if you fancy it and make a stopover to Lübeck and then Copenhagen by train.

Note: It is advised but on the train HH-CPH it is necessary to have a registration.

If you really would like to see Hamburg, I would go for Hamburg, Muc and Berlin and let it be done with that. that would be 2 days in each city and one for travel annoyances.

Lübeck is only a short trainhop of 45 minutes from Hamburg and nice for an afternoon plus a trip to the beach (additional 20 minutes from the center, Lübeck is a spreadout city).

hth

All three cities

hey guys

thanks everyone for putting in the time to comment on my post; i really appreciate it. my friend and i decided to take your advice and have our trip be: hamburg, munich, and berlin since our trip now is only 5 nights 6 days (due to our choice of choosing a cheap flight home back to copenhagen). now we are deciding whether or not we should fly between hamburg munich and berlin OR take the train and get train passes. which would be cheaper? i tried searching for the deal on germanwings that was 60 euros for a ham-muc-sxf flight but for some reason, in the search, it would only let me choose one destination and did not have a multi-city option. what would be my cheapest option concerning my travel in-between cities?

thanks again

hey guys

thanks everyone for putting in the time to comment on my post; i really appreciate it. my friend and i decided to take your advice and have our trip be: hamburg, munich, and berlin since our trip now is only 5 nights 6 days (due to our choice of choosing a cheap flight home back to copenhagen). now we are deciding whether or not we should fly between hamburg munich and berlin OR take the train and get train passes. which would be cheaper? i tried searching for the deal on germanwings that was 60 euros for a ham-muc-sxf flight but for some reason, in the search, it would only let me choose one destination and did not have a multi-city option. what would be my cheapest option concerning my travel in-between cities?

thanks again

On Germanwings you have to buy two seperate tickets as they in general kind of sell just oneway tickets anyway. If you buy a round trip, you just add two oneways. I think I received an email the other day that they start a sales offer for cheap tickets today, 12 p.m. EST (6 p.m. Germany time). Sorry, I don't recall for what travel time.

dont forget dba as a possibility for inner german flights.

Berlin is rather good connected by train with 1,5 hours and if you have fixed train times, you can get a so called supersparpreis which is 50%.

which is easiest to go back by flight?

Again, make sure to factor in time as money on the airport. ;)

And try DeutscheBA in addition to Germanwings, especially for HAM-MUC

dba is deutsche ba ;)

Munich is one of my all time favs. About to make 5th vacation visit this year. Awesome friendly people!

I am not going to tell you what cities to visit , because you already have enough cities to choose from.

Here is the address for Deutsche Bahn, that Nixande spoke of:

http://www.bahn.de/p/view/international/englisch/international_guests.shtml

If you do buy your train tickets, remember to bring the credit card that you used to buy them , with you. The train conductor(ticket taker?) will ask for your credit card so he can swipe it in his machine.

If you do use the train I would suggest reserving seats , as opposed to just getting on the train and trying to find seats together.

Have a good time.

thanks!

Don't mean to threadjack, but I have a similar question with a different twist. I will be flying into FRA and staying for about 4 days. It sounds like FRA doesn't seem to be a good city for tourists (in terms of things to do and see). Can someone offer suggestions on what sidetrips I can take from FRA? I will actually be visiting PRG prior to arriving FRA, so, to avoid excessive travel time (and costs), I would like to be near FRA.

Also, it sounds like MUC is almost a "must see" in Germany. How long is the train ride from FRA and how much does it usually cost? TIA.

LAX

LAX-- Cologne (CGN) is only a 1hr train ride from FRA. Also, Strasbourg, FR, (SXB) is about 2hrs. I've been there four times and would go again. The old city is a pristine, quaint, old-world village, and the cathedral there is amazing. Raileurope.com and bahn.de have fares.

My fiancee and I just did a 5 day trip to Germany... We did Cologne-Duesseldorf-Rhein River Drive-Konstanz-Munich (with a stop at Schloss Neuschwanstein)-Nuremburg-Cologne....HF, would you care to provide comments about your stay in Nuremburg? Do you now consider it a good inclusion for a 4/5-day German trip?

Don't mean to threadjack, but I have a similar question with a different twist. I will be flying into FRA and staying for about 4 days. It sounds like FRA doesn't seem to be a good city for tourists (in terms of things to do and see). Can someone offer suggestions on what sidetrips I can take from FRA? I will actually be visiting PRG prior to arriving FRA, so, to avoid excessive travel time (and costs), I would like to be near FRA.

Also, it sounds like MUC is almost a "must see" in Germany. How long is the train ride from FRA and how much does it usually cost? TIA.

LAX
FRA is a great base for a trip up the Rhine, which is probably also on many "must do" lists for Germany. It is a lovely valley with castles on the hills overlooking the river or sometimes next to or in the river.

Cologne & Strasbourg are also nice. Heidelberg is popular (though by no means high on my list) and is also close by.

HF, would you care to provide comments about your stay in Nuremburg? Do you now consider it a good inclusion for a 4/5-day German trip?
I would choose to spend my time elsewhere had I that little time in Germany.

Frankfurt basically is "Mainhatten" the bank town. ;) Yes, you can spend time around that but as fare as shorter hops go, I would stay somewhere else.

Frankfurt should be one of the good connected cities in regard of Deutsche Bahn (http://www.bahn.de/p/view/international/englisch/international_guests.shtml) and a trip to Muc is ~ 3 hours.

Köln is only an hour ten and is a nice trip to visit Kölner Dom and around, so if you would like that rather than going to Muc that should be a nice daytrip too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cologne

or for more
http://wikitravel.org/en/Germany

:)

If you want to fly to different places within Germany or Europe is great as a LCC HUB with several airlines serving from there.

FRA is kind of bad for cheap travel but of course you find flights to all imaginable destinations served by all kinds of thinkable airlines.

by the way: FRA airport to CGN is just 59 minutes with the high speed train (ICE = Inter City Express) Round trip should be between 80 and 100 EUR.

Munich is great, and I think you can swing it cost/time wise if you hit Berlin and possibly one other.

From Munich it is 1-1,5 hour drive to Salzburg (Austria). I day travel should give you the most of Salzburg.

Hey there - have to quote the FL on this one:

Beside the fact that Brugge is not in Germany.....

... I would suggest four places:

two nights in Hamburg
two nights in Berlin
one night in Dresden
two nights in Munich.

Hamburg to Berlin is quick train ride - about 90 minutes
Berlin to Dresden is a quick train ride - about 120 minutes
Hamburg to Munich has plenty of flights so has Munich to Berlin.

With these four you see four cities that could no be more different and all four are fascinating (Dresden appears to be the most beautiful of these four). Luebeck, Cologne, Rostock, Bremen are more "tier 2". Frankfurt is the financial center and not a "must" for a tourist visit.

Living in Dresden, I could offer a free tour through the city to anyone interested. It's definately a beautiful city, with a breathtaking scenery - also referred to as the "Elbflorenz". Try to include it - you will not be disappointed :)

Living in Dresden, I could offer a free tour through the city to anyone interested. It's definately a beautiful city, with a breathtaking scenery - also referred to as the "Elbflorenz".

Thanks for quoting me. Next time in Dresden I might come back to your offer. Last year I had about 10 visits and slowly start to get better insights into this beautiful city.

TFL

Flying within Germany is not something I would recommend for a first-time visitor. Consider taking the train between Hamburg or Berlin and Munich, in order to see the lay of the land, the countryside, and things like that. It's not just the cities that are worth seeing. As someone pointed out, the travel time is quite good.

Flying is such a "person on business with an American outlook" thing.

Flying within Germany is not something I would recommend for a first-time visitor. Consider taking the train between Hamburg or Berlin and Munich, in order to see the lay of the land, the countryside, and things like that. It's not just the cities that are worth seeing. As someone pointed out, the travel time is quite good.

I (nearly) fully agree. There are some routes I would fly, but this is restricted to (I only mention airports) all routes to DRS (train only from Berlin or LEJ), to HAM/DUS/CGN/BRE/HAN/MSO - MUC/NUE/LEJ/FRH/STR and v/v and maybe DUS/CGN to BER and v/v. Most other routes can easily be travelled by train (allthough flights might be cheaper only considering the fare and not the bus to the airport)

I (nearly) fully agree. There are some routes I would fly, but this is restricted to (I only mention airports) all routes to DRS (train only from Berlin or LEJ), to HAM/DUS/CGN/BRE/HAN/MSO - MUC/NUE/LEJ/FRH/STR and v/v and maybe DUS/CGN to BER and v/v. Most other routes can easily be travelled by train (allthough flights might be cheaper only considering the fare and not the bus to the airport)

HAN= Hanoi :p
HAJ= Hannover ;)

FRH= French Lick, Indiana :p
FDH= Friedrichshafen ;)

MSO: Missoula, Montana :p
MSR: Münster/O ;)

I have been flying to/from MSR/HAN/HAJ/FDH - but not MSO/FRH ;) ;)

Thanks. That happens when you mix up typical German abreviations with Airport codes, especially of airports one does not utilze so frequently....