2 Weeks based in Heidelerg with two boys
 

We will be staying with friends and I'm looking for suggestions on activities with my wife and sons age 9 and 11. I've bought a couple guidebooks I'll study in flight. I'm sure I can easily fill the trip with fun stuff but local ideas would be great.

I'm renting a car and can spend nights in hotels so longer trips are fine.

A couple specific questions:

The kids requested legoland and were going there with another family. Would you suggest one or two days?

I was chatting with someone who said the kids would love the salt mines. Any ideas what they were talking about?

My initial thoughts

A couple days local
A couple days legoland
A couple days Rhine
A couple days Black forest
I must visit Baden Baden or my sons Viola teacher won't forgive me.
A day Rothenburg
A few days away through Switzerland and looping back through Salzberg.

This is one of the areas in Germany I know as a tourist only. And as a tourist I would think of doing the following:

1. Take two days in Heidelberg
2. Drive along the Rhine downstream and have a night in one of the castles
3. Drive upstream in the direction of Switzerland
4. Cities to visit would be for me Strasbourg, Colmar, Tübingen, Stuttgart, Rothenburg, Baden Baden, Freiburg (and your Legoland)
5. Tour for a day in the Black Forest. You could take the cable car up Schauinsland Mountain.
6. Drive along Lake Constance (Bodensee). Have a stop at some of the villages there. Meersburg is a fairytale village. A flight with a Zeppelin (http://www.zeppelinflug.de/pages/E/haupt.htm) could be a highlight for your kids and is really something to write home about.
7. Continue to Zurich and to central Switzerland (if your kids collect "countries" you could make a visit to Liechtenstein, one of the smallest independant countries in Europe and certainly worldwide). Luzern is nice city in central Switzerland with plenty of mountain railways. This is Switzerland as you know it from any movie about Heidi and friends.
8. Drive back via Salzburg and Munich.

I hope locals can give you some more educated ideas, there are a few on this boards.

Cheers
Thomas

For the boys: Technikmuseum Sinsheim, new Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, maybe Technorama in Winterthur/CH and Verkehrshaus in Luzern/CH.

For your rental car: If actually going to Switzerland, refuel only at swiss gas stations (Gas about 0,25€ cheaper per liter than in Germany)

For the view: Bodensee (Lake Constance), Schwarzwald (Black Forrest) and Lake Zurich are a must.

I'd visit Strasbourg, Colmar, Stuttgart, Baden-Baden, Freiburg, Konstanz (cross the border here), then Zurich, Luzern and Sankt Gallen. You could then take the ferry from Romanshorn/CH to Friedrichshafen/D.

PS: Keep in mind that you need to pay a higway fee both in Austria and in Switzerland, if you're catched without paying they'll charge you at least 125€ (in Austria).

I wouldn't spend to much time in the Heidelberg area, IMHO it doesn't offer that much. If you're going during the summer you can jump in the Bodensee, very clean water and a nice refreshment.

Your rough plan above will fill all of 14 days w/o any problems. It would be better if you had 21 days. Since you will have a car (get a van with aircon and automatic). Minus the 2 days in Heidelberg, you have net 12 days to cover what could be 2500+ km distance. Planning a logical flow for driving will save you sanity and time. We recently did a rather similar trip in the SW Germany and Alsace region. Here are my suggestions:
- 2 days in Heidelberg (if possible throw in Rothenburg, due to closeness; if overnight, add 1 more day here))
- 1 day Mid-Rhine, drive downstream, begin from Bingen along river to Koblenz. Spend 1 nite in St. Goar, Boppard or Koblenz.
- 1 day Moseltal, drive upstream from Koblenz to Trier. Spend 1 nite in Trier.
- 1 day. Do Trier in morning; drive from Trier to Baden Baden and spend night here.
- 2 days. Visit your friend and drive to Legoland, Black Forest. Can spend night anywhere convenient.
- 2 days. Drive from Black Forest to Zurich. Spend nights here and explore city and possibly Konstanz.
- 3 days. Drive to Salzburg (see if you could plug in the Alpine scenic routes along the way; much depends on time of year of travel). En-route visit Nueschwanstein Castle. Spend nights in Salzburg. Explore city and day trip to Salzberger Land if time permits.
-2 days (or what's remaining). Long drive back to Heidelberg. Take breaks along the way with stops at Augsburg; and, if further possible, add Mercedes Benz Museum near Stuggart (kid might enjoy too). Stay 1 night if you still have any left! But this might be packing it too much.

There is a lot more to explore in this part of Germany. I am afraid your time is limited. I particularly enjoyed Meersburg (as the Lawyer said) and the Bodensee area; Lindahof and Oberammergau are simply outstanding. Oh well, so much to see and so little time! That's reason for re-visits.

Oh, one more thing. Do plan your routes carefully to avoid wasting time looking for directions. I found these tools to be extremely useful:
mappy.com
viamichelin.com
AND most useful is the maps.ggogle.com
I organize daily trips with the above tools. Print out hard copies and with detailed "BLOW-UP" maps for every IN-TOWN and OUT-OF-TOWN episodes.

Enjoy your trip no matter what you decided to do!

Two more facts regarding driving:
-If mainly in Germany get a Diesel, otherwise you'll be losing a lot of money on fuel.
-Try to do the long distances (more than 200 kms) on the weekends (trucks aren't alloed on weekends) or after 7PM (rush hour), otherwise you'll spend a lot of time in traffic jams. Two of the three most importans Autobahnen in Southern Germany (A6 from Nürnberg to Mannheim via Heilbronn and the A8 from Munich to Karlsruhe via Stuttgart) are under HEAVY construction right now.

Interseting travel tipps, however I would not forget that two boys are going to be bored with mainly the 'adult' travel tipps.....
My thoughts:

LEGOLAND - which you mentioned allready
In SINSHEIM there is a huge technical museum with a real CONCORDE, BOEING 747, an many other airplanes, etc.
STUTTGART - Visit the Mercedes-Benz Museum
If you go up north on the Rhine and make it all the way to COLOGNE, there is the PHANTASIALAND (kind of Disneyland, just MUCH smaller)
And the Castle NEUSCHWANENSTEIN (Cinderellas Castle) near Fussen at the Lake Constance (BODENSEE) has been mentioned before...

All the other stuff is great to do, however the boys would become bored soon and then.....it's no fun for anyone

Enjoy GERMANY

@Few-Flyer:
How about reading my first post???:)

If you should go to Bodensee / Switzerland, don't miss the Rhine falls at Schaffhausen (they may be quite spectacular for the kids).

In Heidelberg, the zoo (in the Neuenheimer Feld) is quite nice. You can take a boat tour at the Neckar river (although the Rhine valley between Mainz and Koblenz is more spectacular).

There is a castle close to Heidelberg which has falcon "shows". Unfortunately I don't remember the name.

If you're there in summertime, the public pool in Leimen (just north of Heidelberg) is a nice spot to take a bath.

Just some ideas for kids.

The previous posters already made excellent recommendations.

I have last week been to the Technorama in Winterthur/CH with my 13yr old nephew and he was blown away. We went a second time in the same week - he was just fascinated: www.technorama.ch

Another fun suggestion: Europapark Rust, about 60 - 90 min South of Heidelberg an A5: www.europapark.de

Enjoy!

I have never been to Phantasialand, but when I was a kid I went to Europapark once or twice. And I have to say that I never found it that fascinating. Maybe because i'm not into roller coasters, it simply wasn't my thing.

As mentioned before: I'd prefer a day at the Bodensee (in the summer), in the winter you could visit Alpamare or Säntispark. It's fun for both parents and kids.

As mentioned above - the Autobahn is perpetually under construction - so watch out for delays (and the German Drivers). The Deutsche bahn (www.bahn.de) offers deals for parents with kids (kids are usually free with a paying adult) and may be a nice break from all that driving.

Lastly, not sure if you've thought of this - but the new "fast train" that travels about 350 kph (220 mph) can get to Paris in 2 hours 30 mins from Kaiserslautern (45 mins from Heidelberg). A little bit faster than the rides at Legoland and I'm sure you can find something to do in Paris.

http://www.ramstein.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123057519

Yes, this could be an option. But I'll be honest: two weeks for southern Germany, northern Switzerland, maybe parts of Austria, a few days only for the kids (Technorama, Mercedes-Benz museum etc. will take half a day each) AND going to Paris is way to much.

I'd stick with the original plan (go to Paris next time and spend a whole week there). Two weeks is just right to get a impression of southern Germany, and after all it's a vacation, you probably want to relax without being under pressure and geting up at 6AM every morning.



BTW: Could one of the MODs change the subject of the thread to "2 weeks based in Heidelberg with two boys"
Not a fan of Heidelberg, but a citizien of Heidelberg, so I'll have to insist on this.:-)

I went to Sinsheim with my girlfriend a few years back, before the Concord and Russian Concord were placed there.

You really should go. We both hada great time, being technically minded.

I think there is a trip report if you do a search for it.