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Germany Things to Do

Germany Itinerary: The Perfect Two Weeks

Germany is a land of regional differences. This trip aims to highlight these differences giving a taste of the north, south, east and west. The point is to see the different faces of the country at the same time as seeing the postcard highlights. You will get castles and churches, museums and markets in these two weeks. Be sure to sample the foods and beers in each the different regions. Although there are plenty of nature and hiking opportunities in Germany this is primarily a city tour for seeing urban German society. Two weeks is enough to get a taste of each place and yet enables a slow enough trip to not get overwhelmed.

This itinerary is a circle based on a round trip to Frankfurt airport, though Berlin or Munich would work as well. An open jaw ticket saves a travel day at one end though not required. Germany has an excellent train system for transport between the cities and for daytrips. For all of these places, picking a hotel near a tram/metro stop will make your days easier.

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Cologne : 3 Days


Take a train from Frankfurt Airport to Cologne. The impressive and enormous Kölner Dom (Cologne Cathedral) is right out front of the train station. There can’t be much better first impression of the country than that. Cologne is a big city with shopping and activities to match.

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Tall Towers and Short Beers
Take a tour of the cathedral and climb the tower for views. If you are at all into beer, find a bar that does kölsch, the local type of beer served in small glasses. Gaffel and Früh are well known breweries of it. There are several museums near the cathedral and a chocolate factory with tour in town if you are so inclined.

Rhein Boat Tour
The “must do” day-trip in this area is the Koblenz-Bingen section of the Rhein river. This stretch has a number of castles along its bank for medieval charm. Take the train to one end and ride the ship to the other. Check out St. Goar in the shadows of the Lorelei for lunch.

Explore Bonn
Bonn is close to Cologne but presents a different face of the area. This university town was the capital of West Germany during the split up of the country. The birthplace of Beethoven is here as well as one of Germany’s oldest churches.

Hamburg : 3 Days


Again get on the train and head north to Hamburg. A daytime fast ICE train ride takes about 4 hours to the inland port city on the river Elbe. Hamburg was once part of the Hanseatic league and retains much of its mercantile feel.

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On the Banks of the Elbe
The Old Elbe Tunnel (Alter Elbtunnel) is a pedestrian tunnel near Landungsbrücken that goes under the river and dates from 1911. Nearby on the other side of Landungsbrücken is the historic warehouse district(Speicherstadt) that is now home to several museums and Hafen City. Check out more of the waterbound nature of the city with either a harbor boat tour or one on the Alster lakes. For a bit of greenspace, explore the Planten un Blomen park or visit the Tierpark Zoo.

Markets
Honor the mercantile history and seek out the outdoor markets. The Isemarkt, under the U3 train line at Hoheluftbrücke, is the longest in Hamburg and opens on Tuesday and Friday mornings. If you happen to be in Hamburg on Sunday morning, the Fischmarkt is worth getting up early for (it starts at 5am in the summer).

Reeperbahn
Reeperbahn street is known as a red light and party district. Clubs and nightlife with anything you can imagine. There is even a Beatles connection if you are so inclined.

Berlin : 4 Days


Another few hours on the train gets you to Berlin. I like staying on the Eastern side of the center of the city, but definitely make sure you are near a subway stop. Berlin is an enormous place and has so many little nooks and crannies to find. This is an overview of the big tourist highlights, but get out and look for the smaller jewels too. You could really spend a whole trip around Berlin, so this is but a small taste.

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Walk Around
There is so much recent history in Berlin. The first day I really recommend taking a walking tour. Pick your length from several hours to all day, but it gives a good overview of the center of town. Check out the famous “Walking Man” cross walk signs. Find a Currywurst stand for lunch.

A Sad History
Berlin with its wall was the focal point of the split between East and West. Check out the Checkpoint Charlie Museum as well as the few pieces of the wall that remain. There is a small window in the middle of a square in the Humboldt University campus that looks down into an empty room of shelves representing all of the books burned during a Nazi organized action against intellectualism.

Day Trip : Potsdam
A short train journey outside of Berlin is Potsdam. There the palace and gardens of Sanssouci was the Prussian answer to Versailles. The best time to see the flowers and fountains is while they are in bloom, so late spring through summer.

Museum Island
You hopefully walked around this on your walking tour, so go back and take in a museum or two. The Pergamon with it’s replica temple is my pick and there are several art museums as well. The island in the Spree is also home to the Berlin Cathedral. If you haven’t had enough of museums there are plenty more around the city.

City Sights
Kurfürstendamm is a shopping street in the west of town. A church ruined by the war is left in its ruins as a reminder is also on this street. Berlin has a well known zoo and park for outdoor enjoyment. On the eastern side of things is the Hackescher Markt, a group of interconnected shops in courtyards.

The iconic sight of Berlin is the Brandenburger gate at the split between East and West in the center of the city. Nearby Potsdamer Platz is a revitalized entertainment, nightlife and shopping area built in the no man’s land where the wall used to be. Several theaters and restaurants are under a large upsweeping pavilion.

Munich : 4 Days


Get on a night train from Berlin to Munich. Munich is the capitol of Bavaria and what most Americans think of when they think of Germany, Lederhosen, Beerhalls and Oktoberfest. While it has all of these things, there is more to the city. It is near the Alps, so you have now traveled nearly the full height of the country and seen both the coastal lowlands and the mountains.

Look for a hotel near a tram or subway stop to get around easily, though try to avoid the area immediately around the main train station.

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Day Trip: Fairytale Castle
Must-do daytrip is to Castle Neuschwanstein. The fairytale castle that was the basis for Disney’s Cinderella castle is on so many postcards (and rightly so). There are numerous day trip buses from Munich or the town of Füssen is two hours by train and a few miles from the Castle. If you can be there on your own schedule, add a visit to the Hohenschwangau Castle which is the yellow castle just down the hill.

City Walk
The Gothic Rathaus(City Hall) and nearby Frauenkirche(the cathedral) are in the very center. There are several city gates around the edges still standing like the Isartor. For outdoor enjoyment, check out the Viktuellenmarkt in the center or out a bit further to the English Garden or the Theresienwiesen, the fields where Oktoberfest is held.

History and Museums
The Deutsches Museum is Germany’s largest technical and natural history museum. It nearly fills an island in the Isar river. Even if you can’t read German, the displays are still amazing to look at. Airplanes share the building with animals and more. Take a look for the people that surf the river nearby.

Just as Berlin has the wall, other German cities bear marks from the Holocaust time. The Dachau concentration camp is reachable with public transit and worth some time to experience and “never forget”.

Beer and Sausage
After a long day sightseeing go have a Bavarian beer or several in a beer hall. Although the Hofbräuhaus is the most famous, I like the Augustiner Bierkeller near the train station. If you are there in the summer it is worth sitting in the beer garden outside. Look for a Weisswurst meal made of white sausages with sweet mustard and a pretzel. This is typically Bavarian and is often eaten as breakfast.

Hamburg photo by Metro Centric; all other photos by Andrew Couch & may not be used without permission

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Germany

Cheap Hostels in Munich

Munich might be a sophisticated city with an historic side, but it’s also a major stop on any backpacker’s European tour – not to mention the site of one of the most famous two-week-long parties on the planet – so it stands to reason that alongside the boutique hotels there are plenty of hostels in Munich.

There are several hostel options in the city center, but as is the case with most cities the best locations are usually taken up by hotels. Still, the hostels in Munich’s city center offer easy access to most of the attractions as well as public transportation to make it easy to get around. Many are located right around the main train station, the Hauptbahnhof, so it’s even easier to take day trips.

If you think you’re not up for a hostel stay because you don’t want to share a bedroom, but you like the idea of a cheap place to stay, don’t shy away from hostels – many of them have private rooms these days, which can be a great middle ground.

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Germany

Cheap Hotels in Munich

Munich is a city that caters to all budget levels and travel styles when it comes to accommodation – but if you plan to spend Oktoberfest in Munich then everything changes. Sure, the summer is the high season and you’ll pay more for a room in the summer than in the winter, but the annual Oktoberfest celebration is such a concentrated time that finding a good deal on a room or a hostel bed during those two weeks can be nothing short of a miracle. In other words, if going to Munich for Oktoberfest is on your bucket list, either save your pennies, plan to splurge, or book so far in advance that you actually get one of the more budget-friendly rooms in the city.

For the rest of the year, the historic center around the Marienplatz is a good area to target for a place to stay. Staying in this area puts you within walking distance of most of the attractions in Munich, as well as within easy reach of public transportation if you want to go further afield. The historic center may be a bit more expensive accommodation-wise than the outskirts of the city, so if you’re really on a tight budget or you’re staying longer and don’t mind going back and forth into the center often, you might try looking in the neighborhoods around the Ostbahnhof station or the University.

Search this map to find cheap hotels in Munich

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Germany Things to Do

Take a Last Minute Munich Trip for Oktoberfest

Despite its quiet beginnings – at least relatively speaking – the famous Oktoberfest celebration will mark its 200th year when the festivities get underway later this month. In other words, if you’ve been looking for a reason to head to Germany and see how you look in leiderhosen, this could be an ideal year to do just that.

If you’re lucky enough to already be in a major European city like Edinburgh, that means you have easy access to cheap flights to Germany – and since airfare is typically the biggest line item on a travel budget, being able to get there for a fraction of the cost of most flights is a huge incentive. Accommodation can be a bit tricky in Munich during Oktoberfest, as the cheapest and best places book up quickly well in advance of the start of the party, so if you haven’t already booked a bed somewhere you might be forced to pay for something that’s a bit more expensive than you ordinarily would. But on the bright side, when you save big on airfare you can afford to spend a bit more on your hotel or hostel room.

For those of you who are more inclined to buy a package deal whenever possible, there’s probably still time to sift through the Oktoberfest deals out there to see if one suits your needs. Again, it will likely cost more than if you booked the entire trip yourself, but if you have money leftover after buying your plane ticket you might still come out ahead. Depending on the deal, you might just get accommodation and entry into an Oktoberfest tent – in some cases you might also get airfare, so you’d have to make sure it was a better deal overall than you could get if you bought the flight separately.

Before you land in Munich, be sure to read this Oktoberfest travel guide so you’ll have all the background on what to do and see – not to mention what to expect and how to behave – at Oktoberfest this year.

photo by uLe @ Dortmund