10-day family itinerary: Berlin, Leipzig, Dresden, Karlovy Vary & Tropical Islands — too much?

How old are your children? I fear they will be spending a lot of time looking out of a car window, on the autobahns. You are allowing 2 days at the most per destination. Parking a car can also be problematic in big German cities. With children, I would visit 2 places only and enjoy the many things to see. Berlin for example offers so much to visit as do your other city choices.

Side trip
15km west of Karlovy Vary the little town of Loket and visit the Castle
Check the links to a video and the Castle website

Side trip
(From Dresden or on the way from Dresden to Karlovy Vary)
Bad Schandau and Saxonian Switzerland at the Elbe River

National Park

I agree with Jennie that the number of stops may be a little overly ambitious. To me, Karlovy Vary seems to be "the bridge too far," so i would consider cutting it. Tuck it into that Czechia trip you are planning for 2028 🙂.

I would also encourage you to think about traveling by train instead of car. The kids can ride in a car at home; It's more of a grand European adventure if the trip is done by train instead of by car. Also, it's cheaper for the parents. And you don't have to worry about having a car in a large city.

Berlin has much to choose from for families. If the kids are playground age, there are many cool playgrounds in the city.

One of the coolest things in Leipzig is the Volkerschlachtdenkmal, the Monument to the Battle of the Nations. It is a Lord of the Rings caliber monument. I don't know how interested kids would be in Nikolaikirche, but it's a great quick visit for adults -- the site of the Monday Prayers for Peace that led to Monday Demonstrations that led to the Oct 9, 1989 Monday Demonstration in Leipzig with over 70,000 participants, which was surreptitiously filmed from the tower of the Reformed Church. The film was smuggled to West Berlin, broadcast on West German TV to West and East Germany. More Monday Demonstrations across Germany. Fall of the Wall Nov 9, 1989 (which was actually an accident, but that's outside the scope of this post; The Collapse: The Accidental Opening of the Berlin Wall by Mary Elise Sarotte is an excellent read on the events leading up to the opening of the wall, including what happened in Leipzig).

I couldn't agree more with a day trip to Saxon Switzerland from Dresden. It's gorgeous. Bastei Bridge is the most famous sight in the region, but there are many other things to be seen (and trails to be hiked!). Easter is late March next year. If you happen to be in this area around Easter, check out the Easter Ride in Bautzen -- well-dressed men mount horses to ride into the countryside to declare that Christ is risen, a centuries-old Sorbian tradition (Sorbs = Christian Slavic minority group in eastern Germany).

I would drop Karlovy Vary. It is too far and one stop too many.

I agree about train vs car. I would say to drop Tropical Islands in favor of a spa town. If your kids are very young, then do the opposite. I'd maybe look for a spa town a little closer, accessible by direct train.