Hello,
Traveling with 8 - 4 kids ages 17-6 and 2 grandparents - active- arriving and leaving from Frankfurt May 26- June 8/ 12 days of travel. Will probably rent car, but would like to incorporate short train experiences. Would like to make a circle around Germany. Like castles, small towns, WWll , music, nature. Maybe some type of beer experience for adults. What towns could be choosen as base towns? Thanks.
"Maybe some type of beer experience for adults" - you are aware, that the legal age for drinking beer and wine in Germany is 16 (18 for spirits).
8 people would not be a car (even without their luggage). You would require a minibus. This would present problems driving in small towns and parking.
A good start, and easily accessible from Frankfurt Airport is the Rhine Gorge area, between Bingen and Koblenz. Lots of pretty riverside towns, castles and vineyards. Start by reading this article; https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Middle_Rhine_Valley
The area around Nuremberg is a possibility. No matter where you go, consider staying in apartments - you would need two. Much cheaper than hotels and more space to spread out.
"Would like to make a circle around Germany. "
This would require far too many hours just driving around or riding around on trains. Keep your feet on the ground if you want to experience Germany - and travel less, not more.
With 12 days, and with Frankfurt as an in/out airport, the smart thing to do is to select two or maybe "3 base towns" to stay in for 4-6 nights. Then do local outings from there to places of interest.
"Like castles, small towns, WWll , music, nature." Suggestions for base towns:
1.) Look into apartment options in the Middle Rhine Valley (around 1 hour from FRA) - Boppard, St. Goar, Oberwesel, Bacharach, Bingen, Rüdesheim or one of the other towns you see south of Koblenz on this map. Koblenz and Mainz are much larger towns you may want to avoid.
Castles: http://www.loreley-info.com/eng/rhein-rhine/castles.php
WW II: Day trip to Remagen
2.) Look into apartment options in Franconia. Here's a map of Franconian towns.
Bad Windsheim, Kitzingen, Iphofen (not shown on map but near Kitzingen) and Neustadt a.d. Aisch are among several small towns that would make good bases for day trips. Nuremberg: Good day trip destination for WW II. Beer: it's everywhere in Franconia, but Bamberg is the beer mecca.
http://www.franken-sind-keine-baiern.de/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Ausschnitt_Bamberg.jpg
https://www.europeanbeerguide.net/bambpubs.htm
https://www.europeanbeerguide.net/nurnpubs.htm
Assuming you're going two months from now, get busy finding apartments or hotels immediately. For a group of 8, you're going to have challenges finding enough space and that may be the deciding factor for where you stay. You'll definitely need two cars or one large van rental, which definitely impacts cost (gas is expensive) and where you can get to (parking stinks even with a wee car). Trains are easy, and if you plan quickly you can get discounted fares. I agree the Rhine area will offer all the items you list - you'll eat up too much time trying to do a "circle" around Germany.
About "Philosophy #2" per Dave above... this style is only partly a philosophical choice. It's largely pragmatic in your case. You first proposed herding a group of 8 - with 4 kids and two oldsters - all around the country... this would require...
... a strict itinerary in order to complete your travel circle in 12 days
... lots of accommodations changes - it may be tricky to find accommodations for 8 even in just 2-3 places, you know. And more changes mean lots more time spent on repeated unpacking, packing up, etc. (with all 8 of you in synch.)
Then what happens if it rains on a day you've pre-scheduled in the great outdoors? What if someone gets sick and just can't travel? What if you discover Grandma's medicines or passport got left at the last hotel, which is now 200 miles behind you?
Now that might happen with a 2-3-town base plan as well... but with so many individuals, a trip with say, 6-8 different overnight stops will magnify the chance that your travel plans will come undone. If you keep one hotel or apartment for 4-5 days before going to the next, you have fewer logistical tasks. And you can make decisions on what you will see and do on short day trips depending on the weather, the personal circumstances of your group, and other factors.
My family of three has done the 7 hotels in 7 days travel thing - and we found it difficult just for our tiny nuclear family. Your original idea is far more complex in practice, no matter what your philosophy might be.
Hello. I love Germany and think you have made an excellent choice for a country to visit. Many travelers don't realize how big Germany is; here is a map that superimposes Germany over California and Nevada to give you some perspective as to just how big it is.
There are 2 travel philosophies: (1) race from place to place and see everything you can pack in or (2) take a slower pace and experience more of the people/places you visit and less of the roads/trains of those places.
Rick Steves' books fall into philosophy #1. His Germany guide recommends seeing Munich, Bavarian "castles," the Upper Middle Rhine Valley, Rothenburg, "more of Bavaria and Tirol with a side trip to Salzburg," and Berlin in 10 days (essentially Berlin --> Munich --> Upper Middle Rhine Valley). Russ is clearly of philosophy #2, and I will readily admit I am highly-biased in that direction, too (as are most of the regular posters in this forum).
The Rick Steves itinerary would be exhausting to me. In terms of distance and driving times (I checked on Google Maps), it's the equivalent of doing San Francisco --> Los Angeles --> Las Vegas in 10 days (with a stop somewhere in the desert to account for Rothenburg). Anyone who drove Rick's itinerary (like anyone driving the California itinerary) would also likely get a nice introduction to the German word "Stau" and its impact on travel-day plans.
So... you get to decide which travel philosophy suits you and your family, as well as your goals for this trip, the best. If you go with philosophy #1, own it and some us will try to help you as best we can (though expect to hear things like, "You're doing too much!"). If philosophy #2 sounds good, Russ's recommendations are excellent. If Russ's plan sounds great, but there is one place that you are dying to see, let us know, and we'll try to help you figure out how to incorporate it.
One final tip for future trips... think about building your itinerary and then buying your plane tickets (instead of building an itinerary around plane tickets). That lets you figure out what you really want to do, and then figure out how to make the flights work. From a philosophy #2 perspective, your current trip would lend itself well to a dip into Munich/southern Bavaria if you had an open jaw itinerary into Frankfurt and out of Munich; with your current flights, though, it's a lot driving to get back to Frankfurt.
Happy travels! Germany is awesome.
(Sorry this post disappeared and reappeared -- meant to delete something else!)
While I am now ‘philosophy #2’, I have done the other. But never with a group of 8. I find the California analogy a little strange. 12 days would be much longer than most people I know on that route 😀😀😀
Hello folks,
As always loving the feedback from this site. Thanks for map comparison. I was able to see my state compared to Germany. Yes it’s true that we purchased tickets before planning it would be Germany, but could not let it go with family of 6. I am reading all the sites you have recommended and closing in on what would be a better trip for us to Germany. Maybe if you could share your favorite places and places that get too much attention for little return. Thanks.
