2 weeks in Germany for first time visitors

From Cochem on the Mosel you could explore the Mosel area including Trier, and the Rhine doing day trips. You could stay in a smaller town such as Oberamagau to explore southern Bavaria. I would highly recommend getting Rick Steves Book on Germany, but at a minimum take a look at all the info on this site via - "explore Europe".

Hi,

We loved our 4 nights on the Mosel just across from Cochem (our favorite town in the area) in Valwig. We also enjoyed Rothenburg ob der Tauber. We've spent many trips in Bavaria (south of Munich) and Austria. At the least, I'd include the Mittenwald/Garmisch area and possibly head a little further to the Innsbruck area. We have stayed in Hall in Tirol 18 nights over 5 trips here.

Our favorite area to stay is the Berchtesgaden area. We've also stayed here about 18 nights over 5 trips and can't wait to go back. We base in either Ramsau bei Berchtesgaden or Schonau am Konigsee. I'd give a very slight edge to Ramsau though. Both are quiet yet very central to what seems to be never ending day trips.

We have plenty of photo's at:

www.flickr.com/photos/pjbassplyr/sets

Paul

Lots of small towns along the Mosel, yet close enough to the bigger towns.

Eichstatt in the Altmuhl valley is unvisited by Americans, yet close to Rothenburg, Nuremburg, Regensburg.

Gengenbach in the Black Forest is close to Baden-Baden and Strasburg, France

Small towns along the Rhine. I stay in Bacharach which is popular but o.k.

Coburg which is close to Bamberg, Kronach as well as Nuremburg.

My favorite resource is the town website. Usually it is www.TOWN NAME.de
It can be different, for example, Gengenbach's site is www.stadt-gengenbach.de
The site usually lists all the various hotels, apartments, etc. in town and will provide links to those with their own website.

Some sites have English versions although often the English version is not as comprehensive as the German language version. I prefer to just use Google translate.

The site also has lists of worthwhile sites, restaurants, and special events.

For a first trip, I'd start with 2-3 nights along the Rhine, Bacharach is where we always stay but there are other nice towns along the river. This is a great first stop within an hour of the airport to get over the jet lag. From here you can cruise the Rhine, visit castles, maybe a day trip to the Mosel. The Mosel is lovely but a little further out of the way for the route I'm recommending and a longer drive while you are jet lagged and really shouldn't be driving in the first place.

Then I'd go to the Rothenburg Area for a few days. Our top pic towns to consider along the Romantic Road are Rothenburg, Dinkelsbuhl, Nordlingen - Dinkelsbuhl is our favourite. There are many other towns you can visit that have their own quaint charm but for a first visit, these are probably the best and all three have an intact medieval wall.

From here I'd suggest several days in Munich. You specifically say you dislike crowded cities but I think Munich is the one must-visit. Although there is no mistaking it as a big city the old centre is mostly traffic free and has such charm that I really don't think you should miss it. Outside the old centre, consider visiting Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial, Nymphenburg Castle and the Englisher Garten. There are also some great art galleries and museums. You can choose to day-trip to Salzburg, Nuremburg and many other well-known and less-well known towns but in my opinion you should give yourself at least two full days in Munich.

Leaving Munich, I'd highly recommend a stop at Kloster Andechs.

Next I would try to add in some time in Berchtesgaden (you can visit Herrenchiemsee Castle if you are heading here from Munich). We spent 6 nights there last month and it was a highlight of our many trips to Southern Germany - we love small towns, nature and countryside, too. At a minimum give yourself a day and spend half of it taking a boat trip on Konigsee and the other half in the Dokumentation Zentrum, which tels the story of the Nazi era in fascinating detail. I would suggest more time but it really depends on your priorities. If you do visit Berchtesgaden, check out the website www.thirdreichruins.com for some interesting Nazi-era context before you go. We chose not to visit the Eagle's Nest in favour of seeing some of the more natural beauty - our top pics would be Ramsau, the Almsbachklamm and Hintersee.

My next destination would be Oberammergau for small town charm but Mittenwald and Garmisch are very nice as well. Personally I would choose Oberammergau over Fussen (which others recommend) since you will have a car. From here you can spend an easy day visiting Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein Castle (I'd only actually tour the inside of Hohenschwangau) and Linderhof Castle (devote the greater part of your day to this castle if you can). You can also visit Ettal Monastery and Wieskirche from here. If you get a clear day take a side trip to Hohen Peissenberg about 30 mins north for a stunning panoramic view of the Alps. You could also take the cable car to the top of the Zugspitze, Germany's highest mountain, among many other things to see and do in this area.

Next, if there is still time, I'd head to the Black Forest for a few days. Unfortunately, the Black Forest always seems to get cut from our itineraries so I haven't stayed there yet. I've done a lot of research, though, and Gengenbach is where I will stay when we finally do get there.

For my last night I'd either stay in Heidelberg (for a city experience) or Heppenheim (for small wine town charm). Both are within an hour of the Frankfurt Airport. We fell in love with Heppenheim and appreciated not having a long drive to the airport before our flight.

There are plenty of lovely, smaller, less-touristed places along this route but for a first trip based on your preferences, this is the route I'd recommend. I hope it gives you some ideas to get you started.

I just want to say thank you to Chris- have bookmarked your very informative post.

We will be making our first trip to Germany in 2016 and I am just in early research phase.

THANK YOU to everyone! Fantastic advise, and helps me tremendously in narrowing down where to stay. i have done some research on Munich, and did come to realize that we shouldn't miss it... the central square at the very least. My planning will now become much more enjoyable and far less nerve-wracking! Can't wait.

denise,

" The Fodor travel guide confuses me"

You might have better luck with the RS Germany guidebook, as (IMO) it's very logically organized.

Two weeks is a very short time frame for visiting southern Germany, so you'll have to be somewhat selective. You might consider three or four different "home base" locations with day trips. For example.....

• middle Rhine area, perhaps Bacharach with a river cruise to St. Goar and then return by train.
• Rothenburg ODT, with a few day trips
• Munich, with day trips to Füssen (castles), Berchtesgaden or perhaps Salzburg.

Although you "dislike crowded cities", Munich has lots of excellent sights and it doesn't usually feel crowded. It's also a great home base for visiting other nearby locations. I was there again in September, and always seem to find new sights to see.

You don't need a car for any of the places listed, as the trains and other local transit in Germany are excellent.

"I love Cathedrals and Castles, historic old buildings, small towns, country scenery. I dislike crowded cities.... I want to stay in a couple of centrally located towns to minimize moving around."

There's a company called Untours that offers apartment stays in small, carefully-selected German towns along the Rhine and in Bavaria for a week or two at a time. Participants do outings to nearby places (by public transport.) You might have a look at their website to see how Untours fleshes out the concept you have in mind.

Untours Germany

You can very easily accomplish this sort of thing on your own - no need to go with Untours. Book 2-3 different apartments using local tourist office websites and/or commercial sites (like homeaway.com) in the areas that interest you. I'd suggest the Rhine/Mosel region (Cochem, Winningen, Boppard, Braubach, Oberwesel, Bacharach,) Franconia (northern Bavaria - Nuremberg, Bamberg, Würzburg, Rothenburg, Bad Windsheim, Iphofen, and then somewhere outside Munich (like Prien am Chiemsee or nearby Aschau) which would offer access to Salzburg, to Alpine destinations, and to Munich. No sense staying in Munich proper if you dislike busy, crowded cities; just spend a day there to see what interests you.

I frequently buy Rick's books, and like them very much. But I also like Lonely Planet for a detailed report on smaller cities that Rick doesn't cover. That's not because of anything bad about Rick's travel philosophy. I would say that his books present a lot of high points for someone to choose from, and save a lot of time doing research. If you have the time to read Lonely Planet, you'll find much quieter, less-touristed places.

Just to pick one example, that may not be of the slightest interest to you: While in border Switzerland with my wife's business trip, Lonely Planet described the Vitra Design Museum and architectural office park in Weil am Rhein. I would have been very sorry to have missed that. I particularly wanted to see Zaha Hadid's first executed building.

You did a very good job of describing your interests. But I'm not 100% certain that you want to visit magnificent medieval centers that are now surrounded by ugly post-war cities! Personally, I would fly open-jaw to Munich and home from Frankfurt. That's because we prefer to change hotels only every three days. But you could spend a week driving towards Munich, and a week driving back through the Black Forest to Frankfurt. But that's way too much activity and driving for us (63 and 57.)

While you would clearly enjoy the Rhine and Mosel, that's a very limited, tiny section of Germany - with lots to see and do. Another idea would be to fly open-jaw to Zurich, get a professional transfer to Konstanz (to rent and return the car in the same country), and drive in an L-shape to the Black forest, up to the Mosel and Rhine, and fly home from Cologne with a connecting flight (or Frankfurt if you insist.) The country scenery on that trip would be quite varied.

I just want to note that on our 2014 trip to Europe , we found that a great advantage of a connecting flight (in our particular case) was that we didn't have to depart for home by 9AM as we have on two dozen direct flights to EWR. Our first flight (Rome-Frankfurt) was around 1PM, and we got home to the NYC area well before midnight. That makes for a much nicer "last morning."