Agrituismo equivalent in Germany?

You can find German farm stays at:
www.germanplaces.com/germany/farmstays-list.htm
Booking.com also has 81 farm stay listings.

Virtually every farm in Tuscany has apartments and rooms available as a source of secondary income. The farms in this region only average 20-40 acres growing olives and wine grapes. There are not more accommodations in Germany because their farms are larger and they have less need for additional income

Here is a link to some farm stay places in Bavaria. The words to search for are bauernhof (barnhouse), urlaub (vacation) and ferienwohnung (apartment) if you do a Google search.

http://www.bauernhof-urlaub.com

Some friends of ours have family members in Germany who rent farm/barn apartments to people on holiday. I'm not sure how these places equate to Italian agriturismos in that you would be able to have a meal or enjoy the produce of the farm. You'd need to read individual descriptions and/or filter the results on the websites to see if these are working farms with animals or produce. I think it could be very relaxing and interesting.

One thing to be aware of is the difference in land use in Germany. You find far less self-contained farms. Rather, the farmer generally lives and keeps his equipment in a house/barn complex in a village (usually refered to as a "Hof"), and the pastures usually surround the towns/villages. Driving through the towns, you often pass by tractors on the way to the pastures. Sometimes, the livestock even lives in the Hof, and they "commute" to and from the pastures everyday.

There probably are farm stays available in Germany, but just keep in mind that the agricultural and land use patterns are different from Italy.

Mona, I am afraid I must take issue with your translations:

• Bauernhof ("Hof" for short, as Tom says) = Farmyard, including the complex of buildings surrounding the yard, the farmhouse, barns and storage sheds.
• Bergbauernhof = Hill farm (in the mountains)
• Urlaub = Holiday
• Ferienwohnung = Holiday home

Chris, I didn't want to respond to your "issue" but it kind of rubs me the wrong way...

Unless you've traveled extensively in rural areas and villages or lived in Germany in these areas (like Tom, you, I and several others on this forum have) its a little tricky describing how many of these large farm complexes (but not all) function.

Urlaub is a vacation or holiday. I don't think that was unclear.

Ferienwhonun is a vacation apartment. I don't think that was unclear.

Sorry that you felt that I gave wrong information and help this morning.

Maybe the problem is that he is translating the German words into the minor dialect of American spoken in England. I think holiday and vacation have different connotations in American vs English.

I've looked at a lot of Gastgeberverzeichnisse on town websites, and Ferienwohnungen are always places that people rent temporarily when they are on vacation, or in American, vacation apartments. I think in American, home connotes a more or less permanent residence.

We stayed at Bauernhof Gintherhof in Reutte (recommended in one of Rick Steves' recent books) and loved it. It was exactly as Tom describes - a 'farmhouse' in the centre of the village with cows in the basement. We were served very local produce when we arrived and again for breakfast (I can't remember if it was as local as to have been produced by the family or not). I confess it is my only Bauernhof experience as we have mostly rented apartments on subsequent trips but based on the one experience I wouldn't hesitate to do it again.

I've looked at Bauernhof in the Black Forest, as recommended by Ben's Bauernhof, before and many of them seemed to be more like a stay on a farm from what I recall.

By the way, as I remember the customs form you fill out on the plane before entering the US asks if you have spent time on a farm. I don't know what they do if you have, but it's something to find out about in advance.

If you report at customs that you've been on a farm they just ask more questions about where exactly you were and may do an extra check on your bags. It has to do with mad cow and hoof-and-mouth disease.

Re Tom's comments. We stayed at a Weingut in a village along the Mosel River. The neighborhood would remind you of an American suburban community. The house, on the side of a hill, had the ground floor garage containing his tractor and farm cart, and the rest of the basement had the grape press (quite modern and he bragged about its capacity in kilograms of grapes he could crush), bottling and labeling equipment. Further back were holding tanks for juice and the fermentation tanks. The ceiling of this turned out to be their private back patio. The second floor had the main entrance, living room/reception lobby with breakfast tables, the kitchen, and two guest rooms with en-suite bathrooms. A wide terrace went the full length of the front with table and chairs for each guest room overlooking the valley. The third floor had their private living quarters.

His grape vines were a plot up on the hillside that he commuted to on his tractor and farm cart. They served a good breakfast every morning, had two rental bikes for guest use. But the best was the wine list. Whenever you wanted wine, they just ran down to the basement and picked out a bottle and brought it up and put it on your bill at about 4 euro a bottle.

The owners did not speak a lick of English, but between my pidgin German and her patience, we got along famously. All this for 50 euro/night. They even gave us a lift to the train station when we left.

There are plenty of bauernhof to stay at. Look at Bavaria Ben's website - www.bensbauernhof.com
I bet he is over at one right now since he usually travels at this time.

If you are looking for a place that also serves meals other than breakfast, I don't think those are common.

We have often stayed on farms and have had our shoes inspected when we were coming back into the U.S. They also asked a lot more questions about our stay but it wasn't that big of a deal.