Germany for a family on a budget

Let me add to this. We want to spend about 3 days after leaving Paris in Southern Germany. Rothenburg, Mad Kind Ludwig , Dauchsau? Nerenburg then to the Rhine for a couple of days Koblez or area? make our way to berlin for 3 days 2 nights then night train to Amsterdam for 2 days then LA. We will have our 18 year old granddaughter and want to make it fun for her. History but not to much... We always promised her we would take her to Paris. What is the most economical way to do this? We wont want a car in the big cities. Thanks for your help... Which airlines while in Europe. We can change our order??? Which airlines are the cheapest while flying Europe? Thanks

If you buy your tickets ahead of time, the train from Paris to Frankfurt will only cost you 39 € per person and take less than 4 hours. This is far better than flying. Same with getting to Berlin or Amsterdam. Purchase your tickets 3 months ahead of time and they will be cheap. You won't need a car, you save money and riding the trains is fun. Frankfurt to Berlin is 4 hours, or to Munich is 3 hours.

Visit the Rhine while here in the area, as well as any other quaint villages. Länder tickets are cheap too.

"We will have our 18 year old granddaughter and want to make it fun for her... What is the most economical way to do this?"

I realize you have 2 weeks but if you want to see Germany and have a nice time there, you really do not need to hit all 4 points of the compass. Your plan as it is will involve far too much time driving-around time. And with driving, someone must drive, someone must be in the back seat... maybe not that much "fun" for an 18-year-old, I'm guessing. So I'm with Jo on that. She's also right that train travel (if done smartly) can be less expensive. I would also point out the outrageous drop-off fees you will have if you rent in Paris and drop in Germany. Also, as for destinations... Dachau and Nuremberg and Berlin are all very good for WW II history - but if you really go to all those places, consider whether all the WW II stuff will be the sort of "fun" you hope to show the granddaughter.

With that in mind, some suggestions that keep most of what you have in mind...

Jo makes a good suggestion about the Rhine. It and the Mosel River can be reached very quickly by train from Paris - Paris to Trier (Germany's oldest city, Roman ruins) takes 3.5 hours. The adorable village of Cochem should take less than 4.5:

Cochem
Cochem's market square
Burg Eltz Castle near Cochem - a real castle - take a tour.
Take everyone to the Falconry show (in German but see photos) at Cochem's Castle.

The Rhine has adorable villages, castles, river cruising, and more. After 2-3 nights in Cochem, spend 2-3 nights on the Rhine in St. Goar or Bacharach.

Rheinfels Castle in St. Goar - take a self-guided tour.
View of Katz Castle across the river from St. Goar
Bacharach
Castles near Bingen you'll see on a Rhine Cruise

With all this behind you, skip the long trip to see King Ludwig's Neuschwanstein, which not only is 100's of miles out of your way, but also NOT a real castle (19th-century fake) and offers a mere 30-minute tour.

Proceed to Rothenburg and Nuremberg for 3-4 days. Much more to see in this area too - Bamberg, Bad Windsheim's Freilandmuseum

Then spend 4-5 nights in Berlin. There are direct trains from Bamberg and Nuremberg. See Sachsenhausen concentration camp nearby (instead of Dachau.)

That's about 2 weeks - and a lot less ground transport, which should save you € whether by car or by train.

Night train - don't do it unless you like to leave after midnight and change trains at 7 am. Instead, leave Berlin at about 2:30 and arrive in A'dam by 9 pm on the same train.

Just some random thoughts:

• usually travelling by train is cheaper than renting a car. A car nevertheless can make sense, if you avoid the big cities, concentrate on the countryside instead, and see sights that are difficult to reach by public transport, like small towns or castles.
• spend at least 4 days in Berlin. The city is huge and diverse, and I'm sure your granddaughter will love it. Berlin is made for young people. And the city is very cheap, especially compared to other capitals like Paris.
• there is a huge gap in your itinerary. Let me call it the "Rick Steves gap". You first spend a lot of time in Southern Germany, and then you suddenly cross the whole country to get to Berlin, without looking left and right. This way you miss some of Germanys highlights. Halfway between Koblenz and Berlin are the Harz mountains for example, which offer dozens of towns full of half-timbered houses. Especially Goslar, Wernigerode and Quedlinburg are easily as good as Rothenburg odT (and World Heritage Sites). Take the southern route and you pass Wartburg castle (where Luther translated the bible), Erfurt (the biggest preserved city in Germany), Weimar (cute town connected to Goethe, Schiller, Nietzsche, Herder, the Bauhaus etc.), Leipzig (Bach, revolution of 1989), the Dessau-Wörlitz Garden Realm and Wittenberg (Luther). That's I would recommend to tighten your itinerary a bit to include a stop between the Rhine and Berlin.

A second good reason to take the train to Frankfurt, and NOT to drive from Paris to Germany, international one-way car hire usually incurs a huge surcharge. One-way car hire Paris to Berlin will be a lot more expensive than Frankfurt to Berlin.

P.S. there are 2 Frankfurt's in Germany. Frankfurt am Main, in western Germany is the one I assume you want. The other one is Frankfurt an der Oder on the Polish border.

thank you all so much for your advise. I don't know why it never accrued to me to take the train from Paris to Frankfurt. I still we will rent a car but loose turn it in when we get to Berlin. We are very interested in Luther so the comments about Wartburg etc. are all good and appreciated. My husband and I had visited Germany in 2006 and loved Rothenburg. We also visited Dachau at that time. So we will take the advise and Sachsenhausen??? instead . We are hoping to visit the end of July into August..Getting excited..
And yes Frankfurt Main.

Thank you so much Miss Jo and Russ for your great information. I was thinking we would want to see all the Bavaria area, the beauty of the countryside. We were there for a short visit in March about 10 yrs ago. That was 1 reason for going to Ludwigs castle? The luge ride and some other short trips. However since we are thinking about more of central and eastern instead do we want to head into Luxemburg? I agree not to much WW2 stuff but definitely Nurenburg Sachsenhausen and Berlin. What do you think about Bergen-Belsen?
Thanks again.

This is my trip report that I wrote last year that includes a visit to Bergen Belsen. A few others have added their own experiences there. I highly recommend a visit. The exhibits are outstanding.

If you are in Berlin, a visit to Ravensbruck Concentration Camp is very moving. This was for the women, where as Sachsenhausen was for the men. Because it was a women's' camp it has a very different feel to it. The exhibits are excellent and I especially found the ones that each country had made as memorials for their internees to be very moving.
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/jo-s-travels-thru-germany-2014-edition

"...instead do we want to head into Luxemburg? I agree not to much WW2 stuff but definitely Nurenburg Sachsenhausen and Berlin. What do you think about Bergen-Belsen?"

Haven't been to Bergen-Belsen, but it seems to me that ONE concentration camp (Sachsenhausen) is more than enough in the way of that sort of history lesson. Nearby Celle is a nice city to visit, however.

Luxembourg is an attractive city but maybe a bit dull for more than a few hours. You can route yourselves to the Mosel from Paris via Luxembourg if you like. Maybe stop over there for a look around. I think the standard routing is Saarbrücken.

Nuremberg has nice PUBS.
N'berg's old town is near the imperial castle and a nice place to stay and hang out.
The Handwerkerhof shops and cafes are fun for most visitors.