Germany in 5 days

As Tom said, there are many great ways to spend 5 days in Germany, so in order to give suggestions we need much more information.

1) What made you choose Germany in the first place?
2) Are you locked into flying into Frankfurt or could you fly into another German city?
3) Do you have specific interests (castles, palaces, walled towns, big cities, WWII, the Communist period for East Germany, etc)?
4) Since you mentioned Bavaria, will you be disappointed if you do not see some of the things that Americans think of as "German" that are actually Bavarian? I don't mean this rudely - everyone has expectations before a trip, and some people are very upset if they do not get to see what they expected. It's important to be honest with yourself so you can get better advice. (For instance, if someone really wants to see the Colosseum when they go to Italy, telling that they should skip Rome because it's too hectic is not helpful).

Have you watched Rick's shows on Germany? I think that would be a good place to start: https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/video/tv-show

Some things I really liked near Munich are:
- Neuschwanstein
- BMW Delivery Center
- Jodlerwirt for dinner
- Augustiner-Bräu was my favorite German beer
- Walking tour of the city and seeing the urban surfing
- Dachau (Not fun, but important to visit)

"If you had 5 days in Germany what would be your suggestion on a route?"

Not much time for pursuing a "route" but enough time to travel to a few different places in the Rhine/Mosel region, a scenic area near the French border. You can reach Trier, Germany's oldest city, in 3.5 hours from Paris. The Middle Rhine Valley is a UNESCO World Heritage site. From there, Cochem, Rhine towns like Bacharach, and several medieval castles like Burg Eltz make good destinations. River cruises, chairlift rides to scenic lookouts, wine tasting, and hiking trails are popular activities.

Bavaria is nice as well but a much longer trip and quite large. You'd do well to allot more than 5 days on some future trip for that,

If you have 5 days in Germany and are flying into Frankfurt, then there is plenty to see near by and you can then take a direct train to Paris that will get you there in under 4 hours. Using Frankfurt as a hub, you don't have to keep checking in and out of hotels, you can use local transportation which is a bargain, and you can purchase cheap tickets to Paris.

The Rhine is easy to visit from Frankfurt and you might want to consider staying in one of the towns here. My tip is Eltville. Lovely, no trains or roads between the town and the river, lots of half-timbered buildings, church built in late 1200's, castle moat, and Eberbach Monastery is a quick bus ride away. You can catch a ship here to see the rest of the Rhine, or ride the train 5 min. to Rüdesheim and catch it there.

Other beautiful and interesting towns to visit would be Gelnhausen, Büdingen (think Rothenburg without the tourists, tour buses and souvenir stores, but all original) Limburg, Marburg, Würzburg, Heidelberg, Mainz, Wiesbaden, Idstein, Seligenstadt, or Bad Homburg, and all of them are an hour or less from Frankfurt by train. Frankfurt itself has much to offer in the way of historic sites and tons of museums.

Totally agree with Ms. Jo about using Frankfurt as a base and day tripping out from there. When you change your place of temporary "residence" you lose a lot of time that could be used to enjoy the things you travel to see and experience. And the time you lose seems to always be more than one anticipates. In addition to the places she mentioned also consider Aschaffenburg and Messpelbrun (sp ?) (a really cool story book castle) between Aschaffenburg and Wurzburg. You can easily google them and see if they hold any interest for you.

For a first visit, and such a short one, I too would recommend staying in Frankfurt area, and visiting the Rhine area. Sights in Bavaria are too spread out to cover in day trips from Munich.

Hi,

"If you had 5 days...." Without going to Berlin, (very doable time wise), I would suggest staying in Frankfurt, lots of cultural and history sights in the city to visit. For day trips there are numerous places from which you could take off to while staying in Frankfurt in the same category of history and cultural sights: Wiesbaden, Koblenz, Rüdesheim, Stuttgart, Marbach am Neckar, Bad Ems, Marburg, Bad Homburg, etc.

Definitely recommend sticking to the Rhine/Mosel area, and if it appeals to you Baden Baden – if you are flying into Frankfurt that is. If you could fly into Munich instead, that might be a different story. But even then, you would not scratch the surface of Bavaria in five days. You could do well in Munich with five nights, with maybe one day for a day trip. First day is a jetlagged throwaway, not going to get much done that day. But much better to do Rhine/Mosel thoroughly that Bavaria poorly. Some people don't think Baden-Baden has that much to offer, but my wife and enjoyed it a lot on our 2006 Germany/Austria trip. Sticking in that area makes you that much closer to Paris, too. In the general area of Baden-Baden are Strasbourg and Colmar France, too. While those cities are in France, it's the "German" part of France.

With 5 days in Germany, I'd hit;
Heidelberg
The Romantische Straße
Rhein/ Mosel Valleys (Burg Eltz, Cochem, St. Goar)
Munich
Neuschwanstein
I also recommend a few museums or one of the concentration camps like Dachau. It serves as a reminder that Germany is not just castles and churches.