Germany in Spring

Whatever you consider as "quintessential" to "see"?

Germany alone has 54 World Heritage Sites and much more in the visitor-voted Germany's top 100 list. Be happy: #1 is located in Hamburg. Around 25,000 castles, palaces and manor houses bear witness to Germany's history - some still exist completely; others as ruins.

Beyond "see"ing: Additionally German artists and engineers created over centuries unique music, poetry, literature, architecture and technology. At least we have over 5,000 sorts of beer and around 3,000 sorts of bread plus wines and other special food.

What is your quintessential interest?

Welcome to the forum!
There's lots of help here on the website to get started. You could see if this helps:
https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/germany/itinerary

Quint = 5...
Should be no trouble to stay in Northern Germany for the 5 aspects of Germany that popped into my head.

VWs?
Wolfsburg: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g187357-d1775092-Reviews-Volkswagen_Auto_Museum-Wolfsburg_Lower_Saxony.html

Classical Music? How's your German?
Hamburg: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g187331-d13078861-Reviews-KomponistenQuartier-Hamburg.html

Fairy tales? The Fairytale Route and Bremen:
https://www.deutsche-maerchenstrasse.com/en/

BERLIN?

WW II?
Hamburg: U-boot museum?
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g187331-d2024159-Reviews-U_Bootmuseum-Hamburg.html

Mark, we would love to see Bavaria, castles, historical sites, countryside, etc!

3 days Bavaria, e. g. western part of German Alpine Road ending up in Füssen (no Munich)
2-3 days Upper Mid Rhine Vallery (Rüdesheim to Koblenz) for tons of castles plus landscape and wine
Rest in Hamburg; end up there for May 10 2025 to participate Hamburg port birthday with fireworks

Tip: Travel by train between the legs; use car for Bavaria part.

Mark has a good idea about starting in Bavaria (although I would spend at least a day in Munich as it's a fun city), spending time there as suggested above, then visiting the Rhine area and ending up in Hamburg. If you do that, I would suggest booking your flight as a "multi-city" option. In other words, fly into Munich but then fly out of Hamburg (or if your airline of choice does not fly there, you could fly out of Berlin, which is closer than going back to Hamburg).

That would save you both money and time. And I agree that train travel is the best way to get there, but also agree that if you head to Bavaria, you could easily rent a car to get you around places. I did that back in 2010. A friend of mine and I stayed in Munich but then rented a car, drove to Rothenburg ob der Tauber, then further south and ended up in Salzburg in Vienna. After our stay there we drove back to Munich, returned the rental car and took the train to our next destination.

...end up in Hamburg to visit family.

How many days for that? Even if only two, that leaves just 6 days for your wish list. Maybe you can spend 3 days tooling around Bavaria and the Bavarian Alps, then execute the ground transport to the Middle Rhine and eventually to Hamburg, but you will spend most of a day getting from the Alps to the Rhine, most of another day between the Rhine and Hamburg, leaving little time for the Rhine or anything else.

Both the Rhine and Bavaria are solid destinations. But 5-6 days in either place would go very quickly! So IMO you'd do well to avoid the tendency to pack in too much... just choose one or the other. The Rhine, though geographically smaller, offers everything on your wish list and is closer to Hamburg. Fly into FRA if that's your choice for much less driving/training. Bavaria also offers what you are looking for (except the Rhine, obviously) - If this is your choice, I would fly into MUC and look into flying from either Munich or Memmingen to Hamburg (1.25 hours non-stop.)

These are great suggestions. Thanks so much

Russ, I sort of got the impression that he has eight days to spend and then will be in Hamburg at the end of that eight day period to spend time with family.

Is that correct, seddau? That does make a difference in the advice you're given here.

It would indeed be different if the phrase "8 days total" excluded the time with family.

If I had family in Germany, I think I would want some time exploring the region where they live, either in their company or independently, to better understand their lifestyle and cirumstances.

Russ and Mardee,
We have 8 days for the whole trip including family time. We definitely want to spend some time in Hamburg, even if brief. The family we are going to visit will meet us for some of the traveling. I wish it were longer, but school and work calendar is dictating the length of the trip.

In that case I will stick with my recommendation. Either the Rhine or Bavaria. The Rhine area of course includes not just a river cruise but other options like Trier, Cochem, Beilstein, Bernkastel, Koblenz, Marksburg Castle, Burg Eltz, Ehrenbreitstein Fortress, Rüdesheim, Boppard, Bacharach, Cologne and Mainz. Connections by train between these towns and Frankfurt airport are very good. You would not need to fly to Hamburg from the Rhine... Trains (including direct trains) from Koblenz, roughly the geographic center of this area, take 4-5 hours to Hamburg.

I would do the 3-leg idea, well knowing that your travel time is high compared to experience time and that you will do only a few highlights, so a little rushed through and surfacial. You will ne rewarded with three very different tastes of Germany which will give you an impression how manifold it is.

Going to disagree a bit with the prior posts. With just 8 days including family time, IMO you should stay in the northern third of Germany. The Berlin area alone can justify 3 or 4 days and 2 or 3 in Hamburg including family time. What do your relations in Germany suggest?

I would stay in the north. Hamburg has a lot to see and you are so close to Berlin and Potsdam. Lubeck and Quedlinberg are close if you want to see smaller towns with beautiful old architecture, though Potsdam has beautiful architecture too. With such a short visit, I sure wouldn't waste my time traveling to the Rhein or to Bavaria, especially when you have so much to see in the northern part of Germany.

You can easily spend 8 days JUST in and around Hamburg.

--Schwerin for a castle, but you could also hit Ahrensburg, Bergedorf, Glücksburg, Breitenburg . . . . even a small one in Glückstadt

--Cute villages? Try Jork, Glückstadt, Lüneburg, Wismar, or even Greetsiel or Bleckede

--Impressive historic cities? Head to Lübeck or Bremen

--Landscapes? St. Peter-Ording or the Elbtalaue or even the island of Helgoland

--Engineering and Logistics (the two permitted majors at German universities)? We have the port and Airbus (but honestly, the Airbus tour is just meh--but the port is cool!!!).

Nightlife? Hamburg wins hands down.

WWII? The U-Boot is actually not WWII, but we do have the Green Bunker, the St. Nikolai ruins, Neuengamme (or, an easy day trip, Bergen-Belsen), and other sites.

All of those can be done based in and near Hamburg, and you can still get Hamburg's impressive list of things to see and do. And since there are precisely zero flights directly to the US from Hamburg (yeah, our airport is NOT impressive), your best bet might be to fly to Frankfurt, drive up the Rhine, hitting a castle or two along the way, and then just enjoy Hamburg. WAY less stressful, you get the cute Rhine valley experience, you get the castles, and you get a less stressful trip since Bavaria to Hamburg is a full day of JUST travel. Frankfurt's downtown is nice, as is nearby Mainz. Here is my suggestion (and I don't know how your 8 days count travel time):

Arrival day: Spend your arrival day in Frankfurt and spend the night--that will help clear the jetlag and get you another city with a lovely historic downtown.

Day 2: Rent a car and drive the Rhine Valley, Burg Eltz, then spend the night in Cologne. This is only four hours of driving, with the rest being stops and tours. It's as long or as short as you want it to be, and if you do it right, you have the evening in Cologne.

Day 3: Drive from Cologne to Hamburg, stopping for a few hours in Bremen. The drive is 5 - 5.5 hours without the stop, so this is another full day but with a lot of checkboxes. You also get to drive a lot of Autobahn if that is a thing for you.

Day 4-7: Hamburg as a base, with options for day trips to Helgoland, Lübeck, Schwerin, Wismar, Glückstadt, Lüneburg, or St. Peter-Ording. Or even the Viking village of Haithabu. Lots to see and do in Hamburg itself, more time with family, and less rushed. Your relatives will likely have their own suggestions and be eager to show off their home; Hamburg has a ton of regional pride.

Day 8: You can either drive, train, or fly back to Frankfurt, then fly home. If driving or train, I would travel down the night before your flight and spend one more night in Frankfurt (or Mainz).

Mountains (Alps) are such a teeny-tiny portion of our landscape and an even smaller part of our culture. In point of fact, many Germans joke that you need a passport to visit Bavaria because it is culturally so distinct. And Neuschwanstein, while lovely, is not all that historic or as interesting as much of the rest of Germany. You'd lose several days of your trip just to go see it and miss so much of what else Germany has on offer. It's like visiting Texas and thinking you have seen America.

I don't disagree at all with jkh, Jo, or HowlinMad on the merits of northern Germany. Staying north was my first thought and my first suggestion too. Addding Lüneburg, Bremen, and other places near Hamburg could easily usurp more than a week. But in light of your stated interest in castles, some different countryside, and a bit more variety generally, you would not be disappointed with time in the Rheinland.

Reminder: OP posted

we would love to see Bavaria, castles, historical sites, countryside, etc!