Itinerary Help needed - 2 whirlwind weeks in Germany

You're basically staying in most cities for one night, which means you're going to spend most of your time transiting, waiting for trains, checking into hotels and unpacking. You'd be better served by picking 3 or 4 locations and doing things a little more in depth. I count that you're spending 12 nights in Germany....maybe Munich and Berlin as your major cities and one or two more, max, for shorter stays.

I agree with Valerie, too many one night stays, you need to cull you plans down a bit.

You state that you want a mix of everything, cities, castles, forests, food, beer/wine, museums, etc but you have only included large cities.

Düsseldorf and Wuppertal are not on most first time visitors list of German destinations, do you have specific resons to go there?
Cologne is nice, but could be seen in a day. The same goes for Koblenz and Mainz, but what is really lacking here is the stretch of the Rhine in Between them, the Unesco World Heritage listed Rhine Gorge (most scenic between Koblens and Bingen, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhine_Gorge), with cute towns and castles galore. You can visit by trains along both banks of the river or by boat (KD cruises).
Berlin is seriously short changed in my opinion, with only two nights.
In the end I think you have to accept that you can't see all you wish to see, focus on seeing fewer places properly instead of rushing around trying to see it all.

Some details are absent. When? Means of transport? What sorts of museums? Rest assured there is great beer, wine and food in each of these places so you can drop those criteria. To pare it down intelligently from 10 cities in 12 days, begin at the beginning - Berlin. Yes you can probably hop on a train to somewhere else first but after a long flight who wants to jump on a train for 4.5 hours? Dresden is 2 hours, a lot shorter trip than D'dorf. For a lot of Berlin-goers, nearby Potsdam is a must-see. Maybe start in one of those places. Anyway, figure at least 4 nights for Berlin at the end or don't go there at all. That leaves 8 days and nights for everything else.

Assuming this is a train trip and knowing very little about how you picked these places, I would suggest this.
Day 1 - POTSDAM
Days 2-3 - Potsdam-Cologne, see what interests you there - evening train trip to Middle Rhine Valley (not Koblenz, which you can and should skip, but the wine town of BOPPARD (just 15 minutes to the south) for 2 nights. This is where you'll find real medieval castles, old-world towns, hiking through forest and vineyards.
Day 4 - Boppard - Mainz for sightseeing - HEIDELBERG (1 night)
Days 5-8 - H'berg - NUREMBERG (4 nights.) Great PUBS and several museums. Day trip to BAMBERG? Great PUBS there too. Day trip to Munich. (Don't lose any sleep over skipping the faux castle Neuschwanstein, a 5-hour round-trip outing from Munich to the south and IMO a complete waste of travel energy and $ on such a short trip.)
Day 9-12 - Train to Dresden, stopover of several hours for sightseeing, train to BERLIN (4 nights.)

Emily, Too many one night stays in my opinion. Better to concentrate on three or four (at the most) places and get to know them well rather than just a string of one night stands that become a blurred memory. You want to remember people, places, food, and things instead of train stations. One of the biggest problems with having a lot of one night stops is that it almost always takes a lot longer to get from one place to another than anticipated so you end up spending most of your time traveling instead of visiting and enjoying. Just food for thought.

Considering that Air Berlin has nonstop flights from LAX to Duesseldorf, you might want to book an open jaw flight and save a whole day of traveling from Berlin to Duesseldorf. Prices are about the same as RT to Berlin.
Wuppertal? To ride the monorail?

I too agree with the other posters about trying to pass through too many cities in too few days (by train?).

I've been to all the cities on your list except one. I think you could condense things, add a smaller city for variety and see more of your wish list.

For museums, cities, food/beer and castles in 13-14 days I'd head from Berlin (landing in the AM?) to:

1-2 night Dresden for everything on your list but castles

3 nights Munich ditto above

2 nights Nuremberg ditto

2 nights Boppard or Koblenz and take a day trip on the Rhine for your castle fix

4 nights in Berlin for museums and dynamic city changes with a day trip to Potsdam

I'd do something like this if I was determined to circle around Germany.

Edit: I see that mine is similar to Russ' proposal except in the other direction and without as much nice detail.

The other posters have said it ... you are planning to move around too much. Go for quality over quantity. I'd recommend Russ and Mona's itineraries as well.

Hi,

It would be better time wise if you had 3 weeks to do this itinerary. From Düsseldorf to Mainz each of those cities Wuppertal, Köln, etc is just a morning ride. Leave at 0900 or so at the latest you'll be in the next city prior to 11 am or at noon, even better if staying near the train station. What time are you landing in Berlin?

I did the morning train Berlin to Düsseldorf last June, got in ca 1400 or so. I would assume the earliest you'll get to Düsseldorf would be between 1600 and 1700hrs. Take the ICE direct Berlin Hbf to Düsseldorf Hbf. That's doable. The one city on your itinerary I never got around to visiting is Wuppertal, even through the train often stopped there.

Still even with a two week constraint, the trip is a bit rushed, but doable! The afternoon in Koblenz I would suggest seeing Deutsches Eck where the Mosel and Rhine meet. To get a good aerial view of that, go to Ehrenbreitstein, used to be Festung Ehrenbreitstein, the big Prussian fortess built after Napoleon's defeat to protect the Prussian Rhineland area and to guard against a resurgent France. Ehrenbreitstein is now the HI hostel, stayed there too.

I would suggest staying at the train station area, no need to rely on public transportation or worse still a taxi on departure day to reach the train station, just walk the 2-4 mins. The itinerary is good , I can think of places to visit in each of these cities but that also depends upon your interests unless you're open to cutting a few places. You can choose between Bonn, Bad Godesberg, Bad Ems, Ingolstadt, Weimar.

"would like to see as much of the country as possible"

What you will see with this schedule is as much of the insides of the country's trains as possible.

You say this is you first trip to Germany, which implies it's not your first trip to Europe. Have you every made a trip like this (half of venues for only one night)? In 2007, I made a trip in Germany on the Romantic Road and then other towns around Bavaria, 10 nights in 13 places, but that was my 6th trip, and by that time I had learned to pack for short stops. And for most of my days travel was only a few hours, with a lot of time during the day for sightseeing.

What you are proposing is not appropriate for the inexperience traveler. And, a lot of your travel between venues will involve considerable time in transit, thus limiting your time to see things.

I believe that everyone has their own travel pace. Just hitting a few highlights in each of many locations obviously appeals to and works for some folks. That might be you.

I like to walk a lot and sit in cafes a lot to pick up the flavor of a place. That sense of a place is more important to me than specific sights. I need a couple nights per town and like to make return visits.

I have to believe that you are the best judge of what you want from a trip and that should dictate your pace.

A big thank you to everyone for your reply! I so appreciate it! All of this is greatly helpful.

@Morton: Specific reasons to go to Dusseldorf and Wuppertal: Yes, my family is from there. Thank you for the tips on the Rhine; I'm going to check that our in more detail!

@Chris, @Russ, & @Mona: Trains! Mainly, with the exception of Berlin to D'dorf. This is a great itinerary you've both outlined though. I'm going to look into it further and see if that makes better sense. Thank you! Terrific!

@Sam: Unfortunately have already booked round trip to Berlin, but can get an internal flight for a decent price. Wuppertal as my family is from there. Thanks for the tips anyway, though!

@Fred: Greatly helpful! Thank you for giving me a better idea of timing. I think this is more along the lines of what I'd had in mind, so I appreciate it!

@Lee: Agree that it's an aggressive approach, but would also definitely classify myself as an experienced traveller. During your trip in which you did the "whirlwind tour" as well, had you regretted the way you approached it, or was it good?

Wuppertal - a very interesting visit, particularly if you can combine it with visiting the rellies. I was very pleasantly impressed by how easy it was to park there. If you are at all a transportation nut then you will be well impressed by both the monorail - absolutely fabulous as you swing back and forth over the river, over the roads, and most impressive, right through the chemical factory; and by the electric buses.