Just booked my trip for April 11-18 2019! Are hotels busy in April?

I would definitely start booking now. Go to booking.com or another site that will let you put rooms on hold now without paying for them until you arrive. Just make sure that they are (obviously) not non-refundable and remember to cancel anything you might not need before the deadline. I have already started making reservations for my trip in September to Germany (among other locations). Good luck and have fun!

It rather depends on where you are visiting and what type of accommodations you want. It's still shoulder season, but your trip butts up on Easter. Because of that, it would be prudent to at least have cancellable reservations. With only 7 nights, that's likely only 2 or 3 different hotels?

You are travelling in school Easter holidays, so yes, places will be very busy, so I would book ahead.

In more touristy areas hotels will fill up over easter, otherwise, April is largely dead season. And it may be rainy.

Sounds a little bit likethe famous German car museum tour :-)
- Mercedes-Benz Welt
- BMW Welt
- Automuseum Volkswagen

Booking strategy depends much on destinations and planned date of stay. If you book the classic tourist places or at certain event dates booking earlier is most times better - if you are off also 6-8 weeks before can be an option. Normally at that point of time the revenue managers of hotels start optimizing utilization and yield.

I second the Mercedes Museum. I am not a car person and it is one of the best museums I have ever been to. I love how it weaves the history of the car with what was going on in the world. I wish some of the cars from the 20s-40s would have fit into my suitcase :)

Also not too far from Stuttgart in Böblingen - is a place called Motorwelt. My dad and hubby were like little kids in a candy shop. They saw cars they couldn't see in the US. There is also a hotel attached to this "museum" (people can store their cars here too) Here is a link https://www.motorworld.de/en/home/portfolio/.

Well it looks like I better get booking... I did not realize it was spring break during that time.

Ok, the Mercedes museum is definitely on the itinerary! motorwelt sounds like somewhere my husband could spend the entire day (after dropping me off at a yarn store)... I think that will be for our next visit.

Thanks!

There appears to be a trade show in Munich when you arrive 11 April. The prices are very high. Some price inflation appears to spread out as far as Augsburg, one of my favorite first night stops.

I would book in advance. I like HRS.com for research and booking. I believe Booking.com is similar.

I am making the reverse trip FRA to MUC over about the same period. Munich and vicinity was the only area in which found high prices and actually changed my plans to avoid it my first stop in country.

Stuttgart, Frankfurt and Nürnberg are also trade fair cities and timing can affect prices a great deal. Being flexible helps.

I was in the Army for two tours to Germany, about 18 months in Landstuhl. Our daughter was born in Bremerhaven. It is great to go back.

As well as the official motor company museums, I would suggest visiting one or both of the branches of the private Auto & Technik Museum, one of which is at Speyer, a fairly large town on the Rhine, and the other at Sinsheim, which is a smaller industrial town south of Heidelberg. The Sinsheim one has a bigger Mercedes collection specifically, but they're both very large.

Gary, you weren't exaggerating about the prices in Munich around April 12! Well, now I know to plan on driving an hour or two the first night to get out of the trade show zone... And will book something ASAP!

Trying to decide on an itinerary has been difficult for me, since I want to show my husband the places I remember in the southern and central/north-western regions, and I'm sure he would love the Mercedes museum, but I also want to explore eastern areas of Germany since I left before the wall came down.

With only seven nights (or maybe six nights, if you're leaving the USA on April 11?), you do not have much time even just to see the towns you grew up in, especially since one looks to be north of Frankfurt and you're starting south. Factor in jet lag on arrival - are you sure you want to hop in a car and drive a few hours straight away? You also mentioned wanting to see some of the eastern part but unless you just want to be driving (or on the train) the whole time, I would laser focus on the old stomping grounds and see things on the way to there from Munich.

yeah, I think this trip is the southwestern route to Frankfurt trip... But the NEXT trip will be east! :)

Vacations are never long enough: Too many dreams, and too little time left between work and family obligations.

Hi,

Since your husband is in general a car fanatic, I would heartily suggest that you fit in the itinerary going near to Ludwigsburg, ie Hockenheim to be exact, since that is the German car racing site. Going from Frankfurt to Ludwigsburg is easy by train.

Between Gießen and Frankfurt, or in that area closer to Frankfurt, are numerous places to drop by, eg. the town square in Butzbach/Hessen, Friedberg for the Elvis Museum, Wetzlar for the Zeiss Museum if you're interested in optics and the house/museum of Charlotte, the romantic interest at one time of Goethe, Germany's greatest poet.

To check school vacation dates for the various states in Germany, this website is useful. They begin and end at different times.
https://www.schulferien.org/Schulferien_Bundeslaender/Ferien_2019_April.html

Thanks for all the info and links and suggestions. I managed to find an Airbnb in Munich the first night for about $100. Lesson learned to check for conventions before getting plane tickets!

I’m still working on an Itinerary. Surprisingly, I decided I don’t have to see Giessen (it’s in my heart and memories) , and yet more surprising: my husband decided he’s not set on seeing the Mercedes or other car museums. He’d rather see things ‘we can’t see at home’ (eg castles, fortresses, medieval villages)... and then while looking at places in the Black Forest, he saw the Unimog museum in Gaggenau: http://www.unimog-museum.com. He used to own a 1963 Unimog and occasionally reminds me he got rid of it to live with me, so I’m pretty sure we’ll end up there!

So far I’m looking at :
-1st night in Munich: goal: stroll around the old city, visit a Biergarten (Augustiner Keller?), sleep.
-take a scenic route from Munich to Stuttgart/northern Black Forest area, to spend 2 nights. Goal is to explore the Black Forest areas, but sleep somewhere close enough to easily go into Stuttgart if DH reconsiders wanting to see the Mercedes museum. Currently I’m Thinking somewhere like Calw or Tuebingen. Or is Baden Baden more practical? Casino/spas/glam don’t really interest me, but if it make it an easier base then we could stay there.
-2 nights along the Rhine, Probably St Goar since I’m currently really excited about exploring Rheinfels.
-last night in Frankfurt, have a reservation at “Favored Hotel” between the train station and river. Goal: stroll around, enjoy some Apfelwein, lament our short vacation times, and plan our next trips.

If anyone has suggestions/critiques, I’d love to know. We’ll probably get a car for exploring the Black Forest, then ditch it for a hopefully scenic train ride up the Rhine.

"But the NEXT trip will be east!" Bravo if by "east" you mean eastern Germany. Numerous places to visit if you're looking for esoteric German cultural and historical cities and towns aside from Berlin. Very recommended are Potsdam,. Halle, Schwerin, Leipzig, Naumburg an der Saale, Jena, Meißen, and numerous more.

Hi,

I have not made it to Calw, the town of Hermann Hesse, but Tübingen is worth your time, a famous and lovely university town, spent 3 nights there in 1989. Since you're considering the Black Forest area, is your husband interested in history?

Agree to Fred's recommenation in the eastern parts of Germany and like to add Dresden, Stralsund and Erfurt. And also the whole Baltic coast is worth a visit, e.g. islands Rügen, Hiddensee and Usedom, the Darß or the from literature known Rerik ("Sansibar oder der letzte Grund" ny A. Andersch).

Thank you both for the recommendations to research for eastern and baltic areas of Germany. I have been saving places to remember in my Google map, and put those in.

We do enjoy some history, and the outdoors, and that is why we figured the Black Forest would be a great place to start!