Mannheim - 4-5 days where to go

Sorry, your post is a bit ambiguous. Are you talking about daytrips from Mannheim, or places to stay in before you go to Mannheim?

If you mean in the vicinity of Mannheim...

Check out the Neckar river valley, the Odenwald region (those mountains you'll see to your east), and the Bergstraße (a series of scenic towns that run along the western edge of the Odenwald from Darmstadt to Heidelberg... I assume your colleagues will probably take you to Heidelberg). The small town of Lorsch to the immeidate north of Mannheim has an abbey that dates back to the Carolingian era. There's many well-preserved towns in the area (Mannheim isn't), but if you want to see one that still maintains most of it's defensive wall, check out Ladenburg. The town of Schwetzingen has a huge Schloss and garden complex. Speyer has a huge Romanesque cathedral and a well-preserved old town. Luisenpark in Mannheim is one of the best urban parks in Europe, but it won't be at it's best in November.

Now, if you needed suggestions for other areas of Germany, Austria or the Netherlands... that's kind of a tall order.

If you're a petrolhead there's also a huge motor museum at Speyer, with some interesting air/space exhibits as well.

Also, Mannheim and its conjoined twin town Ludwigshafen are exactly on the border of Baden-Wuerttemberg and Rheinland-Pfaltz, so depending on how far you want to go for a day trip you can get unlimited local-train travel in either of those states for only 23 euros using a Land-Ticket.

And it doesn't matter in which of the cities you start, because the Baden-Württemberg-Ticket and the Rheinland-Pfalz-ticket are both valid in the Ludwigshafen Hbf and the Mannheim Hbf and for the line in between.

I'm not sure of the answer to this, but is Hessen included as well? I would think it would be, since Baden-Württemberg's border with Hessen is only a few kilometers to the north of Mannheim.

Thanks for all the great suggestions for Germany. I now have a more info on my travel arrangements, I will be flying into Paris for 3 days then taking the train to Mannheim where my office is booking my hotel. Any great must see places via train between Paris and Germany?

Can you see the highlights of Munich in a day? thinking of taking late day train, stay the night there, tour Munich the next day and take a late train back to Mannheim. Is one day enough time?

" Is one day enough time?" Not really, but if that's all you have, a small sample is better than none.

"Any great must see places via train between Paris and Germany?" Not really. Just take the direct TGV or ICE to Mannheim. That way you can spend as much time as possible in Paris. The last direct train is at 6:55 pm and you'll be in Mannheim at 10:17 pm.

There is no natural stop on the bullet train between Paris and Mannheim. Saarbrücken is a very nice city - but just a city a bit like maybe Mannheim as well.

A must-do IMO from Mannheim is a day trip along the Wine Road. Ideally you do that by car. However, you can also use the train to get to the key towns of Bad Dürkheim, Maikammer and Deidesheim. End of October is the perfect time. There will be the "New Wine" everywhere and you'll find the nature there to be a little bit like Indian Summer.

@Tom,

the Rheinland-Pfalz-Ticket does include parts of Hessen (note item 3), but probably not what you are thinking of. It includes the stretch along the right bank of the Rhein from Wiesbaden to Kaub as well as the stretch up the Lahn to Limburg, but not to Frankfurt. At times I've tried to see how to use Länder-Tickets to get from FRA to Mannheim for less than full fare tickets, but it doesn't seem possible.

The Verkehrsverbund-Rhein-Neckar (VRN) does include parts of Baden-Württemberg (incl Mannheim) and the southern tip of Hessen, but I don't think it includes enough of Hessen to be able to use a VRN Tageskarte from FRA or Ffm Hbf to Mannheim.