Needing ideas for great day trips from Berlin and Munich

kristy,

I doubt that you'll need a rental car for day trips from either city, as both have excellent rail networks. As you're interested in history, here are a few possibilities.....

• Berlin - Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, Potsdam, and of course the many sights to see in Berlin. I'd highly recommend having a look at the tours offered by Original Berlin Walks.
• Munich - Dachau Concentration Camp, Castles at Füssen, Berchtesgaden (Eagle's Nest, Dokumentation Centre & Bunkers, Salt Mine), Salzburg and of course the many sights in Munich. The Deutsches Museum is excellent (16 kM of exhibits) and it's easily possible to spend a whole day there.

You'll have more than enough to keep busy for 3 nights in Berlin and 4 nights in Munich. You might find it helpful to have a look at the Germany guidebook as there's lots of information there on getting to the sights, opening & closing times, admission prices, etc.

Hi,

Ordinarily, I do not suggest getting a rental car for day trips outside of Berlin. Interest in history? What aspect? If it is on WW 2, and you wan to see a battlefield site memorial (Gedenkstätte), the Seelow Heights Memorial and Museum, I suggest a car. It can be done by public transportation but you would have to transfer and backtrack from Frankfurt an der Oder (still an interesting town to see). More on the Resistance and Prussian nobility can be seen in the Museum in Neuhardenberg, you need the car for that.

There are 2 Concentration Camps near Berlin, Sachsenhausen and Ravensbruck. Both were used after the war by the Soviets, so many of the buildings are still intact.

Insider Tours does a 3rd Reich Tour in Berlin for 12 €, and an intense tour to Sachsenhausen that I think is really worth the 15 €.
http://www.insidertour.com/

Ravensbruck is unusual as it was specifically for women. The cabins for the women guards creeped me out and the lake that spreads out in front of the camp makes it look like a childrens camp. All the more chilling. There are a series of cells that all have displays created by each country who had women that were here. There were lots of Jehovah Witnesses, Roma & Sinti, Polish Catholics, Communists, and Socialists at this camp.

Potsdam is close by and has enough there to keep you busy for 1-2 days. Fabulous palaces and grounds.

Here's my favorite easy day trip from Munich.

Take the S8 train southwest from Munich to the end of the line at Herrsching. Walk 500 meters to the pier on the lakefront. Take one of the elegant paddle-wheel ships across the scenic Ammersee to the authentic, untouristed lakeside town of Dießen am Ammersee. Wallk through Dießen to the ornate Marienmünster abbey (1732) that overlooks the town.

Return to Herrsching, and take Bus 951 (or hike about three miles up into the forested hills) to Kloster Andechs, where the Benedictine monks have been brewing beer since the 15th Century.

Photos here.

If you have a special interest, you can of course take a day trip outside your cities. But I just want to emphasize how much there is to see and do in Munich and (especially) Berlin. You can spend a whole day just in Berlin's German History Museum (we only had a half day, and only saw about half the museum).