Hi all,
I'm trying to plan an interrail route (see image and bulletpoints) which for the most part travels through Germany and German influenced countries/regions. Having never been to Germany before, I would appreciate if anyone could recommend any places I should replace, add, or include along the way. Thanks :)
John
How much time do you have?
What are your interests?
How much time do you have for the trip? When do you plan to travel? Are you on a budget (I'm looking at the Swiss destinations)?
Time is flexible but under 3 weeks would be best. As far as interests go, I'm not really a food, sport, or nightlife lover but otherwise I don't mind. I'm more interested to hear what other peoples favorites are!
My budget is also flexible but I would prefer to keep things on the cheaper side of mid-range
I'm thinking of late August/September
john, looks like you're trying to see 15-17 places in 3 weeks. Thats too many. The travel time between them will eat up a lot of your vacation time. At least you can book open-jaw ticket so as to not backtrack. Noting that all of these are cities (with a lot of similarities) and no small town/rural attractions. I would look at skipping a few of your stops and spending more time in a few others. I would skip Cologne and Strasbourg: nice cities, no doubt, but other than the cathedrals, not much unique about them. IMO. Bern and Zurich as well. Bern isn't in the mountains, and Zurich is not particularly scenic compared to other places in Switzerland.
John,
Congratulations on your trip planning! It's the first step in making a commitment. You really need to limit your stops to 5 or less on a less than 3 week trip.
It like this, you have a maximum of 19 or 20 nights but want to visit 17 places. This is feasible if all you want to see is train stations and rail cars.
Here's my recommendation:
- Amsterdam - canals, Van gogh, bicycles, cheese, what's not to like.
- Cologne - it's in route and has the big cathedral.
- Colmar - every picture will look like a postcard.
- Luzern - mountains, covered bridges, chocolate.
- Munich - Bavarian capital, museums, royal splendor. or Nuremburg -
castle, medieval old town, nurnburgers.
This is a start let, us know more about your interest and we can help you refine the list more. You told us what you didn't like but what do you like?
Get the map and guidebooks back out and come back with more! Also, check out the Explore Europe Section on this website for pictures and info about places you might be interested in.
Happy Trip Planning!
I agree to other opinions that you need to reduce number of destinations to stay 1-3 full days, Berlin 4-5. A lot of places have some sights to explore. Maybe add destinations in the countryside for nature / landscape experience.
Based on this I recommend to check if Deutsche Bahn offers are the better way to travel. Without traveling every day a pass-offering is often more expensive. If you do not mind where to sleep you can use night trains to travel larger distances, e.g. by FlixTrain or by NightJet (ÖBB). FlixBus offe night bus connections.
Without knowing interests I find it hard to give any recommendation. You might want to use the German top 100 sights catalogue of German National Tourist Board for some inspiration. it is based on a traveler voting in 2016 / 2017. Tip: Check also the local tourist web pages, e.g. VisitBerlin.
Meanningful to inform yourself also about basics for traveling to and in Germany.
Thanks for all the help so far. I've modified the route to try and reduce the number of places. Now it goes:
I also have two uncertain places, Cologne and Zurich, which I can't seem to get around using this route, so I've included them as places either to skip or to get off for a few hours at. I've also got a (short) contingency list of places I could day trip to in case I don't take to the main stops.
As far as including smaller or more rural places goes, I'd love to but I don't know any so please recommend me some :)
I'm really not fussy in terms of what I'd like to see or do. I'm up for museums, galleries, hiking, castles, concerts, whatever is on offer. The only reservations I have are about food & drink, for allergy reasons (celiac). I should also mention that I live in Europe so I'm fine with not doing somewhere exhaustively since I could go back some other time.
New map (it's point to point by the way, no backtracking planned):
https://imgur.com/SiUw131
One last point: since I've cut down on the number of German locations should I migrate this to a more general part of the forum?
John,
Thanks for coming back. Your updated itinerary is much more feasible. It's still a bit rushed. I suggest you choose Munich over Vienna and make Salzburg a day trip from Munich (its only about 2 hours by train). This is one less time to pack up at the hotel.
Cologne train station is right next to the cathedral you can easily extend you transfer time and spend an hour or two at the cathedral. There's also many cafes in the area, so get a bite to eat as well. Zurich, I haven't been yet?
Smaller places, how about a day or afternoon trip from Colmar to Turckheim. It's about 20 minutes by train and no crowds. There's a couple restaurants, gift shops, and cafes near the gate (across the street from the train stop) the rest is just a quite lovely village with colorful houses and flowers (bring the camera).
Museums - don't miss the Unterlinden in Colmar with masterpieces from Medieval to modern.
Galleries - check out the Rosengart Collection and Kuntsmuseum Luzern in Lucerne.
Hiking - Lucerne is at the base of the alps so.
Castles - Hohensalzburg Fortress in Salzburg, and Heidelberg Castle.
Concerts - Residence Salzburg has a daily Baroque concert at 3:00pm in the summer.
I hope you have a great trip!
The Swiss National Museum is across the street from Zurich Hbf. If you are interested in Swiss history, it would be worth an hour or two.
