I'm planning to visit in late April for 8 days and rent a car. We're hoping to see Berlin and Munich, and we're considering adding in Amsterdam as well. Is this too ambitious? And any recommendations of places to stop along the way to break up the long drives/any particular route that we should take? (We're in our early twenties, so we're open to more adventurous stops along the way as well!)
Thanks!
8 days is adequate for visiting Munich and Berlin - and possibly one stop along the way. The train would be best as a car is just going to be parked and useless for about 4 days in Berlin and 3 in Munich (a sort of standard minimum recommendation for time in these two cities.) Two can make this 6-hour train trip for about €60 total if they wisely pre-purchase saver fare tickets (which go on sale about 6 months in advance at the DB website.)
http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en
A nice stop on the direct ICE train route would be BAMBERG.
https://en.bamberg.info/sehenswertes/
https://www.europeanbeerguide.net/bambpubs.htm
Not sure what sort of "adventure" you have in mind but Berlin, Munich and a day in Bamberg will offer a lot of variety. Amsterdam is great too but as you say it's a lot of ground travel to try and squeeze that in too. Maybe do Berlin and Amsterdam instead with a 1-day stop on the way by train.
If the purpose of the roadtrip is to experience the "Autobahn Experience" you should be aware of a number of considerations, including the fact that autobahn driving is nowhere near the fun that can be imagined. Also, regardless, be aware of the word Stau.
The Autobahn Experience from the point of view Brandenburg emergency services
On last Sunday morning when I expected the autobahn to Karlsruhe to be quiet, I had a long stau between Augsburg and Teck and we had to form the wide lanes. After about an hour we got up to the scene where a fire truck was next to what must have once been a car but looked like one you see on those shows where the car is put in a crusher. Just looked like a strange shiny cube of metal. The truck it went under (I can't see how else it got that shape) had been taken away. There was a hearse at the side of the road but nobody was doing anything at all. I counted 7 emergency vehicles.
I wouldn't have expected trucks on the road (Sunday) but I can't see what else could have caused the shape of the wreck. But if you do 200 kph strange things happen.
If Berlin and Munich are the big goals, I will join others in endorsing the superiority of trains over a car.
it's early Sunday afternoon in Bavaria, and guess what? A8 has huge jams between Salzburg and Munich (like last week), there's a crash at the same place as the one Nigel saw and two more between there and the state border.
Thanks for all the responses. The idea behind a car was to road trip - not to just seen Munich and Berlin (perhaps I should've been more clear). More curious about routes - if there's one that's particularly scenic or has lots of interesting stops along the way - than about renting a car just to drive it incredibly fast in the autobahn.
right, that's better.
Use Google Maps ask for Munich to Berlin, exact addresses aren't important. It will give a mad dash up an autobahn. Click Options and then click Highways under Avoid. Be careful because some options cross the Czech border (twice, obviously) which you may or may not want to do, or be insured to do (probably yes but don't assume).
The B2 route passes between Nuremburg and Regensburg. Either are worth a diversion and stay. A little further north on the west side of the B2 route are Bayreuth (Wagner) and Bamberg (micro-brewery central, worth several nights but you can't spare them, beware morning after alcohol levels for the driver.....). Much of the B2 route between here and Leizig is in cold war border territory so wasn't massively built upon during those years, and quite a lot of it is nature reserve.
Leipzig is built up but worth visiting.
Wittenberg is best known for Martin Luther and quite busy this year.
Potsdam is where Germany was carved in by the Allies after 1945 and is also in the forest and lakes region before Berlin itself begins.
With Munich at the start and Berlin at the end that's more than enough for 8 days, forget Amsterdam
Thanks for the feedback. My point wasn't necessarily about you driving at warp speed on the autobahn but the results when somebody does. I've been driving autobahns regularly for about 20 years and for me the problem is the constant change of speed, due to micromanaged speed limits, the never ending construction, crashes and the resultant stau, and not-crashes and the inevitable stau which often starts for no recognisable reason and some time later disappears for the same unknowable reason.
I find driving French autoroutes, where I just put the seat back, set the cruise control at 132 and let the car drive itself for a couple of hours a lot more relaxing than autobahns where one minute I am going at a comfortable 150 - 160 and the next creeping at 60, then up to 120 then stopped, then back to 140 or 150, all within a few minutes.
If you are on the autobahn and the traffic stops remember that the left lane pulls all the way left, the right or centre lane pulls all the way right, leaving a wide lane for emergency vehicles. Needless to say, you need to pull over as you are stopping, not try to get out of the way after you are stopped. This is the case in Austria, too.
Nigel -- Having driven Los Angeles freeways for many years, the craziness of driving the autobahn seems like "home sweet home." LOL
except there are no "surface streets" to get onto when the freeway goes urp. And the exits can be a long way apart. And when the traffic stops, it really stops. Turn off the engine and walk around stops.
Nearly 10 years of driving the Santa Monica Freeway, the San Diego Freeway, the Ventura Freeway, the Glendale Freeway, the Pasadena Freeway, and all their friends, including over Sepulveda into and back from the Valley daily, I never saw anything like the stoppages on German Autobahns.
Sepulveda Blvd, where are you?
Autobahn issues aside, I agree with the concept that with only 8 days, you will be very busy trying to see just Munich and Berlin. Berlin, in particular, has many days of sights, of great variety. You definitely don't have time to add Amsterdam. If you do want to spend some time on the roads between Munich and Berlin, you have to sacrifice some time in the cities.
Start by looking at what you want to see and do in each city; you can then see how much "left over" time you have to get between them. If it's less than a day, just take the train. If it's more, you can definitely do a road trip.
I'm with Nigel on the autobahn. I find driving it very stressful because you have to be actively engaged and I hate hate hate the reckless behavior of the truck drivers.
Regardless though, a road trip from Munich to Berlin with only 8 days doesn't make much sense to me at all. The distance between the cities is great enough that a you'd be shortchanging both cities to have the road trip be worth it. I mean, 2 full days in Munich and 3 full days in Berlin are the absolute minimum you'll need to hit the major sights.
Day 1: Really a half day depending on time of arrival, jet lag, etc. Berlin.
Day 2: First full day in Berlin.
Day 3: Second full day in Berlin.
Day 4: Third full day in Berlin.
Day 5: Road trip
Day 6: Road trip finishing in Munich
Day 7: First full day in Munich
Day 8: Second full day in Munich
See what I mean? You could MAYBE shave a full day of Berlin but it would be a shame. So you'll end up with just 1-2 nights road tripping across what's a 6 hour drive if you don't encounter significant traffic. I just don't see the point.
Honestly if you want to road trip in Germany I'd pick a more scenic, smaller route so you could take the B roads and meander. Plenty of places in Bavaria lend themselves well to scenic road tripping. I'd spend a few days in Munich then do that instead.
I’m with Nigel too, there is little fun driving last week German roads and the Autobahn in particular as there is no room for relaxed driving. You have to be very much focused not missing any kind of information as speed limits vary constantly for every minor reason.
