Starting to plan for Family Trip June 2019 - Parents with 12/17 y/o kids

Others will opine on good areas to visit between Berlin and Munich. There is lots to see in Berlin, so please allow five days or so there. Train travel from Berlin to Munich is simple — See Bahn.com (the official German rail site) for info. If you decide to take day trips from Berlin or Munich, and there are many possible, investigate buying Länder tickets, which allow unlimited travel for one day within one German state at significant family discounts, so long as you travel after 9 a.m. on weekdays and anytime on weekends. Regarding your flight — be sure not to do a round trip ticket, as this will require a return to your initial city. Better would be a multi city or open jaws ticket, flying into one city and returning from another.

Concern with multileg trips is cost, already found round trip to Berlin for decent price. If I went to Berlin, then went south to Munich working back north to Berlin, would that be option.

Multicity/open jaws should not cost significantly more than a round trip. It gives you flexibility, removes backtracking so adds a day or so back into the holiday. Be sure to add in the backtracking costs in money and time when considering a simple round trip.

What sorts of things do the kids want to see?

Unfortunately, multi-city/open-jaw fares are sometimes a lot more costly than round-trip. There can be large differences between round-trip fares for various cities within one country. Much depends on the origin airport, and we don't know where Steven is starting from.

The main reason we tend to discourage round-trip flights is that they usually mean the traveler is stuck with an additional hotel change, which eats up time that could otherwise be used for productive sightseeing. The loss of a large portion of a travel day on a trip that's only 14-16 days has a significant impact on a trip. That needs to be weighed against the savings in airfare from flying round-trip less the cost of a one-way train ticket back to the origin. A quick check found Munich-Berlin rail tickets ranging from 50 (purchasing far in advance) to 150 euros for the trip, which will take 4 to 5 hours.

Berlin is a large, extremely spread-out city with a lot of time-consuming sights--both museums and historical sites (especially related to the Cold War). As you dig into your guidebook, you'll probably decide you need quite a lot of time there. I believe there's considerably less to do in Munich, but some travelers use it as a base for day-trips.

Along the direct train line alone there are many other worthwhile cities, beginning with Nuremberg, Erfurt and Leipzig. Dresden isn't far off that direct path. Our German experts can suggest many charming smaller destinations as well. You could have a great trip, just seeing places in that the stretch of Germany between Berlin and Munich.

Regarding stops between the two cities. You can take the direct route, a northern detour via the Harz mountains, or a southeastern detour via Dresden.

Direct route
On this route you cross the cultural heart of Germany, with many World Heritage Sites (WHS). Basicall a "Best of Germany" tour, which works best with a car. Here is a list from north to south:
Wittenberg (WHS) - preserved, small town, home of the Protestant Reformation (Luthers + Melanchthons house)
Dessau-Wörlitz Garden Kingdom (WHS) - one of the first English parks on the continent
Dessau - Bauhaus sites (WHS)
Leipzig - trading city with a nice 19th century centre, Bach, Mendelssohn Bartholdy, great zoo
Naumburg - preserved town with a famous Gothic cathedral (WHS)
Weimar (WHS) - preserved town with castles and parks, Goethe, Schiller, Nietzsche, Liszt, the Bauhaus, Weimar Classicism
Erfurt - one of Germanys biggest preserved town centres
Wartburg (WHS) near Eisenach - Germanys historically most important castle
Coburg - preserved old town with a massive castle
Bamberg (WHS) - beautiful old town with a famous cathedral
Nuremberg - Nazis tuff
Regensburg (WHS) - biggest medieval old town of Germany

Northern detour
This is a great idea if you want a change between the two big cities. The Harz mountains offer several small towns with literally thousands of half-timbered houses. Two of them, Goslar and Quedlinburg, are World Heritage Sites, but Wernigerode, Stolberg, or Wolfenbüttel are just as good. The region also offers the biggest steam train network of the country, and from Wernigerode you can take the train up to the Brocken, the highest peak of Northern Germany.

Southern detour
This "Best of Saxony" detour offers a bit of everything. Stay in Dresden, which offers world-class museums, which are quite unique (among them the Green Vaults and a great armoury). The suburbs of Dresden are former wine villages with vineyards, castles, palaces and posh villas. In the surroundings are beautiful preserved towns like Meissen (porcelain and huge castle), Bautzen (Baroque town surrounded by medieval fortifications) or Görlitz (best preserved town of Germany). A fleet of nostalgic paddle steamers brings you to sites along the Elbe, like Pillnitz castle, Meissen, or Königstein fortress. And the nearby Elbe Sandstone Mountains (also called Saxon/Bohemian Switzerland, try a Google Image search) are perfect for hiking.

One thing to consider is our preference to not stay in hotels but rather apartments as they provide more space. Given this preference, we were hoping to not change lodging every night.

Before: I miss your interests to make any valid recommendation. If you are interested in scenic landscape may be Berlin is not the top decision in Germany. Culture, history, shopping, ... Make some wishes.

You could do it also the other way around and look what travelers voted:
http://www.germany.travel/en/towns-cities-culture/top-100/germany-travel-attractions.html

Traveling at this time in Germany means:
- Expensive prices: Begin of July most states start summer vacation. Therefore accomdation and transportation gets expensive and full. May be start better early or mid of June or late summer.
- One of the best areas to stay at this time is also the coast, e.g. chalk cliffs on Ruegen (Baltic Sea) or even the North Sea coast, north of Hamburg.

Since you are going to be in German in high season. I would look into traveling via train from Hamburg to Berlin down to Munich and fly out of Munich. While much has been made about Berlin being hip and cool, from the 20-30 year olds I know who have been to Germany, they all have raved about Hamburg, it's a multinational city with a lot to do and has decent weather in the summer. Plus you are close to the sea.

I'd fly into Hamburg, spend a few days there exploring, then take the ICE train Berlin and stay 5 days and do some day trip and then head down towards Munich. What is nice that on the DB train site you can plan your journey from Hamburg to Berlin and pick the stops you want to stop off at and the number of days at each stopover.

I would take a look at Rick's guide and also the TripAdvisor Germany forums are another helpful resource. I used them for trip planning on a unrealized trip to Germany.

So we spent two weeks in UK 2017 and best pet of London/York/Edinburgh were historical sites such as castle, War museums, etc. boys are older 12/17 so open to exploring.

Our time is limited to end of June and early July due to end of school stuff and mid July activities.

Best part of UK was ease of exploring and only thing would have changed is a day trip or two out of Edinburgh and maybe another day or two in London. Loved Nottinghill Market

"...our preference to not stay in hotels but rather apartments ...."

We've had excellent results with European rentals in recent years using both VRBO/HomeAway and AirBnB. The latter seems, to us at least, to have a larger inventory and a very user-friendly search system on their site. Look for "SuperHost" designation on AirBnB, and carefully study recent reviews and the photos.

You seem to be getting good advice on general itinerary, so here is other advice.

Having traveled with teenagers, once you have a list of stops, demand that each of them do some research on each place and come up with one thing to do. Also try to eek out of them what an interest might be, then find things along the way that appeal to that (food? WW2? Cars? Soccer? Castles?)

I also had kids figure out train travel, connections, look for hotels, restaurants, you name it, anything to get them invested in the trip.

Maybe nothing you thought of, but your 17 year old will be of legal drinking age for beer and wine, depending where you are at on that topic, might be something to explore.

Seeing the cities of Berlin, Frankfurt, Dusseldorf are valued for their history and WWII sites, but have you considered a base in the more rural Middle (Central) Rhine Valley area for several days? Travel by local train or auto between towns is easy and quick. You can go into Koblenz, Frankfurt and Heidelberg for day tours and there are plenty of old castles, hiking paths in the hills, and small towns to explore. We still love going to this area; each of the towns has something interesting to see and do. Favorites are: St Goar, Bingen, Rudesheim (take the chair lift to the Niederwald monument). Be sure to take a trip on a portion of the river. Having been to England, your kids may be interested in comparing the destroyed medieval castles & Castle Eltz here to the Tower of London or Windsor. If you want a true Medieval experience, the small town of Limburg an der Lahn (on the Lahn River) is well worth the visit. It has a cathedral, portions of the town wall, many original & restored timber-framed buildings; you expect to see the Pied Piper coming down the street.

Great that your vacation is focusing on Germany. I would suggest you choose from these towns/cities, some of which have been suggested above: Hamburg, Lübeck, Berlin, Potsdam, Munich, Frankfurt, Celle, Lüneburg, Koblenz, Naumburg an der Saale,

Bad Ems, Marburg an der Lahn, Ulm, Weimar, Meissen, Dresden, Leipzig, Schwerin, Greifswald, Magdeburg, Bonn, Aachen,

Schleswig, Eutin/Holstein, Halle, Cuxhaven, Flensburg, Minden, Soest, Heidelberg. Cologne, Lutherstadt Wittenberg.

A good number of these listed here are located in eastern and North Germany, totally off the American and the international tourist radar if that should make any difference to you

My recommended places for you:

• Hamburg: Speicherstadt, port tour, submarine U434, emigration museum Ballindamm,
• Lübeck (day trip): Holstentor, old town, Hanse Museum, Niederegger and may be old sailing ship Passat in Travemünde
• Berlin: spend 5-6 nights incl. 1 day palaces in Potsdam and 1 day Oranienburg / Sachsenhausen (ex concentration camp). Also a lot of other Nazi regime related sights. And of course: the Wall sights. Furthermore tons of experiences for the boys: Spy Museum, TV Tower, Unterwelten, Dungeon, Exit games, race and flight simulators and the typical top 10 (https://www.visitberlin.de/en/berlins-top-10-attractions).
• Dresden Example: http://s1.germany.travel/media/pdf/ebroschueren/budget_traveller_s_german_wanderlust___48_hours_guides_to_germany/Budget_Travellers_German_Wanderlust_-_48_Hours_guides_to_Germany_Dresden.pdf
• Bamberg: old town and breweries
• Nuremberg: Emperor's castle and Nazi sights (not really war related)
• Munich: BMW world, surf spot at channel, city area nad may be a day trip to Zugspitze and / or Neuschwanstein castle.

For your interests less relevant are Düsseldorf, Hanover and Frankfurt.
Party relevant: Cologne, mid Rhine area (catsles), Mainz, Stuttgart (if you like automotive).

In cities such as Hamburg, Berlin and Munich I ask visitors to avoid taking apartments to travel social responsibly. Every apartment used for touristic purposes instead of renting to residentials kills living and housing space for poorer families in the centers. Please use apartment or family ho(s)tels, e.g. Adina in Berlin.

Do not be afraid to go to hostels. My wife and I (69, 66) use them frequently. You can stay in the bunkroom - which is not to our taste. But almost all hostels have separate rooms, and many have baths. They are like less expensive hotel rooms. We stayed in 4you Hostel in Munich, 70E night, with breakfast. Your children might be able to interact with some German kids. How fun is that?

I am glad that Paul above noted that the 17 YO is of legal drinking age. My 3 kids all went to Germany. They hung out with the German kids. The German kids went to bars. They all took public transport home. It was all good.

"They hung out with the German kids." My compliments on their good attitude!

That was hardly the case 40 plus years ago in the hostels. Those HI hotels I saw with American kids (Cologne, Bonn, Heidelberg, Munich, Koblenz, Frankfurt) only hung out with themselves, the German kids did likewise. I hardly recall or saw any mixing.

Fred: In the case of my kids, they were on a 2-3 week exchange, staying in German homes, with German kids. So, the "hanging out" was built-in. But yes, if you are just touring, and going to the breakfast room, you would need to be assertive to get interaction. Very much so.

I added a qualifier to my name. Too many Pauls. It was appalling.

Exactly for "interaction." Bravo for your kids! Very good for building up language acquisition. In which city/town did this family exchange take place?