Hi all,
Will be travelling from Frankfurt to Mittenwald with my wife and sons (3 & 1) in August. We have 5 nights to spend in either Stuttgart or Nuremberg. I've chosen those cities as they are on the high speed rail link and both offer various activities.
I'm just not sure which city would suit in terms on being child friendly. Anyone have any experience/suggestions they could throw my way? I would bery thankful for any advice!
Cheers
Brett
We moved to Nürnberg for a 1.5 years stay on our daughter's first birthday. We have visited the Stuttgart area 3 times in recent years. There is a wealth of things to see by rail in the area of each. You can not go wrong.
You know your kids best but we had lousy luck guessing what would impress our daughter while stationed in Germany. We took her to Legoland and it was a bust. We took her to the zoo in Vienna and, once she found that elephants were huge and smelly, that also became a bust. She was fascinated that they painted pictures on the ceiling of churches. She loved riding in her folding stroller in rain because we let her hold her own umbrella. Reading to her at bed time was a big event most travel days. It was more how we included her than what we visited.
There is a Fairy Tale Garden as part of the Palace Gardens in Ludwigsburg that probably would have appealed to our daughter as she loved the outdoors. Ludwigsburg is just a 10-15 minute train ride out of Stuttgart.
Similar to Gary we lived in Munich for 2 years when our daughter was 1-3. With our toddler in August in Germany parks with a playground or some other attraction were the biggest hits. Personally I would lean a little more towards Nuremberg as I would expect a slightly higher concentration of biergartens with good playgrounds in Bavaria.
Don't rule out Munich either as it also on the highspeed link between Frankfurt/Mittenwald and is excellent for those traveling with young children. Great parks, family friendly biergartens and beer halls (some even with built in child care), excellent zoo, and a wonderful play area in the Deutsches Museum..
DJ
Edit: I would also add that Germany has a high concentration of model train/miniature world/toy museums. Nuermberg has both a toy museum with model railway and DB Museum.
A fun park very much loved by my American grand children is the playmobil fun park
in Zirndorf near Nürnberg. Your children might like it too.
Thank you all for your replies!
Our boys love the outdoors so the suggestion of beer gardens with playgrounds sounds great also Playmobil fun park has great reviews as does the Nuremberg Zoo and the DB Museum.
Sounds like Nuremberg might be the way to go! Maybe Stuttgart when they are a bit older and can appreciate the car museums a little more.
Thank you all once again!
Do you think your boys would like a castle? About an hour and a half by train and local bus from Stuttgart is Burg Hohenzollern. Burg Hohenzollern is not a true castle; it was built in the mid-1800s as a showcase for Wilhelm I, but it is impressive nevertheless.
Another point for Stuttgart is that it is just hours away from the northern Black Forest (Freudenstadt).
Another place, which would probably appeal more to adults than children, is the University town of Tübingen.
