Traveling south from Denmark

Without knowing your interests, it's very hard to advise on an itinerary or transportation. When are you planning on doing this trip and what plans have you made already? Is there anything particular you are interested in seeing? If you give us a little more information it will be much easier to give you good advice.

7 days will go pretty quickly in northern Germany. There are several established theme routes for drivers that you might look into. The German Half-Timbered House Road and the German Fairy Tale Route include many fine destinations between Denmark and Frankfurt and overlap quite a bit. You needn't follow the prescribed routes exactly; investigate the towns that look most interesting, keeping in mind whether you prefer to ride the rails or drive.

My travel time around Germany is measured in decades and has been done both by car and by train. I've found I much prefer the train based on this experience. The places I'll mention below as some of my personal favorites can all be reached by train.

Muenster
Bremen
Hameln
Rinteln
Celle
Goslar
Hannoversch Muenden
Buedingen

If you haven't been to the Middle Rhine Valley, I'd absolutely stop over there as you approach Frankfurt.

I'm very doubtful that a rail pass would pay off in this situation unless you do a great deal of zigging and zagging. You can play around with fares on the Deutsche Bahn website, choosing different travel dates to see what you'd pay if you buy non-refundable tickets far in advance (committing to a specific time and date) vs. much closer to your travel dates vs. on the day of travel. For example, I see an April 27 departure all the way from Copenhagen to Frankfurt (obviously not what you'd want) that's only 39 euros, whereas for tomorrow the lowest price is 110 euros. If you stay in one place and make day trips, you may find some very good deals on one-day roundtrip fares. There's good information on the "Offers" page of the DB website.

Should you decide to rent a car, you'll probably find it necessary to both rent and drop off in Germany to avoid a high cross-border drop charge. But in my experience the trains are very efficient.

I haven't seen very much of northern Germany but did enjoy Schwerin. In addition to a very pretty old town, it comes equipped with a castle in the (man-made) lake, surrounded by gardens. Schwerin's a bit east of the direct route to Frankfurt, however.

Quedlinburg, in central Germany (also a bit of a diversion), is one of the most beautiful towns I've ever seen. Just full of gorgeous half-timbered buildings, plus a castle, plus a cathedral with a very interesting treasury (Google for American connection). There's even a small modern-art gallery, and the tourist office rents out English-language audio guides. I believe there's also an English walking tour.

For the same number of train travel days, e.g. 5 or more, the German Rail Pass Twin and the 2-country Select Saverpass for Germany and Denmark are similar in price, particularly since this 2-country combo moved into a cheaper category this year. Both have sale offers announced today - a Eurail Extra Day offer for travel any time and German Pass discount specifically for spring travel.

If you wanted to head straight from Copenhagen to a further point like Berlin, then flying can be a good value; see www.skyscanner.com as one search engine.

You can count on the rail system to be pretty comprehensive. Whether you need a car will primarily depend on whether you want to stop anywhere that's not served by train.

Rick's latest 2016 Germany TV shows have a northern focus.

Thanks for all the information. I should have said that we would be going the end of June through the first of July. The last time we went we rented a car, and it was great to have the flexibility, but my husband hated that he had to focus on the road. I will look at the discount rail passes and watch the newer Rick Steves' show.

Hi,

If you prefer to focus on towns in northern Germany coming from Copenhagen, I would suggest choosing from these: Weimar, Lübeck, Lüneburg, Bremen, Schwerin, Eutin/Holstein, Minden, Hameln, Soest, Celle, Naumburg, Jena. For 2 weeks I would not suggest a Pass, if you had over 4 weeks, then get a Pass. I'll be in the Hamburg-Kiel area in June, ie, the Holstein area.

"I will look at the discount rail passes and watch the newer Rick Steves' show."

Most of the show linked to above covers Hamburg (which is on your way to Frankfurt.) But then Rick veers into the former East Germany (Lutherstadt Wittenberg, etc.) and ends up in Bavaria. To uncover things a little closer to your route - from Hamburg south - you'll need to look into some different sources. Earl Steinbicker has written some awesome chapters in several books that make it easy to tour German towns on your own. Some of his info is available online, including these below, but you may want to pick up one of his books.

Scroll down this page for Steinbicker's Hamburg guide.
Steinbicker's chapter on Bremen
Steinbicker's Rüdesheim am Rhein (near Frankfurt)

Many of the towns south of Hamburg that have been mentioned on this thread will be accessible to you with the Lower Saxony ticket (Niedersachsen-Ticket) which you can buy in Germany from a ticket machine. It's €30/day for two... so you may not need a multi-day rail pass for train travel.

Bremen
Hannoversch Münden
Goslar
Hameln
Celle
Rinteln
Theme road towns

You can find all these places and others that are covered by the Lower Saxony ticket and the train routes that get you there on this map of the Lower Saxony rail system.

Last June we landed in Copenhagen and overnighted there. The next day we made the journey from Copenhagen to Hamburg by train on a pre-purchased Saver Fare ticket from DB (€29 each.) I imagine you can find a similar fare from Copenhagen or other Danish towns. Then use the Lower Saxony tickets to explore that area, then proceed toward Frankfurt after that, perhaps on a Hessen ticket or one of the other regional day pass offers from DB.

One more item for you...
Scroll down this page for Steinbicker's guide to Odense, Denmark

Here is a map of Germanys highlights according to Baedeker, Germanys most popular travel guide:
http://imgur.com/9BcKenL

You basically cross three interesting regions on the most direct route:

Northern Germany with the Baltic coast
This is the region of the former Hanseatic League. The centres of four Hanseatic cities are World Heritage Sites: Lübeck, Wismar, Stralsund, Greifswald. They have a very distinct medieval look, because they are all made of brick. Equally nice are Stade and Lüneburg. Schwerin stands out as 18 - 19th century capital of a duchy with a fairytale castle just like Neuschwanstein.

Harz mountains
This was the medieval heart of Germany. Many towns there are preserved and offer literally thousands of half-timbered houses. Two of them, Goslar and Quedlinburg, are World Heritage Sites, but Wolfenbüttel, Wernigerode, Stolberg or Duderstadt also deserve a visit. The are also has the largest steam train network of Germany.
Here is a site with 160.000 pics:
http://www.raymond-faure.com/indexharzenglish.htm

Weser Renaissance
This is the area to the west of the Harz mountains. The towns are not as cozy and cute as the towns of the Harz mountains, but the buildings of the Weser Renaissance are very interesting if you are into architecture.

I would recommend to split the week into two parts: first see one or two Hanseatic towns + Schwerin, and afterwards base yourself in Quedlinburg (you will love this town!) and see Wernigerode and Goslar, and take the steam train up to the Brocken, the highest mountain of Northern Germany.