What cities to visit in Germany?

Have a look at this, which is different than thr regular tourist route. From Amsterdan train to Cologne. Then south to Luxemburg. From there to Tubingen and from there to the prettiest small town I've seen in Germany, Bad Urach. Back to Tubingen or bus to Ulm. From there up to Munich. Train to Salzburg on to Linz. From there to Vienna. Then through Prague to Plzen. From there you are on your own. You can go to Krakow, to Budapest and on to Bucharest. That's about as far as I can take you unless you want to continue to Bulgaria. While in Bucharest you can take a bus to the Black Sea city of Constanta which is good for two or three days.

My experience in Germany is hardly encyclopedic, but I would definitely spend a few days in Cologne. For small towns, visit one of the many towns in the Mosel valley. If you can research when there will be a strassenweinfest in one of them, do not miss. Rothenburg ob der Tauber gets trashed a lot here, but it is still a cute town, especially after the day trippers leave.

I would base myself in a few strategic places and explore from there the surrounding regions. You can think about smaller towns close to Hamburg, Köln and Stuttgart for instance. If you have from your base a good public transport connection to these bigger cities, you can make use of highspeedtrains for longer distances, expanding your range as much as possible. And other means of public transport for places closer. You can rent a car for exploring the countryside or places that are with public transport too much a hassle to go to. There is enough to discover, so give room to that in your planning, you have time enough I guess..

I did an itinerary similar to yours last summer, although I started in Brussels rather than Amsterdam. I went from there to Cologne, Bacharach (on the Rhine), Frankfurt, Berlin, Munich, Cesky Krumlov, Prague, Krakow, Vienna, Budapest and then flew home from Budapest.

You mention that you want to head west after your listed cities, does that mean you're traveling back to Amsterdam? If you haven't purchased flights yet I would suggest an open jaw flight into Amsterdam and out of whatever your last city in the east would be, probably Budapest.

For Germany either before or after Berlin,you could add any or all of: Cologne, Hamburg, Rhine/Mosel area, Frankfurt, Munich. Lots of options for day trips from any of these. From Bacharach I day tripped to Boppard and St Goar, from Frankfurt to Budigen (which I loved), from Munich to Regensberg and Passau.

And don't forget Nuremberg, Dresden, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Heidelberg, Ulm, Augsburg - all wonderful places depending on what your interests are and how far you want to travel.

Between Berlin and Prague, I would at least stop at Dresden. Leipzig and the "Lutherland" area are also not far from your route, or consider Goerlitz, on the Polish border. See also a related forum conversation.

Hi,

Going west from Berlin (depending on which route you take) and seeing both cities and towns, you can see Minden an der Weser, Soest/Westfalen, Köln, Düsseldorf, Bonn, Koblenz, Frankfurt, Rüdesheim am Rhein, Wiesbaden, Bad Ems, Heidelberg...any of these which could fit into your schedule time-wise.

A logical stop on your way from Berlin to Prague would be Dresden, but if that is too big for you, immediately east of there are some small towns around the German National Park Sächische Schweiz. If you are coming from Berlin on the EC, it's only stop in Germany after Dresden is a half hour later in Bad Schandau, in the park. Or you can change at Dresden Hbf for the S-Bahn and go to other towns in the area, including Pirna. If you visit that area, I would consider seeing the very impressive fortress, Königstein.