Where should we spend the night on our way from Frankfurt to Berlin?

Lori. Another option would be to fly or catch the train straight to Berlin. Then rent a car when you ready to leave Berlin. A car will not be useful in Berlin.

First of all: why do you want to drive? If you mainly want to see big cities a car is a hindrance, and the "Autobahn experience" isn't that great since the Autobahns from and to Berlin and Frankfurt are very busy. There is a direct train from the airport in Frankfurt to Berlins main train station which takes only 5 hours, and with some luck a group ticket costs only ~100€ if you book NOW. You will be tired after a long flight, and spending the whole day on busy and very stressful road sounds very exhausting. But the idea of a stopover sounds good, espacially since there are some very interesting places along the way. And the best thing about it: it's possible by train too, and it would still only cost ~100€ (if you book NOW). See HERE. I would recommend a combination of Erfurt and Leipzig, since these two cities are on the direct train route, don't require changes, and are very interesting. Erfurt for example, unlike Würzburg and Nuremberg, offers a perfectly preserved Altstadt (old town) that wasn't destroyed in WW2. It's the perfect town after a long flight: qaint medieval streets, little shops, rustic restaurants and beautiful corners everywhere. Stay the night there and see Leipzig on the second day. The city centre is compact and survived WW2, again unlike Würzburg and Nuremberg, relatively well, and offers enough for a few hours (Bachs church, the church were the revolution of 1989 started, many cafes, Germany most famous restaurant etc., and with the (very good) zoo there is a great sight for your kids.
I would forget Wartburg castle. That's simply to stressful after the long flight.

If you insist on driving (which none of us recommend after a transatlantic flight), stay somewhere near Frankfurt on the first night. If you want the medieval walled town experience that most tourists drive too far out of their way to visit at Rothenburg od der Tauber, try Büdingen instead. Probably only 30 minutes drive or less from the airport.

Leipzig is a good choice with kids. The zoo is probably the best in Germany.

I'll agree with the others that driving right after your flight is a bad idea.

"There is a direct train from the airport in Frankfurt to Berlins main train station which takes only 5 hours, and with some luck a group ticket costs only ~100€ if you book NOW."

Using the train is a much better idea BUT... if you buy this advance-sale saver far as suggested above, you may lose out on the ticket altogether if your flight is delayed... such tickets are train-specific. 3 of my last 4 flights to Europe have been substantially late.

I like your idea of traveling to Würzburg first - but you should just overnight there. You won't have time to see Nuremberg and Leipzig or much else the next day anyway. From FRA it's easy to get to Würzburg by train - the station is inside the airport - without too much expense, maybe €75 if you get the right sort of tickets. Würzburg is a delightful place to see anyway. There are several hotels very near the train station. Spend the rest of your day getting over your jet-lag and flight fatigue - rest, stretch your legs, have a short look around there instead. Then leave the next day for Berlin, either by car or train.

Another reason to stay somewhere near Frankfurt the first night and then travel to Berlin the next day is that you could use a reduced price, advance purchase, Savings Fare ticket to Berlin. I would not recommend using one of these "train specific" tickets right after arrival because of the chance you flight will arrive late.

If I were going from Frankfurt to Berlin with a stopover, I would stay somewhere near the Harz (Bad Harzburg, Wernigerode, or Quadlinburg), but I think that is too far to go just after arriving, with jetlag.

It's not quite "on the way", but I would recommend spending the first night in Bacharach, then using a Savings Fare ticket the next day from Bacharach to Berlin. A local (RMV) ticket to Bacharach is only 11,60€ per adult.

Hi,

After landing in Frankfurt I would suggest taking the train to Berlin, which I've done within a couple of hours upon arriving at FRA. If you don't want to go straight to Berlin, I would suggest staying over night in a small town west of Hannover...Minden, a nice, quaint and historical place. It all depends on which route you take...forget driving so soon after landing...by train from Frankfurt. I'd go for the train option. I don't recommend going through Frankfurt to Würzburg now.

Lori, I think you're absolutely righ to take the car and break down the trip into easily digestible peaces. What isn't quite clear to me yet is if you're planning on staying overnight in Nuremberg and then breaking the next leg of your journey into two days?

Also what type of accommodation are you looking for? Nuremberg only has got a hand full of "good" hotels and they are quite pricey therefore. Erfurt is definitely worth a stop and hotel rates there are usually quite good. Also Weimar (near Erfurt) would make for a great stop.

Leipzig is a very interesting city. It has good plenty of good hotels, plenty of sights to see, great shopping if needed and is usually more affordable than Nuremberg.

About traffic: A3 (Frankfurt-Würzburg-Nürnberg) is a key freeway in Germany and is horrible to drive during commute hours. However, if you left Frankfurt airport after 09:00am you should have a relatively smooth drive to Würzburg. Würzburg to Nuremberg gets pretty bad after around 3pm local time.

It's geographically shorter (and freeways are less croweded) if from Würzburg you took A7 and then A70 via Bamberg and Bayreuth towards Berlin. Both of those cities would be worth a stop as well.

Thanks everyone, for your replies! We discussed the train idea but we realized it would be a lot more expensive since we are going to a lot of places. Berlin, Vienna, Prague, Salzburg, The Berner Oberland and Stuttgart are our main stops. We thought about taking the trains for part of our trip and a car for part of our trip but that leave us lugging around 3 carseats when we don't have the car. We don't want to do that after wondering around Ireland and the UK with 2 carseats almost 3 years ago. I do see the practicality of the trains and this kids would love it, but I think it would be harder on us in the long run. We are mostly looking into homeaway.com and airbnb.com for places to stay, and thank you for the traffic information that will be awesome!!! So if we spend the night in Nuremberg, Erfurt or one of the other suggestions we would go to Berlin the next day, if we stopped somewhere else, like Leipzig, it would be for just the afternoon so it would be more of an afternoon thing. We will be looking into some of the places recommended!!

Wow, I agree.. driving right after a flight? Is there a way to spend a night in Frankfurt and consider that your "down" day?
I did the opposite direction when we were in Berlin driving to Frankfurt, but I spent 3 days in Berlin before driving, and, I am used to driving long distances.

In Berlin, you definitely do not need a car. They have excellent bus and metro. And, traveling with small children, it would be better to not haul them directly from the airport.

Unless you really want to see a smaller town/ village on your way to Berlin, I would agree to use a train.

What kind of a vehicle are you going to get for 4 adults and 3 kids? And the luggage for all 7 of you? That could turn out to be more expensive than taking the train when you add up all the costs of rental, driving and parking.

Everything I've read, especially at Gemut.com, indicates that getting something big enough may be difficult. If you haven't researched the Gemut.com website, be sure to do so. They specialize in Germany and the free download on what you should know about renting a car in Europe is very direct about the details.