Where would you take an extended stay in Germany?

You've seen a lot of Germany already after 6 visits. We will need to know what you've seen before if we are to recommend something new for you.

Thanks Russ! I'm more interested in hearing what others would like to do, rather than getting advice specific to us. Sorry for not being clear. Take care!

I’d go to my happy place, one of the towns on the eastern side of Bodensee; Überlingen or Lindau if you don’t have a car as there’s great train and ferry service. Meersburg is lovely if you have a car as no train stops there and you can hike in the vineyards. In addition to a week of biking, hiking, promenade strolling, etc there’s also the history of the area with the zeppelin museum in Friedrichshafen, the prehistoric pile building people of Unteruldingen. There is an open air stage for summer opera on the water in Bregenz. The island of Mainau is beautiful for its horticultural display. For more off beat activities, there is a hops museum in Tettnang and nesting storks in villages close to Überlingen.

After a week on the lake I’d head to the Bavarian Alps for a final week—visit a town and area you haven’t been to on a past visit. This gives you 2 weeks in a university city, a week on a beautiful lake town and a week in the Alps. I’ve done all of these over various trips and I highly recommend a lake town and then the Alps after Freiburg. Keep it simple, keep it in the south.

OTOH, if you haven’t been to some of the interesting, beautiful, evolving cities of the former East, I’d head in that direction. That is an area I’ve spent months in over several trips and could always find something else that I want to know more about.

Mein Regierungsbezirk Die Oberpfalz. Nord Hessen oder Niedersachesen. Österreich, Südtirol, Schweiz.

On the other end of Bodensee, the island town of Lindau is a lovely place to visit. I had probably spent half a dozen day trips to Lindau, passing through, before I finally spent four nights there in 2017. From Lindau, you can take a train down to Friedrichshafen and the Zeppelin Museum, or you can go around the eastern end of the lake to Bregenz or even down to Liechtenstein (although I've never found anything in Liechtenstein worth seeing, unless you just want to add it to your list of counries). Lindau is kind of a hub for ferries that go up and down the lake. We took a ferry across to Rorschach, Switzerland.

A couple of hours north of there is the Iller Valley, out of Immenstadt iA., I've spent five one-week vacations in the town of Fischen in the valley. At the top end of the valley is Oberstdorf, Germany's number 2 ski resort and home of the German Ski Team. The town of Oberstdorf looks naturally like what Vail is contrived to look like. Just up the hill from Oberstdorf is Kleinwalsertal, a valley that is part of Austria but only accessible from Germany. It's a really good place for hiking. From the valley, there is a daily bus that will take you over to Füssen for the day.

My recommendations on where to spend those two weeks or so focus on places in eastern or North Germany visiting: Minden an der Weser, Halle, Weimar (that city should be uniquely interesting to her), Meissen, Leipzig, Soest/Westf. Hameln, Greifswald, Stralsund, Schwerin, Eutin/Holstein, Schleswig, Braunschweig, Husum, Magdeburg, Hildesheim, Goettingen, Jena, Erfurt, east Brandenburg, ie from Berlin to the Oder, the Greater Berlin area, or just the region of Schleswig-Holstein which has numerous lovely cultural and historical towns.....Alle Vorschläge sind doch leicht hinzufahren, und allerdings reisewert.

If you want something different, how about Ostfriesland .

Der echte Norden.

Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg. Sylt, Glücksburg, Plön, Büsum, St. Peter-Ording, Schleswig, Wyk, Niebüll, Glückstadt, Fehmarn, Bad Segeberg, Travemünde, Helgoland . . . .

But the other suggestions are also good--I am looking forward to an upcoming trip to Ostfriesland and wish I had more time to explore the region. And definitely would love to explore more of the former DDR--from Usedom to Görlitz, Rügen to the Erzgebirge. So little time, so many places--and I live here!

I would also, personally, look north, especially since you are already in Freiburg for some time.

Will you have a car ?

Thanks all, this is super-helpful.!

We could have a car if needed. I've never driven there before -- we've always taken trains and walked. But I'd get a car if needed.

I lived in Germany (US Army) for 6 years and my wife for 9 years including 2 years in college in Munich. We have talked about doing something like this, renting a room in a single town with day trips. We came to the conclusion that it would not work for us. We travel to Germany almost every year but moving from place to place works better for us. Staying in one place means our favored evening walks would in the same circles night after night. About 3 days is the max we can enjoy of this.

Würzburg would come closest to working for us as there are so many good day trips from there: Ochsenfurt, Marktbreit, Iphofen, Rothenburg, Nürnberg, Aschaffenburg, Bamberg, Kulmbach, etc. Still the evenings would be too much the same. We like to focus on a region of the country but still move every couple of days. Hotel hopping is preferable to returning to the same base day after day.

You know yourself best.

Apparently, I am the odd one here.
I'd seriously consider staying in Berlin for a couple of weeks. There is seemingly endless things to see and do as well as fantastic food. We spent 9 days in Berlin last year and there are many things we missed.
2-3 days in Potsdam with the remainder in Berlin would be good too.

We prefer to stay in one location and explore it more thoroughly as opposed to going to many places.

I’d spend 2-3 weeks hiking and soaking up the beauty of Berchtesgadenland.

Mountains, cows, the smell of fresh cut hay. Hiking, königsee, various cable car trams, nazi history, Salzburg, salt mine,

soaking up the beauty of Berchtesgadenland

I too appreciate Berchesgaden Land. I've made 2 day trips (stayed in Freilassing) and stayed eight nights there in four trips.

But there are so many places I've enjoyed along Germany's southern Border - Berchtesgaden, Reit im Winkel, the area around Wendelstein and Bayrischzell, Mittenwald, Pfronten, Oberstdorf, and Oberstaufen. There is so much there; I keep going back.

Wow some really good ideas and great places mentioned at the Baltic Sea. I personally adore this area of Germany because it is so different from the southern part where I live.
You could relax at the islands of Rügen or Usedom. Or you could stay at cities like Stralsund, Wismar or Kühlungsborn (small but nice). But my personal favorite is Fischland-Darss Zingst - a peninsula located in a National Park. Oh boy what a great landscape and spirit if one loves nature.
EDIT: Just found a blog in English about Fischland-Darss-Zingst giving a good overview: https://www.sommertage.com/en/baltic-sea-fischland-darss-zingst/ Hope it is ok to link a commercial blog
Sure you will have a good time :-)
Mignon

I’ve spent a week in Tuebingen and could easily spend longer, especially if I had a car. I spent 5 days in Lichtenfels, a smaller town north of Bamberg. It would be fine for longer, especially with a car. Eichstatt looks very doable with a car.

BERLIN of course ... from someone who, since 2008, has spent a cumulative 130+ nights there.

Some more thoughts to an old post... How about the eastern side of Bavaria. Oberpfälzer Wald, Bayerischer Wald and south towards Passau. The Road Less Traveled. Different German dialects. Some nice areas along the Austrian and German borders too. Wandern ohne Ende. You can always travel into the Czech Republic. Probably best to have a car. Famous for porcelain and crystal, but sadly those days are almost gone now. Good Bier and Schnaps. Some German food you've probably never tried before, and maybe don't want to.

LOVE Passau! Were there in 2018.

Went to Prague on our trip this past may -- stayed overnight in lovely Regensburg, then took the train. Great visit, but best to avoid on weekends, IMO.

Thanks!

I believe stays in Freiburg proper do not include a free KONUS card. I like hiking, but two weeks would be a lot. I worry about summer congestion with a car, otherwise convenient for extensive forest landmarks, like waterfalls, etc.

We’ve stayed in Freiburg for a month on a home exchange and revisited it several times since. It’s a wonderful city for just being in and has so many possibilities for day trips by train and auto.

To me the obvious answer is Berlin. There's so many day trips from Berlin I've never even had a chance to do because there's so much in Berlin.

One not mentioned is Franken - as in the "Francionan Switzerland". If you like beer, this is the REAL beer capital of Germany and there are many routes to do "beer hiking" inbetween small towns that have one or two unique breweries. We based in Bamberg for this but there's lots of options.

I do love the Bodensee but all the best places tend to book up months/a year in advance so if you're leaning that way, I'd start lookign into it now.