My wife and I will be visiting Germany (our second visit) in early April and continuing through late May 2013. We will likely fly to Frankfurt; however Frankfurt is not a destination per sebut it's where flights are direct, assuming we depart the US from Atlanta. The first part of the visit we'll travel by car, the second part of the visit will be via train. For the first part of the visit we will rent a car and travel south to north beginning in Munich and ending in Hamburg (or beginning in Hamburg and ending in Munich) with stops at Augsburg, Rothenburg, Nurnberg, Cologne, Aachen, Oldenburg and Bremen (or reverse order if we start in Hamburg). The second part of the trip will be via train that will continue from either Hamburg or Munich and include stops in Budapest, Prague and Berlin (see our other post on the Helpline/Transportation with questions about night trains). The train segment of the visit will begin in Hamburg and end in Budapest or begin in Munich and end in Berlindepending on where the motor trip ends. Regardless of whether the visit ends in Berlin or Budapestwe'll make a bee-line via train (night train?) or plane back to Frankfurt for the trip home. This said, is there any special nuance/benefit for going in a clock-wide or counter-clock-wise routee.g. begin in Hamburg and end in Berlin, or begin in Munich and end in Budapest? The flight back to US will likely depart Frankfurt in the morning probably between 9:00-10:00 am local time. We'd like to avoid spending the night in Frankfurt just to make the morning flight home, so the leg between Berlin-Frankfurt or Budapest-Frankfurt may determine how we plan the overall journey. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Posted by
Huntsville, AL, USA
8319 posts
Jon: I'm sorry but your itinerary is a little complicated and hard to understand. Your most efficient way to do your trip is to fly into Hamburg and rent a car. Then, do your circle trip from to Augsburg, Rothenburg, Nurnberg, Cologne, Aachen, Oldenburg and Bremen. Turn your car in at Berlin, where you'll catch the train to Munich. Then take trains to Prague, thru Vienna and down to Budapest. Fly home from Budapest. Open jaw'd tickets are sometimes no more expensive than flying from one city, and backtracking to your original destination city is often very costly. And if you'd like, you can do the itinerary in reverse.