Curious about itinerary Germany, Czech Republic

You didn't say if you are flying out of Frankfurt too. Does the 16 days start when you board the plane from the USA or actually in Europe? You will lose a day traveling from USA to Germany. Both Germany and Czech Rep are worth looking at. Here's a route in which I actually did a few years ago....try to get a connecting flight from Frankfurt to Berlin so you can start there....Berlin 3 full days...train (Die Bahn) from Berlin to Prague (4hrs)...which you can plan the tickets out for a stop over in Dresden for 1 full day...Prague 3 full days, 2 extra days to take in Cesky Krumlov & Hluboka, & possibly an day trip from Prague to Karlstein....you can then take a plane hop to Munich for 3 full days. The left over time is travel.

My flight is in and out of Frankfurt.
So my plan was a Germany/Czech rail pass for 5 days, in a kind of circle maybe, Frankfurt to Munich to Prague to Berlin and back to Frankfurt.

I was thinking of flying to Frankfurt and hoppng directly on a train to Munich or Prague because I havent heard too many great things about Frankfurt compared to other areas, I had a good priced flight.

I am open to other countries I just dont want to cram too much in to that short time.

Both Berlin and Prague are worth five days easily. If you want, you can travel to Dresden as a day trip. There's enough to do for a full day in the pedetrian only Old Town, and you might even consider staying there overnight to give you more opportunity to explore. It's on the train route from Berlin to Prague anyway.

Prague has a number of good day trips, including Kutna Hora and Karlovy Vara. Cesky Krumlov is theoretically possible as a day trip, but it's about a three or four hour bus ride each way, so you need to leave early in the morning and come back late. Frankly, I'm not the biggest Cesky Krumlov fan. It's quaint and lovely architecturally, but absolutely overrun with tourists. It's being loved to death, in my opinion. I wish I had been there ten or fifteen years ago.

Munich is definitely worth a visit, and if you drink beer, you owe it to yourself to try some Munich brews and compare them to the superb (and far cheaper) beers in Prague.

You should consider stopping at a spa city in the Czech Republic. Karlovy Vary or Marianske Lazne are both good places. They're on your way to Munich from Prague. You won't see too many Americans, but you will see Russians.

I can tell you from yearly experience both Karlovy Vary and Marianske Lazne are not on the way to Munich, but can be on the way to Frankfurt from Prague. Take a look at a map to see what I mean. Its a little over 2 hr drive to Marinanske Lazne & almost 3 hr drive to Karlovy Vary west/northwest from Prague's Airport. These two places are way over priced. If you want a real Czech spa experience for a fraction of the cost, then Trebon in the southern part of CZ is the place. But I would not recommend using the rail or bus in CZ unless you are very open minded and easygoing. The experience can be a real culture and time warp shock for most Americans. Also, folks outside of Prague do not speak much English, so unless you know exactly the times on the route you want to travel & have it written in Czech, you may run into some problems. I have limited Czech speaking skills and have run into a few issues of implied meanings or slang when Czechs answer me.

I was curious about olomouc myself, that seems interesting, i hear not so many tourists, how many days would be sufficient? Are you familiar with the hostel there, the poet's corner?

Bryan, Since you are flying in/out Frankfurt, my advice is to keep it simple. Otherwise you will be spending all your time traveling from place to place and very little time sightseeing. My earlier suggested loose Frankfurt connecting flight to Berlin then Die Bahn train to Prague interary should work well. If you want to add a side trip like Cesky Krumlov, I suggest you use either Sarka or Mike in Rick Steve's guidebook. Otherwise, either take a hopper flight or train to Munich. Then after a few days go back to Frankfurt.

Deb is correct; Karlovy Vary and Marianske Lazne are not exactly "on the way" to Munich. I count a little zig-zagging as being on the way. Unless you're a nervous traveler who likes to be in control, I think you shouldn't hesitate about traveling on a Czech train. Your conductor might not speak English, but you can usually find somebody who will translate if you have a question. What I liked about visiting the spa cities is that in Karlovy Vary, you're completely immersed in Eastern European culture, and in Marianske Lazne, there might be fewer Russians, but there are still almost no Americans. Also you can buy some garnet jewelry for your mom (or any other woman in your life.)

Well, I am leaning again towards, Prague, Krakow and Berlin. this will be my first trip to this area of europe and maybe i will hold of on side trips till next trip. I do fly in and out of Frankfurt, but was thinking of getting a Germany/Poland pass with a Prague excusion. Frankfurt to Prague to Krakow to Berlin to Frankfurt.

I guess my question is would you want to add in a trip to Krakow, or use the rest for other areas of Germany/Czech?

In that post I forgot to mention I was also thinking of skipping Krakow and leaving it for another trip and adding Vienna,

Frankfurt to Berlin to Prague to Vienna to Frankfurt, if possible.

I keep coming back to Vienna for some reason? anyone think that would be a good trip?

Munich is worth a visit. Maybe Frankfurt to Munich, stop in Salzburg on way to Vienna, side trip to Bratislava, to Prague, to Berlin, then back to Frankfurt or open jaw home from Berlin.

May is the best month of the year for travel. You beat the summer tourist rush, so they aren't sick of ugly Americans yet. Lodging prices haven't gone up yet. You rarely need to worry about reservations. The days are long, the weather is decent and it's usually dry. The other good month for Germany is September because of the wine harvest and festivals.