My husband and I are traveling with 2 teenagers for 1 week the end of July. Should we rent a car or travel by rail? What cities in southern Germany should we visit?
Posted by
Danville, VT
12040 posts
Well, we need a little more detail to make recommendations...
This I will say, though. Don't use a car while in Munich. Few places to park, winding streets that are very difficult to navigate, and most of the sites are within walking distance or easy public transport distance to each other.
Posted by
Calgary
2297 posts
A bit more information would be helpful.
If you visit "cities" the train may be a good idea, if you visit smaller towns it will be probably easier to reach them by car. If you stay within Bavaria you can get regional train tickets that are very cheap, If you travel longer distances train tickets for 4 could be more expensive than renting a car.
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19274 posts
A Bayern-Ticket will provide unlimited train travel in 2nd class on regional trains all day (after 9 AM on workdays) for all four of you for €28. You can't rent a car and buy gasoline for anywhere near that. There is far more to see accessible by regional rail than you could possibly see in 1 week. Base you self in Munich; that could easily take up three days. There are a lot of places (Rothenburg, Würzburg, Nürnberg, Burghausen, Salzburg, Berchtesgaden, Oberammergau, Füssen, just to name a few) you can go for a day or overnight trip from Munich.
Posted by
Salt Lake City
1528 posts
We have come to love traveling by train in Germany. The Bayern-Ticket is a real bargain as Lee mentioned. We did loop in and out of Munich a couple years back with our adult (17 & 20) "kids". We visited Würzburg, Rothenburg, Nürnberg, Regensburg and Salzburg. There are castles in W, N & S. Regensburg still has a bit of a Roman Gate built into a couple buildings. All are delightful old towns
We were stationed in Germany some years ago and much enjoyed car travel as well. Car travel was best in my mind to rural locations and villages. Cars in German towns were more of a nuisance for us.
Trains let us focus more on our experience with our kids. Plus, it was more challenging/fun.
Regards, Gary
Posted by
Frankfurt, Germany
9220 posts
I just posted this on another thread, but you get to have this website too. Check the school vacation schedule for Bavaria or any of the other states you are going through. The autobahns can get really jammed when vacation hits each of the states. Germany staggers their vacations throughout the summer, so the entire country is not on vacation the same time.
http://www.holidays-info.com/School-Holidays-Germany/2009/school-holidays_2009.html