Hi, Me and my wife will be based out of Stuttgart from 18th October to 18th November. We plan to travel to as many places as possible during the weekends and also take any one week fully off and travel around. Both of us have Schengen visas and so would like to travel to other nearby EU countries as well. Please note that this will be our first time in Europe and so we want to cover most of the usual places. Need your help and suggestions for planning this out considering the following factors: 1. Both are 28 year old adults with Schengen visas 2. Like to travel in budget/economy throughout. Open to stays in good youth hostels 3. Will travel only during weekends but taking one week completely off for travelling apart from weekends 4. Please keep in mind the cold weather when you suggest places to visit We were thinking of visiting Italy/Spain or a bit of both during our week off.
Please suggest a good itinerary based on the above factors along with cheap travel and stay options. Thanks in advance!
Posted by
Stuttgart, Germany
3050 posts
I live in Stuttgart so maybe I can help you out. Will you have a car while you are here? There are a lot of good options by train and car (and plane) but that would change what I recommend. I would definitely go to Strasbourg/Alsace/Colmar for one weekend. It's a 90 minute TGV ride from Stuttgart to Strasbourg, about another hour train ride from Strasbourg to Colmar. Also easily done by car, which would give you more of an opportunity to see small villages between Strasbourg and Colmar. It's wine harvest season so a great time to visit this area. If you decide to go, you can save money by buying the tickets now at TGV-Europe.com. Munich is another natural weekend trip, best visited by high speed ICE train. Also buy tickets now for best prices. Berlin would be a good alternative to Munich, although it's quite a bit farther away (6 hours) but it's an amazing city. If you're willing to arrive late on Friday and depart Sunday afternoon it's doable, but hectic as a weekend trip. If you want to see Italy/Spain, that would be best suited for the week of travel. Germanwings, a discount airline here, flies to Barcelona, as does Swiss air. I'd look at booking your tickets now to also save money. I haven't been to Italy so I can't give you advice on that. There's a lot to visit near Stuttgart, possibly for evening trips on weekdays. The towns of Esslingen am Neckar and Tuebingen are a must. Weil Der Stadt is also great. If you have a car, a weekend trip through the Black Forest would be nice. You can hostel everywhere of course. Also consider couchsurfing.org for cheap places to stay.
Posted by
OP
Bangalore, Karnataka, India
20 posts
Thanks Sarah! That was very useful information indeed! I don't have an internationally valid Driving License so cars are pretty much ruled out. But I have a friend who stays in Waldorf who has promised to drive and show us around a bit :) Couple of other questions: 1. We would also like to do a weekend trip to Paris. What would be the cheapest option?
2. Are there any overnight trains that we can take from Stuttgart to Florence/Venice/Rome? 3. I have seen the germanwings website and was tempted by the "Blind booking" offer they have. Do you have any experience or feedback about that? Again, thank you so much for your reply!
Posted by
Stuttgart, Germany
3050 posts
Paris is totally doable as a weekend trip. Since you won't have a car, the cheapest and fastest way to go is by direct TGV train, which you can also buy your ticket at tgv-europe.com (remember to not let the website reroute you to "rail europe" where you'll pay higher prices - click to stay on tgv-europe.com!!) You can then use the "price calendar" function to find the cheapest tickets. That said, the cheap weekend tickets to Paris tend to sell out early, so you may be stuck with more expensive tickets. It may be worth it, at this late date, to consider a Eurail pass. Usually buying point-to-point tickets in advance is cheaper, but the later in the game it gets, the more you may save with a Eurail pass. You'll have to price out individual tickets versus the cost of the pass to see which is a better deal, and remember that in France and Italy, you also need to purchase seat reservations for the high speed trains at additional cost. You can do that from the "DeutscheBahn Reisenzentrum" at the Stuttgart main train station. If you buy point-to-point tickets, the reservation is included in the cost of the ticket, making it simpler. Germanwings blind bookings are fantastic! I've done it twice, once I went to Berin, the other time to Vienna. If there are any cities on the list you don't want to go to, you can exclude them and pay 5 euro more for the booking per city. I really like flying with Germanwings but you have to read the fine print, particularly around carry-on luggage restrictions. But for a weekend trip it's quite easy to pack light. I'm afraid I don't know much about rail connections between Stuttgart and Italy but you can use bahn.com in English to quickly find the connections, although you may need to purchase the tickets on the Italian train site. You'd have to train to Munich and catch the night train from there, I think.
Posted by
San Francisco
14980 posts
Hi, As regards to "trips in and around Stuttgart," I would suggest the area between Tübingen and Sigmaringen an der Donau. Both places have an HI hostel.