Best of Germany 13 days

Yes, I took this tour in Oct. 2019. I had a great time! Hamburg is a great starting point. There is a bit of bus time, but Germany is a bigger country than most realize. Our guide used the bus time to educate us on German history, politics, music and good chocolates! The local tour guides were fantastic...and the Berlin walking tour was very enjoyable and educational. We also took a boat ride on the Rhine...toured a several Castles. It was everything I wanted for my trip. Look at the trips reviews...it's a trip worth taking!!!

mual1530: here's a link to the page with the tour reviews: https://www.ricksteves.com/tours/germany/best-germany-tour

click on the 5th Plus-In-A-Circle down from the link just above

Oh yeah, the tour reviews. Thanks everyone. What did you do for pre-tour and post-tour?

I have been researching this tour, I plan to do it someday though. I would arrive 2 or 3 days early to Hamburg if you have the time to spare. It helps you get over jet lag and gives you freedom to explore things that won’t be on the tour. Then post tour my plan is to stay 5 days after in Berlin. It’s a city I’ve been anticipating seeing again! I barely scratched the surface on my previous time there on the Berlin Prague Vienna tour which is wonderful by the way. I suggest getting the Rick Steves guidebook to Germany even though Covid-19 has made a lot of changes to traveling. The basics are still applicable. If you don’t want to buy one, your public library likely has his guidebooks. Mine does.
Enjoy your adventure!

I took this tour in 2018 - my first RS tour, in fact. I loved it. We had an awesome guide, saw amazing places, and it's one of my favorite tours. Definitely go a day or two early and spend extra time in Hamburg as well as extra days in Berlin at the end of the tour - very worth your time and so much to see. Go online and you'll find lots of interesting things in Hamburg besides what's in the guide books - including Minatur World - google it for the videos that are incredible. Yes there was a fair amount of bus time because there is a lot of ground to cover, but the towns were wonderful and each one had a unique character. I recommend it highly!!

Hey mua1530,

We took this trip in 2017 when it was newly offered. We opted to fly round trip to Berlin from Atlanta. The multi-city fare was way more expensive than the train ticket (~$40) from Berlin to Hamburg. Hubby and I both really enjoyed this tour and would recommend. This is what we did before and after the tour.

Before tour and while in Berlin we took an Original Berlin Walks Tour to Potsdam. Great tour, first by public transit to Potsdam then the walking tour. Saw our first nude Germans sunning in a park. Ended at Sanssouci Palace, we opted to buy tickets to tour the inside then took public transit back to Berlin.

Next day, we took in the Neues Museum (bust of Queen Nefertiti), a Spree River cruise and the Pergamon Museum. Two museums of this caliber was too much to really take in all the exhibits, but we enjoyed both. Would recommend one per day.

The train to Hamburg was 2 hours and we just walk around Hamburg until it was time to meet up with our group. Carlos (main) and Torbin (apprentice as he was to lead the next scheduled RS Germany tour) were our guides and both were excellent!

After the tour and back in Berlin, we stayed an extra day to take the subway to the Belin Wall museum and the outdoor section of remains of the Berlin Wall and border strip -- highly recommend.

We also took in the Check Point Charlie museum - a retro and quirky museum that show the various and ingenious way East Berliners used to escape to the West. We see tricked out Trabants with hideout spaces in the trunk, gas tanks and upholstery; suitcases where people folded themselves inside, numerous tunnel escapes to freedom, ziplines across the border strip, homemade airplanes, dangerous canoe trips, and dangerous swims across the Spree River.

You will enjoy this tour. Best wishes and happy traveling!

I’m also curious about this tour - specifically if anyone has taken during Oktoberfest? If so, how they incorporate or if any changes to Itinerary?

Thank you everyone. Read all the reviews and starting to read RS Germany book. I have additional questions on your pre tour activities in Hamburg. Any recommendations that don’t overlapped with the tour?

Somethings that I plan to do before the tour include:
- Taking the train over to Lübeck and picking up some Marzipan at Café Niederegger, visiting the cathedral and Museum Holstentor.
- Beatles tour in St Pauli
- FC St Pauli stadium tour