We will be flying into and out of Frankfurt in late June with 8 non-travel days in between. We can rent a car if necessary. Some of the places we are considering visiting are listed below. We don%26#39;t want to do too much and feel rushed, but also want to see as much as we can. We are looking forward to seeing beautiful scenery, castles, biergartens, wineries, riding along a river, etc. We would appreciate any advice on itineraries, time spent in each place, etc.
Thanks!
Frankfurt
Heidelberg
Stuttgart
Black Forest/Freiberg
Mosel Valley
Duseldorf
Cologne
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You could spend your 8 days in and around any of the places and still have lots of excellent things that you missed. I%26#39;ll mention a few things about my favorite places. The Neckar River beween Heidelberg and Stuttgart has many vineyards and castles. The small towns of Bad Wimpfen, Lauffen, and Besigheim are all very enjoyable. Stuttgart has the excellent Mercedes Benz museum enjoyed by all visitors and the small Porsche museum which would appeal to its enthusiasts among lots of other good museums. Ludwigsburg just north of Stuttgart has Germany%26#39;s largest perfectly preserved Baroque palace with its tourable rooms, four excellent museums, extensive gardens including a fairytale one, a porcellan manufacturer and sales room, and two smaller associated palaces set in a deer park, actually several days to see it all. Esslingen just to the east of Stuttgart has an excellently preserved medieval old town center with the famous church whose spires are connected by a covered wooden bridge. South of Stuttgart is the old college town of Tuebingen which we enjoy more than Heidelberg and visit quite frequently. Just north of it is the excellently preserved Bebenhausen medieval monastery. A short distance south of Tuebingen is the fairytale-like casle Hohenzollern (Hechingen). East of Tuebingen and Reutlingen is another fairytale-like castle Lichtenstein. Close to it is the Baerenhoehle (Bear%26#39;s Cave) and a little further east Germany%26#39;s oldest state stables at Marbach (Gomadingen) where you can ener the barns for close up views of the magnificent stallions in their stalls. These last mentioned things are in the Schwaebische Alb (low limestone mountain range). Nearby is the largest castle ruins of the Alb Hohenneuffen with good views and an excellent restaurant. Bad Urach set in a valley is a pleasant town to visit in this area.
There is much more to see in the area I have covered, but these are things I enjoy repeatedly visiting. The Black Forest is then a short distance to the southwest. As you are driving, I would recommend getting map #24 of Die Shell Regional Karte series centered on Stuttgart (available at Shell gas stations) as it will cover all that I have mentioned. It shows all rural roads, interesting churches, monasteries, castles, palaces, towns, scenic drives, vista points, etc. The better places to visit are highlighted in yellow for cultural things and green for natural features, and the best also have a box around them. Even non-highlighed things can be excellent to visit.
You would have a good trip seeing excellent things and there will be not too many German tourists and almost no foreign ones, leting you see the %26quot;real%26quot; Germany.
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Skip
Frankfurt
Freiburg
Düsseldorf
Cologne
and do a tour including Rhine/Mosel valley, Heidelberg down to Stuttgart via Heilbronn and Ludwigsburg and back to Frankfurt via Tübingen or Baden-Baden. Plenty of things to see along that way, includes all your favourites plus tons of etc.
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Although I live in Düsseldorf, I would agree with the last person and say skip it. Frankfurt is also not really that interesting. Cologne is worth a visit for the cathedral alone, which is enormous and was the tallest man-made structure in Europe until the Eiffel Tower was built.
What I would recommend is the drive or train trip along the Rhein from Bonn to Frankfurt. It is really lovely scenery, lots of castles and vineyards. You can stay in a castle near St. Goar, so that is a pretty unique experience, although not cheap. Make sure that you drive or take the slow train right along the river - there are express trains and autobahns that go nowhere near the river. A lot quicker but not interesting at all!
I haven%26#39;t really done the Mosel Valley properly, but I think it is a similar experience to the Rhein Valley, so you probably should just focus on one, depending upon what other places you want to visit.
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Frankfurt is very well worth a visit. It%26#39;s more interesting than Cologne, has got a better night life etc.
The first post is way too Stuttgart-centric!
From Frankfurt airport rent a car and drive up to Bacharach in the Rhine valley and then on to Koblenz and the Mosel valley. Stay overnite in Cochem or Trier
The next day drive to Cologne, spend a full day in Cologne (add Bonn if you want) and end your day in Düsseldorf. I recommend a hotel in the Media Harbour where there are plenty of restaurants and bars in the harbour. You%26#39;ll love it. Start the next morning with a ride up the Rhine Tower to enjoy the breathaking view, then continue into downtown for a few hours of shopping in Königsalle (Kö), one of Germany%26#39;s best shopping streets! In the late afternoon (although mind the rush hour) drive down A3 to Frankfurt but stay in Mainz or Wiesbaden.
Start your next day with a visit to the cathedral of Mainz or Wiesbaden%26#39;s beautiful downtown. The Rheingau, the Tuscany of Germany is next on your agenda. Visit the Eberbach convent, Johannisberg castle, Metternich castle (you can do free wine sampling in all of them) etc. to Rüdesheim (don%26#39;t stay too long, it%26#39;s a tourist trap) and on to Assmannshausen. Ride up the chair lift to Niederwalddenkmal for the breathtaking view of the Rhine valley. Then take the ferry boat to Bingen or Ingelheim (car ferry) and follow signs to Autobahn towards Darmstadt and on to Heidelberg. Day ends in Heidelberg.
Then do whatever the Stuttgart-centrics recommended.
Spend the entire afternoon and evening of your last day in Frankfurt.
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Very close to Freiburg is an interesting wine region called the Kaiserstuhl, which is situated on an extinct volcano. The burgandy wines there are excellent. I live in a German wine region but the white and red burganies here don%26#39;t compare.
There is a winefest in one of the weinhofs each weekend in summer, and they are a lot of fun. The villages are scenic, flowers everywhere, fun people.
Colmar, France is about 20 min. away, a wonderful medieval village in Alsace, and Freiburg is a terrific university town. Basel, Switzerland is about an hour down the autobahn. So much to do in that small area, so little time~!
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I%26#39;d also agree with sticking with Freiburg and including Colmar, both beautiful.
En route between the 2 you can visit the wine cooperative at Breisach (that%26#39;s where we discovered those wonderful reds!)
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I%26#39;d also agree with sticking with Freiburg and including Colmar, both beautiful.
En route between the 2 you can visit the wine cooperative at Breisach (that%26#39;s where we discovered those wonderful reds!)
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