gishua

Greetings everyone!

Trip Idea: Amsterdam, Berlin, Dresden, Prague, Munich

Thank you for reading our post. My girlfriend and I are in the initial stages of planning our trip to these areas. We have read quite a few posts about not cramming too much into the trip, but sometimes it's hard to narrow things down.

We want to narrow down what would be best for us to do in our time that we have and in which order we should travel to each area. I'm hoping to maximize our time and see the most that we can, but we don't want to be overly rushed. Fast pace is ok, just not ludicrous speed.

Likes:
- Museums, History, Beer (Oktoberfest), Castles, Hiking, Sightseeing, Shopping and more...

Travel Duration / Travel Dates / To & From:
- 18-20 days
- September 2016 / October 2016
- The idea right now would be to fly into Amsterdam and leave from Munich.

Itinerary
- Travel Day - 1 day
- Amsterdam - 4 days (Train on last day / overnight?)
- Berlin - 4 days (Train on last day early)
- Dresden - 1 day (Stay for day and leave early next morning)
- Prague - 3 days (Train on last day / overnight?)
- Munich - 4 days
- Travel Day - 1 day

Questions:
1. Is this the best use of our time or should we go in a different order?
2. Is adding in Vienna out of the question? I think it is, but just wondering.
3. Any chance for day trips? If so what would you recommend?
4. Should we cut out Berlin and go a different route through Germany?
5. If #4 is cut out, is the Rhine River out of the question?
6. Are trains the best use of our time or something else

We really want to visit Amsterdam for the museums as well as Munich for Oktoberfest.

Thank you everyone in advance,

Josh & Tori

Dukey1

I wouldn't bother with anything but a day train to Berlin from A-dam.

Have you made reservations for Munich? Do that NOW. If not, consider staying somewhere such as nearby Augsburg.

PalenQ

For lots of great info on trains in those countries check www.ricksteves.com; www.budgeteuropetravel.com and www.seat61.com - look into the German Railpass for Germany which also covers train or to Prague.

danon

Seems good ..you can fly Easyjet A-B for about 50 euros.

PalenQ

well there is also an overnight train connection between Amsterdam (changing in Duisburg, Germany I think to the actual CNL or City Night Liner German night train - save travel time and the cost of a night in a hotel. That said night trains aren't for everyone - light sleepers especially.

Andrew

Your itinerary as suggested is fine.

Use a website like bahn.com (the German train website but covers other countries, too) to check train connection times between cities:

http://www.bahn.com/i/view/USA/en/index.shtml

Then you can estimate for yourself the times between cities (Prague to Munich vs Prague to Vienna to Munich), see how much extra time it would take for the train, then decide if it's worth it. (Vienna was not my favorite city in Europe. Prague was amazing. But everyone has different opinions.) You could check the extra time to detour between Amsterdam and Berlin for say a quick visit to the Rhine or the Mosel Valley. (I did a lightning visit to the Mosel Vally on my trip to Germany in 2014 - one night and lots of train time. Not sure if it was worth it, but the Burg Eltz castle is really eye-popping, and the area is very beautiful.)

Four days in Munich means four days of partying for Oktoberfest with a few excursions? (Day trip to Salzburg?) If that's your plan, that's fine, but otherwise you don't need nearly that much time. You might still trim a night, though I realize you have maybe a long train day from Prague and then your last day is a departure day.

You could lose a day from Berlin, too. It's a big, spread-out city, with a lot of history but different than some of the other cities in that it was mostly flattened during World War II and many historical sites were destroyed or rebuilt. I had four nights there - more than I probably needed - but it did allow me to slow down a little and take my time. The history in Berlin is sometimes heavy and not simple to absorb in say an afternoon. But you could spend a week there if the things there were of great interest to you.

You could make Dresden a long day stop off the train just to visit the museums (leave your bags at the train station) - which would make for a long day but would avoid one extra check-in/check out of a hotel. Nothing wrong with a night in Dresden. Some people love the city.

gishua

Thank you everyone, especially Andrew for all the insight. We appreciate this very much. I am going to do more research before I barrage you with more questions.

I will post soon. Thank you!

PalenQ

http://www.fodors.com/world/europe/germany/berlin

traveller1959

Sorry, but you have got really poor advice above.

Rick Steves is the last source I would recommend for Germany. He knows nothing of the country, even his maps are grossly inaccurate. Better believe the peoples who live here.

If you are interesting in museums, Berlin will fascinate you. Start with Amsterdam and see that Berlin's museums will top them. The Pergamon Museum is one of the world's top five museums and when you stand in front of the gate of Babylon you will see why. Nefertiti's bust is better than everything you see in Egypt and there is much more.

But, do not take the train from Amsterdam to Berlin. Instead, book an inexpensive flight. With Easyjet, you should find a flight for 110 Euros, with KLM maybe a slighty more expensive one. You will save a full day by flying. And do not think a night train is a good idea.

Of course, you can include Vienna, but then, you have to something else. Maybe you cut 1 day from Amsterdam, and 1 day from Berlin and 1 day from Prague and 1 day from München, and then you have more than enough time for this splendid city. But you have more travelling and more changes of hotels. It's up to you.

The same with the Rhine. From Amsterdam to the Rhine Gorge (Koblenz), it is 4 hours by train. Then you go up the Rhine and end near Mainz or Wiesbaden, from where you can reach Berlin by train in 5 hours.

PalenQ

And do not think a night train is a good idea.>

I have taken the night train connection a couple of times and always loved it - this is a subjective thing - some folks diss night trains because they do not like them but that's too prescriptive - some folks actually do like them - they are often quite filled with locals when I take them so do as traveller1959 says - put a lot of faith in what locals do and they do indeed take the spiffy CNL or CityNightLiner night trains - saving time over flying by about a half-day.

But yes if you can't sleep with some noise from outside your window or door then they may not be a great idea but if you can sleep well you save on the cost of a hotel and get to have an experience of a night train, still very popular with Germans and Europeans.

So I think traveler1969 gave you very poor advice on that (along with all his/her great advice above)!