bellhouse

We're trying to figure out where to go next year on vacation. What are the least/most crowded areas/cities of Germany during mid June to the first week of July? We don't have much choice of when to travel because of school schedules, but would prefer to come back to the more popular places on a fall adult trip sometime and keep this to less crowded places. Architecture, history, outdoors stuff are of interest - shopping is NOT. Thanks....

L84SKY

The German Tourist office is a great help. I can't help with the question of "least crowded". Some of the historic places will be crowded but worth seeing. It might depend on what period of Architecture. Obviously, Germany had some rebuilding to do and has some awesome new buildings.

BTilke

Certain areas, like Bavaria, Heidelburg, Rothenburg, parts of the Rhine, will always have more tourists because they get more press in all the guidebooks and/or they have outstanding natural beauty (Bavaria) or are particularly picturesque towns (Heidelburg).
We don't like the central Rhine area much, think it's over-rated and simply not that attractive, but it has legions of fans.
Some less touristy, but still beautiful and fascinating places to visit in Germany include Muensterland and the Teutoburgerwald. The "water castle" region of Muensterland is wonderful for exploring, esp. by bicycle (it's fairly flat, the villages are not that far apart, and much of it has separate bike paths). We loved Detmold and its outstanding open air museum (considered the finest in Germany). It's also home to a highly rated music college, so there's some kind of music performance almost every night.
Even in popular regions like Bavaria, there are less crowded, but still interesting and beautiful areas.

basingstoke1

In mid June 2005 I took my son first to Trier to see the Roman ruins and then on a castle tour of Bavararia, nearby Austria, Rhine and Moselle and did not encounter crowds anywhere to my surprise. We did the trip by car without any hotel reservations and had no problems finding nice places as we went. We used the city tourist office in Trier and otherwise just asked at the first hotel that seemed to be pleasant and around our price range.

Russ

That is really an excellent time to visit Germany - generally there are few crowds except for the standard tourist strongholds like Rothenburg, Neuschwanstein, etc., which are almost alwasys crowded. Of course you may run into a festival here and there that will cause some crowds. "Happy Mosel", for example, atracts tens of thousands every year and shuts down the main road between Cochem and Trier on the Mosel River; it takes place on June 3 nest year, I believe. It's quite a good time in spite of the crowds, though, so it really depends on what you want. So once you plan your destinations, just check with the local tourist offices to see whether there's a fest or a convention going on that might make things tricky for you.

zwho

BTilke, Can you tell me what are some of the towns, villages in the central Rhine area? I'm really bad at geopgraphy, even when I'm staring at a map. We want to go to Germany next summer and are starting to think about what kind of itinerary we want. Just gathering Fodor opinions for now. Thanks

quokka

There is an excellent website (the official one, in fact) about the Upper Middle Rhine Valley, i.e. the famous part, here: http://www.welterbe-mittelrheintal.de
The "International" button (top right) will give you an English version of the page.

Russ

zwho:

Boppard is the liveliest of these small towns - nice riverside promenade, attractive old town, plenty of eateries and hotels, a few diversions (including a chairlift to nearby peak overlooking the valley. Ferry allows you to access the east bank of the river here by car.

Bacharach is sleepy but has very attractive "Fachwerk" (half-timbered) buildings - the most heavily touristed of the towns for its size.

My favorite Rhine town is St. Goar. Smaller than Boppard, but in the most attractive part of the gorge, with the best location for those using public transport to see the valley, and with 3 castles visible from town and a good variety of places to eat. From St. Goar it's also very convenient to ferry across and travel the east bank by car or by train, as there's a town opposite St. Goar called St. Goarshausen on the other side - and it has its own train station.

The 3 towns above are all well-linked by train - stay in one and visit the others.

Marksburg Castle in Braubach on the east bank is the most impressive of the Middle Rhine castles that are open to the public; be sure to leave time for it if you can. You can drive, using the ferries in Boppard or St. Goar, ferry and take the train from St. Goarshausen, train to Koblenz and change trains there for Braubach, or take one of the Rhine cruise boats from any of the three towns listed and then train + ferry back (but this is most convenient from St. Goar.) Ruedesheim is another valuable destination reachable by train to the south from St. Goarshausen.

Much as you may not like maps, I think you'll need a good one that lists these towns as you read this if you hope to capture the geography of the area.