ncz99

I have to admit, I'm a bit intimidated to post here because I've seen novice European travelers eaten alive by responses to their posts

So, I'll just start with, yes I've done research, lots of online research. No, I have not bought a book. I have physical maps, and I've looked at online maps, I've googled driving distances, I've converted miles to kilometers, I've found the conversion calculators for money. I have pages and pages of information I've printed off of internet searches and so many hand written notes that I get confused by my pages and pages of notes...all for a trip that we will be taking one year from now.

So, for those of you out there like me who love to travel & don't mind helping out a European traveling novice, I would greatly appreciate your suggestions!

My husband and I love to travel, but for the most part we travel in the US, Mexico and of late our most memorable trip was a catamaran in the British Virgin Islands, which, I might add to anyone thinking of planning a vacation, the BVIs was quite possibly the most fabulous vacation we've ever been on.

We are late 30s/early40s, very active, appreciate history, want to have fun, meet people, and of course drink some German beer

So, my question is, for all of you well traveled people...if you had never been to Europe, and you found yourself near Berlin...and at the end of your trip, you had 4 nights/5days to do a self guided road trip via car, where would you go? What would the highlights be? (On the 5th day we will need to end up north near Kiel, but we have plenty of time to drive to Kiel on that 5th day)

I've looked at the Romantic Road through Bavaria as well as many other options, but I know this will be our once in a lifetime trip to Germany...so I just thought I'd throw the question out there.

Thank you in advance for your advice!

Michael

Don't take the name "Romantic Road" as anything that should be used as the goal of a trip. The name is a publicity ploy vaguely tied to what was the itinerary of the early 19th century Romantics going to Italy. On the other hand, there are towns on that road that are worth a visit.

For driving, consider Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Thürigen and Franconia as the provinces that will offer many sight-seeing options.

Trophywife007

Are your 4 nights/5 days (btw, 4 nights in reality is only 3 full days) before or after you've seen something in Berlin and Potsdam?

If so, there's Dresden which is worth a couple of days at least and there are the Harz mountains including Goslar, Wernigerode, and Quedlinburg if you want to get away from the big towns and away from American tourists.

Don't think of this as "once in a lifetime." My motto is always "We'll have to come back."

Have a great trip!

Aramis

With only 4 nights available after leaving Berlin, I would suggest you head to Dresden for 2 nights, then over to Quedlinburg for the other 2.

Dresden is deserving of 2 days, and Quedlinburg puts you in a terrific spot to see a great part of Germany, including Wernigerode and Goslar, for the other two days.

It is about a 4 hour drive from Quedlinburg to Kiel, or 5 hours if you wanted to stop along the way, in Lubeck.

Total driving time for this would be about 8:15, or a little over 9 if you included a Lubeck stop.

I think that heading any farther south than Dresden begins to stretch your drive times out to the point where you would be using the prime portion of 2 days for moving locations - out of 5 available days.

If Dresden doesn't interest you, then I could recommend heading to Bamberg (4:00 driving) for 2 nights and then back up to Quedlinburg (3:15), then on to Kiel again (5:00). This, however, puts total driving time at about 11 hours, or almost 12 if including Lubeck.

BillT

Do go to Dresden, you will love it!

nytraveler

Just make sure you have spent enough time in Berlin before heading out onto the road. It's a fascinating city, due in large part to the different areas resulting from the old East/West division. It has not only a ton of history but several unique museums and is also a very lively and fun place. Whatever you do don't miss the Pergamon Museum and the Gate of Ishtar.

Fussgaenger

'...if you had never been to Europe, and you found yourself near Berlin...and at the end of your trip, you had 4 nights/5days to do a self guided road trip via car, where would you go? What would the highlights be? (On the 5th day we will need to end up north near Kiel, but we have plenty of time to drive to Kiel on that 5th day"


I would not be thinking in terms of a "road trip" with so few days. I would in fact keep the mileage as low as possible so that you can experience as much as possible away from the asphalt.

The best suggestions so far, IMO, have been Goslar, Wernigerode and Quedlinburg, all to the west of Berlin and all very special places. (I like Bamberg and Dresden is good too but both are in the wrong direction.)

Roughly west of the Harz towns above, you will also find some very good places to hit on your way north to Kiel...

Hannoversch Münden: http://www.hann.muenden-tourismus.de...annmuenden.pdf

Hameln:
http://photos.2mstudio.biz/images/germany/IMG_5774.jpg
http://www.hameln.com/tourism/sights/index.htm

Celle: http://www.celle.travel/

These towns are among those connected by the German Half-timbered House theme route:
http://www.deutsche-fachwerkstrasse.de/uk/cont.php3

tonfromleiden

Instead of crisscrossing Germany, you could have a wonderful time by slowly moving towards Kiel via northern Germany. Rügen is a nice place to spend a day and a night. Beautiful chalk cliffs near Königsstuhl, faded glory of Sassnitz and revitalised glory of Binz. Along the coast via Wismar and Stralsund to Lübeck gives you a string of historical Hansa cities. You won't be disappointed by Lübeck. Schwerin would be a nice day trip.
Not the traditional postcard Germany of castles and half-timbered houses, but wonderful and interesting in its own way.

bettyk

A few years ago, we visited Quedlinburg, Wernigerode and Hannoversh Münden and they were the highlights of our entire trip!!

You couldn't go wrong with any of the towns mentioned above but I think you will be very impressed with these three.

pariswat

I love Dresden, I like Leipzig and took note of Quedlinburg, thks.

PalenQ

If going south Lutherstadt-Wittemberg is a wonderful place to visit even if not in tracing the steps of Martin Luther here - several Luther places including the church door where he, perhaps apochryphally nailed those demands to the church door. A nice day could be spent there

and yes Dresden would be wonderful as well. Meissen close to Dresden has a famous ceramics museum and is a neat old town with a neat old castle on a hill - half a day or a day there perhaps.

ncz99

Wow, thank you everyone for your replies! This is all great information, and I really appreciate you all taking the time to write responses! Time to get my notebook back out and delve into some more research!

I'm also thinking I should have given a little more background information with my first post. We will be beginning this trip in Gothenburg, Sweden we are purchasing a Volvo through their overseas delivery program. We will then have the car for 2 weeks before shipping it back to the states. We'll take the overnight ferry from Gothenburg to Kiel, Germany & arrive in Kiel at 9am on a Tuesday morning, we will then drive to Berlin (looks like this drive is just under 4 hours). So, we'll arrive in Berlin that Tues afternoon, and then we'll be in Berlin for 3 nights until Friday morning. On that Friday, are then heading about an hour north to Furstenberg where we are renting a Penichette boat for 7 nights with 3 other couples, and we'll spend the week on the boat exploring the river/lakes doing an out & back from Furstenberg.

Suggested 1 week itineraries from Loca Boat (the company we're renting the boat from) are:
Furstenberg - Neustrelitz - Strasen - Mirow - Rheighseberg - Furstenberg
or
Furstenberg - Lychen - Templin - Zehdenick - Furstenberg
(If anyone has any opinion on which of these itineraries they'd prefer, I'd love your opinion!) Again, we have never been to Germany, so we are also trying to research these itineraries to figure out which one we should choose. At the end of the day, I don't think we can go wrong with either, and I'm sure it's going to be an amazing & fun experience with either itinerary.

It's at the end of the week long boat trip that we'll find ourselves in Furstenberg...that will be a Friday morning, and we'll have 4 nights left with our car - and we must end up back in Kiel Germany late afternoon on Tuesday to catch the evening ferry back to Gothenburg where we'll return the car & fly back to the states. So, basically we'll have all afternoon Friday, Sat, Sun, Mon with the car and then on Tuesday we just need to arrive back in Kiel in time to catch the 6pm ferry back to Kiel.

I really appreciate all of your suggestions for the last 5 days of our trip. I agree that in order to "experience" Germany in these last 5 days we don't want to spend hours and hours driving all over Germany and end up missing what we are there for in the first place.

I'm going to print out all of your responses and narrow my research down A big thank you to all of you taking the time to help me out!

HappyTrvlr

Berlin's Pergamon Museum including the famous Gate is mostly closed since last fall due to restoration and a new addition being built. Do go see Nefertiti in the Neues Museum on Museum Island,beautiful.

sla019

"Berlin's Pergamon Museum including the famous Gate is mostly closed since last fall due to restoration"

The official site of the Pergamon Museum tells:

"During the current stage of renovations, the hall containing the Pergamon Altar is closed since 29 September 2014 and is due to remain closed to the public until 2019. The north wing and the hall of Hellenistic architecture are also affected by the closure. The South Wing of the Pergamonmuseum, featuring the Market Gate of Miletus, the Ishtar Gate and Processional Way from Babylon, and the Museum of Islamic Art, and will be open to the public during this time. "

PalenQ

Ashley - what does this have to do with travel to Germany?

this sounds like a voodoo doctor - this has got to be a put on or folks like you are so so......

annhig

I've pressed the orange button on Ashley. hopefully he will disappear soon never to appear again.

going back to the OP's queries, leaving Berlin, you could do a big south-west loop, through Potsdam, Quedlingburg, Wernigerode, Goslar, Hannover/Celle, Kiel.

Based on our experiences in that region last year, I would spend at least one night in Potsdam, a couple in Wernigerode so that you can get the steam train to the top of the Brocken [easiest if you stay in Wernigerode as you can walk to and from the station and the journey is only about 90 mins as opposed to 5 hours from Quedlingburg], and night in/near Hannover so that you can see the Herrenhaeuser Palace and Gardens and Schloss Celle.

traveller1959

>>>t's at the end of the week long boat trip that we'll find ourselves in Furstenberg...that will be a Friday morning, and we'll have 4 nights left with our car - and we must end up back in Kiel Germany late afternoon on Tuesday to catch the evening ferry back to Gothenburg where we'll return the car & fly back to the states. So, basically we'll have all afternoon Friday, Sat, Sun, Mon with the car and then on Tuesday we just need to arrive back in Kiel in time to catch the 6pm ferry back to Kiel.<<<

Now we understand what your question is. However, it would be better to specify the time of year you will travel. It makes a small difference wether you travel in summer or winter.

The first thing I would do is driving from Fürstenberg to Schwerin. Schwerin has a beautiful castle in a very picturesque situation on a peninsula in a lake. Then I would continue to Lübeck and stay overnight there. Lübeck is a medieval city with many things to do. Lübeck's seaside resort it Travemünde with a fine beach and a traditional fishing village.

Then I would spend some time in Hamburg, a very diverse big city with a stately city hall, many museums, canals, a large harbour and many things to do and to see.

annhig

traveller - why not a big northern loop [Schwerin - Luebeck] on the way out, a big southern loop on the way back?

tonfromleiden

»why not a big northern loop?«
I'm totally with you. Lübeck is one of my favourite cities in Germany and I had some wonderful walks on Rügen.

NeoPatrick

Sadly, Ashley's post is till here and was posted again today on another thread. But what makes anyone thing Ashley is a he and not a "she"?