Thanks for helping:

My son (23), and I are travelling to Germany for two weeks. It seems like we have read every guide book but cannot finalize an itinerary. In addition to some of the major cities, we'd like to see the country side. We've been told to rent a car for a week but where do we start and end? Love to see wine country, the alps and do a bit of hiking. Any help would be appreciated. Also if anyone knows where to get the best deal on a rental car that would be appreciated.
Thanks Doug from Canada.

I'd go with a car, at least for the week you'll be in the countryside/hiking etc. have your car in Bavaria, in other words...

sixt.de treated me very well. I rented a Mercedes from them - loved it so much I came home and bought one!

If you plan on visiting some of the more popular tourist destinations, such as the Rhine Valley or the Romantic Road, I would strongly recommend a car. It is not impossible to visit these areas by train, but the scheduling constraints would be pretty severe.

I agree with flygirl. You will have more freedom and flexibility if you rent a car. Driving is not a problem. Don't let the autobahn scare you. It's great for traveling efficiently. The road in the countryside are great. You will need a good map since driving requires you to know your geography.The best wine country may be the Rhine and Mosel areas. To truly enjoy the area you need to drive rather than train. We too, used sixt for our rental. You can do open jaw with them...pick up one place and drop off in another. Very reasonable rates. Enjoy your trip!

I do most of my travelling in Germany, and there are many intereting areas to visit. With two weeks, you'd have your hands full if you completed a loop tour that included the Rhine/Mosel wine regions, southern Bavaria, and northern Bavaria.

I have a lot of miles both behind the wheel and on the rails in Germany, but I am a strong supporter of train travel, especially in Germany, and have arranged most of my more recent trips with train travel in mind. The trains are frequent, fast, and mostly carefree, and with around 6,000 stations, there are few places you cannot reach by train. Occasionally, a car is REALLY helpful - like if you're staying in a castle-hotel perched on a clifftop somewhere, or if you manage to find a remote destination that has no station - but most travellers want to stay fairly near the center of things, where the stations are, usually, and train travel usually relieves you of the parking, navigating, and city driving hassles that come with car travel.

I disagree strongly that seeing the Rhine and Mosel requires a car unless you are doing some kind of in-depth trip that involves visiting every vineyard. The only major attraction I can think of that a car would be handy for is Burg Eltz - but the walk there from Moselkern is such a pleasure that I'm not sure even in this case.

A car can be a great advantage in Southern Bavaria, especially if travelling east-west through the Alps, since train lines don't run that way. I would consider using trains for most travel (German Railpasses are very economical in the twinpass version) and renting a car for 3-4 days in Southern Bavaria.

Russ

I am hesitant to add my opinion to this post given the non-decision about a final itinerary. That isn't a bad thing, but it makes it somewhat more difficult to offer advice in terms of rail vs. road but I'll jump in anyway.
Like Russ, I am very high on using public transport in Germany, and the railroads in particular, and I think he has given some good reasons why using the trains is advantageous.
I think a lot of folks who travel to Europe just assume that driving is the best way to get places because it probably is the best way to do so in both Canada and the US for the most part due to the miserable lack of public transportation. And whereas in Europe the rail "saturation" is much greater than most places, it is not absolute and 100% whereas roads are with few exceptions.
I think some folks are simply afraid to take the train because they think they will get lost, won't know which train to get on, have these horrible visions of cattle cars full of refugees, etc., etc., or the worst of all, feel it is somewhat "common" to be on a train..and these are the same people who are always blabbing about "soaking up local culture"..yeah, sure....by chatting with others at the petrol station!
I am also interested in a lot of the posts here from people who "drove" cars and talk about everything they "saw"...I wonder if the person reporting was the driver or the passenger. Face it, driving takes WORK and the driver is NOT going to be as relaxed as the passenger. I love driving my Ferrari down the interstate so I am NOT anti-driving....and taking the autobahn is easy in Germany BUT it is like any other "superhighway"...not all that scenic. Things become much more scenic when you get off the superhighways. And, sometimes, getting lost on the road can actually add to the adventure of travel.
I would hate for you to make a decision based on the notion that you cannot get to places you want to see unless you have a car. Cars provide ultimate flexibility but they also have to be parked, garaged, filled up with expensive gasoline, insured, etc. If you do drive I think you'll find German drivers are courteous and not nearly as impatient and on the horn constantly as so often happens over here. BUT make certain you know the rules and laws..especially don't park yourself in the passing lanes unless you are passing because if you do and get caught(on the autobahn) you'll definitely get a fine. And be prepared to either go at some fairly "normal" speed and be passed by everybody or think 120 MPH and faster..it is oh, sooooooo tempting to really gun that sucker..and legal, too!
Whatever you decide I hope you have a great trip.

It depends on where you are going and how long you will be staying in each place. Sometimes rail is better, sometimes car is better. We used both on our trip last year, and I think it worked out very well.

If you are going to start with major cities, use the train at first, then switch to a car when you are ready to explore the countryside.

Our schedule last summer: Arrive FRA, take train to Bamberg. 3 nights Bamberg, take train to Munich. 3 nights Munich, rent car and drive to Hohenschwangau. 2 nights Hohenschwangau, drive up Romantic Road to vicinity of Rothenburg. 2 nights there, then drive to Beilstein on the Mosel. 3 nights on the Mosel, drive to FRA, spend 1 night, turn car in.

Basically, we didn't want a car where traffic and parking would be hassels, and where good public transportation was available (Bamberg and Munich). But the car was great for the rest of the trip--we saw a lot of things we wouldn't have if we hadn't driven.

You don't have to have a car for the Mosel, but it makes things easier.

The fear that without a car you'll "miss something" is usually groundless, but it's good to have the right information; here are a couple of train line maps of two popular destinations - the northern Rhineland (includes Mosel) and a map of all the train lines in Bavaria. You can see how the tracks run and which towns are served; if you're headed to either region, this should help you make a more informed decision. (There may be other such rail maps available - these are just from my own bookmarks.)

http://www.bahn.de/imperia/md/conten...ndpfalz/34.pdf (small red lines are bus connections - notice, tracks along both sides of Rhine)

www.bayern-takt.de/htdocs/bahnkarte.htm

Doumat,

All the comments you have so far do a pretty good job of debating the car vs trainissue. I have done Germany both ways, so here is my opinion. I have been able to get anywhere I wanted to go in most of Europe using public transportation. When traveling by car somebody has to drive and sombody has to navigate. Therefore nobody get to see all the interesting sights until you stop. When you stop you will need to park your car. When your car needs gas you will need to find a gas station. When you get hungury or need to rest you will need to find a place to do that. In short, a car is to much work for me, I'm on vacation. Have a good trip.

Greg

I really surprised (and delighted)to see so many pro-train comments!

I also lean towards train travel, but you itinerary will have to be decided before a final decision. A train/car combination might best.

Again, sometimes trains are better, sometimes driving is better. It just depends on what you want to see and do.

Cars can be a burden in big cities and aren't at all necessary if you don't intend to visit places off the most trodden tourist paths. Driving and parking in Bamberg and Munich would have been expensive and frustrating, besides being totally unnecessary with the public transportation systems.

On the other hand, public transportation does not go everywhere as conveniently as a car can. We wouldn't have stayed in Beilstein if we hadn't had a car--and Beilstein turned out to be one of the best experiences of our trip. We wouldn't have experienced an organ concert in the Wieskirche or stayed at the castle hotel in Colmberg or stopped for lunch at a number of neat little towns or randomly visited various antique shops without a car.

If you are only visiting bigger places with no desire to get out and about to less visited spots, then a car would be relatively useless and burdensome. If you want to go to smaller places, public transportation becomes less desireable.

It all depends on what you want to do.