Greetings fellow fodorites!

I have a wonderful opportunity to extend my business trip at Ramstein Air Base for 5 days (beginning 29 Nov). I was wondering what town would be best for day trips. I would pick up my rental car at the airport, but wouldn't mind a town that I could train to other towns. Car rentals are expensive!

I'm interested in some Christmas markets, castles, quaint towns, and maybe wine tasting.

Also interested in a small, charming hotel that's under 50-60E/night.

Your input is appreciated!

Thanks!

Monica
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I am not totally familiar with that area, but it appears that Strasbourg in Alsace-Lorraine area of France is within 3 hours by train. Beautiful german-style half-timbered houses, large cathedral, lovely wine houses, and I would bet, a Christmas Market.
Heidelberg is 2 hours away by train, Bacharach am Rhein just 2.5 hrs...another renowned wine town with preserved medieval town walls. Mainz is 2.5 hours also-a small city with more cultural offerings....Happy travels!
You can look up any of these city sites by adding .de after the town's name, and clicking on 'tourismus' (when offered)

Did you want to stay near Ramstein area or move to a different area? I don't know about where I would base myself if I were you but, I hope that you get to see a bit of the Black Forest area and maybe a trip down to Colmar France - really nice town. Stuttgart Christmas market would be a nice excursion too. Maybe even Trier.... the possibilities are really endless.

I am going to suggest a town I don't know myself; but it looks very charming on the map and is in the centre of a wine-growing area. The town itself is said to be the largest in Germany whose sole industry is wine.

Bad Dürkheim is on the "German Wine-route" about 50km due east of Ramstein as the crow flies. It lies on the north-eastern edge of the Pfälzer Wald, a very pleasant forested area offering sufficient interesting destinations for those day-excursions, all of which are no more than 30km from BD itself. For a longer trip you could visit Heidelberg and the Neckar river villages, dropping in on the famous cathedral at Speyer on the way.

And I looked up a hotel for you, where you can get a single room (it sounds as if you are travelling alone), with facilities, for 47 Euros a night. It is called the Marktschänke and, as the name suggests, lies right on the market square in the centre of town.

Harzer

Going strictly from what others have said about an area of Germany in the northern end of the Black Forest - - I loved www.oberkirch.de

Best wishes,

Rex

If you decide to visit some of the small towns in that part of Germany (or any other part), be aware that Deutsch Bahn is now making more of these stations signal stops only. You can tell if the station is one--near the platforms you will find a sign reading: "Zug halte nur bei befarten" (or similar, I may have made some grammar mistakes) and below two (solar powered) signals like the signals you push at pedestrian crossings. Push the one for the direction that you want to take. You have to push the signal at *least* one minute before the train is scheduled to arrive.
(Info courtesy of the news program of the DBahn TV station, a satellite TV station that's all DeutschBahn, all the time).
Stuttgart's Christmarket has some interesting specialties, including intricately carved small wooden panels or country or holiday scenes. You can put them in the window or on a sideboard and back light them with candles. One of their food specialties is a highly seasoned sausage served with smoked, grilled herrings. And they have a rule that gluhwein, etc., can't be served in paper or plastic cups. You "rent" a pretty glass mug for 2 euros and then either keep the mug as a souvenir or return it to get your money back (other Christmas markets do that as well, I think it's a nice idea to get some local souvenirs and cut down on waste).

Your choices are really endless. Trier is very easy to get to from Ramstein. This city is the oldest in Germany. Also Rothenburg (beautiful) is about 2 and half hours away. There are quite a few small castles in the local area around ramstein. Some of the more famous ones will take a short drive. There is the burg eltz(http://www.burg-eltz.de/) that is very nice and not to far away. Metz France is about a 1 and a half hour drive from Ramstein. A very easy quick trip. There is a decent christmas market in Kaiserslautern which is right next to ramstein. Stuttgart has a very nice one but is a little bit of a drive.

We just returned from Germany and we stayed in the Wiesbaden/Mainz area.We really enjoyed it. We loved the markets on Wed & Sat.The old city is beautiful. It is only about 20-30 minutes west of the Frankfurt airport.We had a place to stay so I cannot help you with lodging. I do know there is an Ibis in Mainz, they tend to be inexpensive. One of our favorite trips was into Luxembourg. It it a beautiful country only about 2 hours away by car from Frankfurt,even closed to Raimstein.
Good Luck to you

It's me, Monica. I didn't remember my password (it's at home) and wanted to write back to you all today!

Thanks everyone for your input! There is certainly a lot to consider. I have been to Trier, Rothenburg, and Heidelberg. Loved them all!

Harzer, I am interested in staying in Bad Dürkheim. Can you give me the linke to the Gasthouse?? I couldn't find it doing a google search. Were there any other Gasthouses that were less expensive? Yes, I'm traveling alone, until the rest of my group arrives.

I would like to go to the Black Forest area and hope that Bad Dürkheim isn't too far - 2 hour drive???

Thanks again everyone! Time to do some more research.

Monica

Bad Durkheim is a 1 hour to 45 minute drive from the Ramstein area. The black forest is about 2 hours south from Ramstein. It's too bad you missed the Wein festival (Wurstmarkt). It was the largest this year in recorded history. Try searching "Gasthaus" instead of Gasthouse.

Thanks Jack, will try that!

The town site www.bad-duerkheim.de click Tourist Info really has NO info on accomodations--very odd!
However, my search has led me to a few other possibilities:
Gartenhotel Heusser (***) on Seebacherstrasse has singles for 59 Euro per night.
Parkhotel at Kurgartenstrasse 17 has singles for 61 E/night.
Dorint Bad Duerkheim (****) on Kurbrunnenstrasse is 80E/night.
Other choices (no price given) are Leininger Hof Parkhotel and Hotel Haenslehof. Perhaps the tourist office can help with their prices and recommendations. The town looks cool-heavy on spa treatments and pampering!
Christmas Market runs Nov 29-Dec 12.
Happy travels!

Hi, Monica. I was in Germany a couple years ago (a month after 9/11, as a matter of fact) and stayed on the weinstrasse (wine route) in the Pfalz. Loved it - totally. Stayed in Freinsheim, small walled medieval town with old parts still there and you can walk the wall. It was fascinating. The weinstrasse is about 50 miles long and includes Bad Durkheim. They have baths (bad) there but I didn't get a chance to use them - next time. It's the town that has the big cask restaurant in the center. There is also great upscale shopping. I picked up some small bottles of local liquer (soooo yummy) and some beautiful liquer glasses; friendly people - I got stuck in a parking lot and couldn't get the gate to go up, but was able to get someone to help me. I also enjoyed Deidesheim, the citizens of which were insulted by outsiders who called them geesbock (sp?) meaning billy goats - now it's the town mascot. Deidesheim smelled wonderful - like an herb garden. Both Bad Durkheim and Deidesheim (and Freinsheim) in fact almost all the towns have their own wines. Try them - but don't drive afterwards. The small towns on the weinstrasse are so picturesque, you'll think Disney created them. Not many American tourists - mostly Germans. At the south end of the weinstrasse there is the wein tor, a place where wine and souvenirs are sold. It has a short tower you can see for quite a distance. It's a lovely area with very polite drivers (not one honked at me as I drove the wrong way, stopped in the middle of the road, etc) and it's also the warmest area of Germany. It's on the list to go back to for a longer vacation and the baths. Have fun if you choose the Pfalz.

I put "Bad Dürkheim" into Google and it fed me into the site
<www.bad-dürkheim.de>

On the first page you will see the words "Tourist Info" in red letters on the left: CLICK

On the next page, towards the bottom,is a little picture of a chateau with the word "Unterkünfte" below: CLICK

Find the word "Zimmer" with a picture below, and below that again are the wordsquot;Liste der Unterkünfte" CLICK

Go down the list of hotels until you find "Marktschänke" CLICK

Now you have all the information about prices and facilities: no meals, deduct 5 euros from your room price; half pension, add 12 Euros to the room price;
there is garaging for your car, bicycle hire, a solarium, a cafe on the premises
and so on.

Either just turn up at the hotel, or book through the Tourist Office in town.

It sounds like very nice place for the price - and you are right in the centre.

Thanks Rach, Shanna, and Harzer. Harzer, I was able to find the hotel yesterday afternoon. In fact, I found a bunch of them on that list, to include some less expensive ones.

This area looks to be good area for a home base for day trips.

Thanks again everyone for all your help! Now, I just hope for sunny days. I dreamt last night it got dark by 1:3pm!!!

I am booked at a Gasthaus just outside of the town of Bad Durkheim (http://www.weingut-hanewald-schwerdt.de/). Since I'll be there for 5 nights, I was quoted 35 Euros! I'll post a review of the place and my trip on my travel web site when I return.

Thanks,
Monica
http://www.luvtotravel.homestead.com/home.html
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