My husband and I (both early 30's - with interests in architecture, museums, galleries, coffee houses, etc) will be travelling to Germany mid-July 2012.

Any advice on our proposed itinerary would be greatly appreciated:

4 nights in Berlin
2 nights in Hamburg
4 nights in Amsterdam (staying with friends)
1 night in a small town (need suggestions)
2 nights in Cologne
4 nights in Munich

The plan is to travel by rail.
Aside from looking for some advice on the above, we would also like to know if it makes any sense to purchase rail passes (instead of point-to-point tickets) for a schedule such as the above.
We are skipping Frankfurt as we prefer the more historical (less modern) towns.

Looking fwd to any/all advice! Thanks in advance for your time and input.

Imho, railpass in Germany is good enough only in case you don't have any fixed dates, thus allowing you spontaneously just gather things and go for a rather long-distance travel.
In your case cheaper option might be either purchase in advance discounted tickets (Sparpreis) from DB website (sold 92 days in advance, so you still have a chance to catch the cheapest for July) or alternatively choose a bit slower regional trains, but take advantage of DB all Germany group tickets (Quer-durchs-Land-Ticket on weekdays or Schönes-Wochenende-Ticket during weekends)

p.s.Sparpreise ticket as well available for international connections (for instance in case of Amsterdam and Netherlands they will be called Europa-Spezial Niederlande and also easily can be bought online)

"We are skipping Frankfurt as we prefer the more historical (less modern) towns."

Hmm. You realize that Hamburg, Berlin, Cologne and Frankfurt were all similarly targeted and flattened in WW II.

There are some pre-war areas that can still be visited in all these places, but all of them are megacities (not "towns" that have been largely rebuilt from the ground up and are mostly modern.

Your best bet for well-preserved towns is to look into some destinations you might not have heard of. Northern Germany has a good number of such places and you can see some of them at these two theme-road websites:

http://www.deutsche-fachwerkstrasse....=portrait&s=10
http://deutsche-maerchenstrasse.com/en/

Hannoversch Münden, on both roads, has something like 700 half-timbered buildings.

by all means investigate the Benelux-Germany railpass! And yes you can hop virtually any train anytime in Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg and Germany - except a handful of trains like Thalys which you do not have to take - you have fairly long train trips and even if you get discounted tickets on all it may not be much less than the pass which allows total flexibility to yes hop any train anytime - priceless for me - discounted tickets are generally train-specific and non-refundable in case you miss the train or need to change it.

For lots of great info on trains in those countries I always spotlight these IMO fantastic sites - www.budgeteuropetravel.com; www.seat61.com; www.ricksteves.com. And yes www.bahn.de - the official German Railways web site for schedules and sample prices and in Holland www.ns.nl - Dutch Railways site.

Are you looking to fit the 1 night in a "small town" specifically between Amsterdam and Cologne or anywhere within your trip?

http://www.budgeteuropetravel.com/id37.html - check the per day cost of the Germany-Benelux Pass - the minimum 5-day pass - flexipass out of a 2-month period - is just $54/day or about 40 euros a day - for fully flexible at will travel in 2nd class - the cheapest discounted tickets are 29 euros and not nearly always available - the next tier I believe is 39 euros on the discounted, restricted level - about the same as the pass - to me with your itinerary that pass is a no-brainer and also makes it all so easy - no spending hours online trying to book, etc.

If you book early enough you can do Amsterdam Cologne for only €19pp.
Maybe you should consider a small town to visit between Hamburg and Amsterdam rather than between Amsterdam and Cologne.

Small town? How about as a day trip from Amsterdam - like to Delft - well not sure what you mean by small - Delft is a smaller town than Amsterdam but not a small village, the latter often does not have accommodations. Or day trip to Marken and Volendam for more of a small-town feeling.

<<<<<Hmm. You realize that Hamburg, Berlin, Cologne and Frankfurt were all similarly targeted and flattened in WW II.

True, but Berlin is vibrant, and Hamburg is gorgeous (biased, as I'm there now - - but it is gorgeous). Cologne, though...

Small town? It's not that small, but feels local, and has a fab grand canal: Utrecht. Maastricht is cool too, as is Aachen, but the routes can get contorted. From Hamburg to Amsterdam, Bremen is kind of interesting. Muenster is a bit interesting.

PalenQ's railpass advice is spot on, and is likely the easiest and cheapest option. As far as buying point-to-point rail tickets goes, the real cheapie point-to-points on www.bahn.de become available 92 days in advance, so if you are travelling mid-July, you have about two weeks to get prepped if you want to try that. If you want to check likely costs and availability, the thing to do right now is to check fares at www.bahn.de for the 2nd of July (currently 92 days out), and see what the cheap advance fares look like - - then, about 2 weeks from now, you might snap up those same rates, if they look better to you.

I agree with those that have said, given your comments about Frankfurt, you have made some interesting choices. Amsterdam, an exception to the "modern" comment. Having said that, Hamburg, Berlin and Munich are all fascinating and well worth visiting. Cologne, on the other hand would not merit two nights, in my opinion, especially if you want to do that after only spending one night in a smaller town on the way over from Amsterdam. I presume you want to see the Dom. It can be seen very efficiently from the main train station, which is right next to it, so a rail-by visit only would allow you to spend 3 nights in a smaller town right about in the middle of your trip. A nice break from the metropolises you have planned.

Between Hamburg and Amsterdam, which looks to be your routing, there are a lot of good choices; Hann Muenden, as mentioned, is nice. Quedlinburg, Wernigerode, and Goslar, all in a concentrated area directly south of Hamburg could nicely fill three days. You could also consider staying the 3 days in Aachen with Cologne, Monschau and Maastricht as day trip options before heading on to Amsterdam.

Near Hamburg, Bremen and Celle are pretty (Celle has lots of Fachwerk). A quick day trip from Hamburg is Stade, although it's quite small. If you end up driving between Hamburg and Amsterdam you might consider stopping in Groningen and Leeuwarden, and taking the road over the Afsluitdijk. You can stop in the middle of the bridge for a coffee and see photos of the building of the dike in the small cafe there. I think on the bridge itself there is some information about its construction, but it was quite a long time ago that I visited. If you want some more stops between Bremen and Groningen let me know.

Cologne has the cathedral (very worthwhile), some Roman ruins, and I hear the museums are good, but the city itself isn't pleasing to look at. The shopping is good though. I am not sure if I'd do 2 nights there - Aachen is possibly more worthwhile.

Lavandula

En route Amsterdam to Cologne for a smaller town check out Venlo, a Dutch town on the German border and this year it is hosting the very famous Floriade, the once a decade or so flower extravaganza showcasing the Dutch flower industry - blooms galore - there is great train service to Venlo from Amsterdam and from Venlo to Cologne - easy to stop off in historic Aachen by train on that route to see the famous Aachen cathedral.

Hi Everyone

Thank you VERY much for these wonderful, helpful replies so far! I really appreciate the time you all took to give me some advice.

Russ & Aramis: I'm sorry - my original post was perhaps not worded all that well. I did not mean to belittle Frankfurt. I had read that Frankfurt was completely modern, having been flattened during The War, but I, of course, realise that that could be said of most of Germany. From what I had read though, our better bet at seeing historical sights, museums & galleries would be Berlin & Munich. We therefore wanted to exclude doing another German mega-city (being Frankfurt) and try fit in some smaller "towns" (not having meant to refer to Frankfurt as a small town ). We are also only including Amsterdam (another mega-city) in the itinerary so that we can see our friends.

I love all the suggestions I received of smaller towns and will look into each of them as possibilities. Perhaps Cologne will get bumped for one of the better suggestions above.

Thanks too for all the info regarding the rail passes - it can be quite confusing as to what's best, so the help is greatly appreciated.

If anyone has anymore ideas/opinions, please keep them coming!

Thanks again.

Cologne's cathedral however is stunning - once the world's largest Gothic cathedral and still Europe's largest I believe it literally dominates Cologne's skyline and is smack right next to the main train station - so though Cologne is basically modern and to me after staying there umpteen times on business very uneventful for the average tourist - do it at least as a few-hour stop - throw your bags in a station storage locker and waltz right next door to see the Kolner Dom - Cologne Cathedral and then head back to the station to continue on to some more romantic place - like the nearby Rhine Gorge or lovely - awesomely lovely Mosel Valley - a place like Cochem will be your dream small town to stay in - the Mosel there runs in a deep gorge carpeted with vineyards - Cochem is the quintessential Mosel wine town - with a castle of your dreams popping out of a vineyard-clad hill in the town center. Near Cochem is Burg Eltz, one of Germany's most famous and awesome castles.