Itinerary for Germany
 

Hi! Im going to Germany for the first two weeks of August and I was thinking of visiting Berlin and two other cities.. would that be enough? and which are your top picks to visit in Germany. We are looking for interesting historical, architectural, and shopping destinations.. please Help!!

If you're in Berlin, both Hamburg and Dresden are just a short train ride (or drive) away.
Dresden appeals for its baroque architecture and Hamburg has some of Germany's finest shopping and while not having one spectacular sight appeals as an overall ensemble of stately buildings, parks and lots of water.
In my opinion both cities complement your Berlin experience nicely and are convenient to reach from Berlin.

For a trip coming up so soon, seems like you should be reading all the information you can about Germany and laying out a basic itinerary. Get a map, some guide books or website links, and use bahn.de to map out transport times.

It is a good idea to limit to a few places and make day trips IMO. The rail system is excellent!

"We are looking for interesting historical, architectural, and shopping destinations.. "

That description applies to everywhere I have been in Germany so far in five visits.

Chickick, with two weeks in Germany, I would definitely vote for a trip to Munich - a beautiful, thriving city with culture, museums, historic sites and proximity to the castles, mountains, and not far from the Romantic Road.

And let's not forget the lively beer halls!

Chickick, there must be some place in Germany besides Berlin that you have always wanted to visit? Why did you pick Germany in the first place? What do you want to see? Castles? Mountains? Lakes? Big cities? Small villages?

If it was me, I would start with some of the many trip reports that have been written on Germany by other Fodorites.

Why not read a few and see if any of those towns interest you? That's what I do. I keep a list of towns which I then research. If I like what I read, then I'll try to work a few of them in on my next trip.

Here's a list to get you started. If you want to read my last few trip reports, just click on my name and go down to the bottom of my profile page.

http://tinyurl.com/n6z7s7

If you'd like to see some photos from our Germany trips, then look here:

http://community.webshots.com/user/dkubiak

Sorry, I do see where you mentioned interesting historical, architectural and shopping destinations. However, that encompasses much of Germany and doesn't really narrow it down too much.

I think either looking at some trip reports or a few guide books might help.

Thanks everyone for your great help!

So far we have decided on Berlin/Hamburg and then either Frankfurt or Munich? which one would be more worth going to.

we are also quite interested in the fairy tale route but it seems to take almost 7 days on its own. Do you know if its worth it?

one last thing.. drive or use the train for transportation?

I always advocate driving. It gives you the opportunity to stop off your route for some places that do not warrant a full day, but are still nice enough. Between Berlin and Hamburg for example I would recommend a quick stop for 1.5 hours in Schwerin - or take in the park of the palace in Ludwigslust - or take a leisurely detour and take in the scenic lake district around the Mueritz and Fleesensee lakes. All of these are options you don't have if you use the train.
Train Berlin-Hamburg is approx. 1.5 hours (plus the time to and from the stations); driving time approx. 2.5 hours (I have made it less, but you need to be lucky) if you are quick, 3.25 hours at a more leisurely pace on a mostly only reasonably frequented motorway through large parts of the journey.

If you need any help on Berlin or Hamburg sights, restaurants, hotels, I hope I may be able to help.

If you decide to drive and you want to see Munich, though, you may consider dropping the car in Hamburg and flying out of HAM as driving is not going to take less than 5 hours and at that speed you'd be flooring it the whole way. 7 hours is more realistic and even that allows for hardly any significant stops along the way. The train would not be much more helpful - around 6 hours if I am not mistaken, so basically a whole day wasted. I don't expect a 1-way rental between Berlin and Hamburg to cause a big drop-off charge, if any at all. Munich should warrant enough sights within the city to keep you entertained for 2 days and you would not need a car. Even going to the lakes outside Munich is possible with a good local train connection to Starnberg.

Driving time Hamburg - Frankfurt is realistically approx. 4.5 - 5 hours. Again it can be done in less than 3, but that would require driving at night-time and some speeding. The train here would be a decent alternative with travel times around 3.5 hours, although it again deprives you of stopping or making easy excursions outside of Frankfurt, which actually has very nice surroundings that are best discovered by car.

Whether you want to add Munich or Frankfurt depends on your interests. Adding Munich gives you an impression of Germany's 3 largest cities (1. Berlin, 2. Hamburg, 3. Munich) at once - and as with Berlin and Hamburg you already have decided against pursuing stereotype "Germany" (which for most Americans equals what I would consider as Bavaria) you could get your Bavarian fix by adding Munich.
Frankfurt doesn't have the obvious sights either, but offers some decent muesums and has very nice surroundings like the Rheingau wine region (with lots of wineries that you can visit, such as Schloss Vollrads) at its doorstep.

I'd opt for Berlin, Dresden and Munich. Maybe I just didn't appreciate it, but I was not as impressed with Hamburg as with many other German cities.

Berlin, Dresden and Munich are great destinations with lots of history, architecture, museums, food etc. But they are all very different and have their own special appeal. From Munich you could do day trips such as some of Ludwig's castles. Frankfurt has some nice attractions and wonderful places like Mainz nearby and as mentioned the wine region. Our own preference is for Munich, but each has its pluses.