Last minute trip to Germany, itinerary help much needed!
 

Hello everyone, thanks for taking the time to read my post :)

We're planning a last minute trip to Germany and would appreciate any advice on suggested locations to visit. We are feeling very overwhelmed with such a short amount of time to plan!

We are a family of 4 (2 adults and 2 young children, aged 4 and 1) coming from Australia and arriving in Hamburg on 4th May. We will be visiting family for the first week and then will be travelling by car heading south to Munich, departing Munich for Spain on 31st May.

So, we have roughly 3 weeks to make the trip from Hamburg down to Munich. Our family in Germany has suggested two itineraries to us:

Itinerary One:
Bremen
Cologne
along the river Rhine: Koblent, Lorelei, Rüdesheim, Bingen,
Wiesbaden, Mainz, Mannheim, Speyer, Worms
Heidelberg
Rothenburg
Dinkelsbühl
Nürnberg
Regensburg
Munich

Itinerary Two:
Walsrode / Celle/ Soltau (Lüneburger Heide)
Hannover
Kassel
Fulda
Würzburg
Nürnberg
Regensburg
Munich

The first option seems to be much more interesting, however we're not sure if it would be too much to try and fit in with the amount of time we have, considering we have little ones.

As we will have a car we would prefer to by-pass the big cities if possible and explore the smaller towns and villages along the way. Obviously we will also need to keep the children happy, so things that are fun and of interest to them would be good to know about.

Any information and advice you could give would be much appreciated!

The first would be great if you had more time. Itin 2 looks great to me though I did it years ago, there is also Hamelin along the way for the story ;-)

Have you looked into the German Fairy Tale Route (Deutsche Märchenstrasse)? That follows a similar path to option 2 (with maybe more to tempt children - you could certainly work the Grimms into your preparation). Many lovely towns in Niedersachsen and North Hessen. Also the Deutsche Fachwerkstrasse might pique your interest.

Lavandula

The second looks more do-able in terms of time frame. I agree that Hamelin would be a lovely addition for the story.

I think # 2, in general, is better, but the suggestions of Hannover, Kassel, and Fulda, are a little puzzling when Hameln, Hannoversch Muenden, Quedlinburg, Wernigerode, Goslar, and the Harz Mountains, and Weser River Valley, in general, are options. It's almost like they are avoiding recommending some of the former East Germany.

Wurzburg, Rothenburg, and Dinkelsbuehl, strike me as better options for young children than Nurnberg and Regensburg (although they are both quite worth seeing) if something has to give time wise.

Thank you everyone, those tips are a great help to our planning, will start researching in more detail now and I'm sure I'll be back with more questions :)

When you take route #2 more as a corridor than as an actual itinerary you will have many of those quaint small towns as Lavandula and Aramis have already pointed out.

On the northern segment from Hamburg to Hannover, I'd rather visit Lüneburg and Celle than Walsrode or Soltau. Soltau is nothing special, and Walsrode only interesting if you want to see the huge bird park
http://www.weltvogelpark.de/en/

After Celle, you can either take a slightly SE OR SW course to go either along the Fairy Tale Road (following River Weser) or into the Harz mountains.
Both regions are very kids-friendly (if you kids are still younger) with the picture-perfect locations of Grimm's fairy tales along the Weser or the half-timber gems like Quedlinburg with the option to take a choo-choo train up into the mountains.

If you wanted to do both, you'd probably go from Celle to Quedlinburg first, and then straight west via Goslar and Hildesheim to Hamelin. And follow the river South from there until you get to Kassel.

Thank you Cowboy1968, exactly the kind of information that I was after :)

This is the most helpful travel forum I have been on - thanks guys!