Hello!

We will be traveling next May 23rd to Germany from Paris after a congress, and we are a party of 4 (3 adults and 1 child - 5yo).
As a start we thought of visiting Cologne, Frankfurt, Heidelberg, Stuttgart, Munich, and Berlin. We also want to go to Dachau and Füssen, probably as day trips from Munich.
Need itinerary suggestions, hotel recommendations, and tips, please.
We plan on traveling by train, except for a fly from Munich to Berlin. Hotel rates maximum U$250 (a room for 4). Spam of time from May 23rd to June 5th.
From Berlin will fly back to Paris and then back home.
Thanks in advance!

Day trip to Dachau from Munich hardly qualifies as a day trip as Dachau is essentially a suburb of Munich. So you could do Dachau in half a day very, very easily.

Füssen is 2 hours by train so that's definitely day trip area.

If costs are an issue, I would compare prices in train travel versus car rental. You might find a car rental to be cheaper

Hi Zago-

Why not fly back directly from Berlin?

Six cities in 14 days is pushing the envelope a little. If you add the day trips to Dachau and Fussen you are at 8 cities in 14 days, even though Dachau isn't an all day trip like Fussen. Did you have some reason to choose the cities listed? Have you looked at some guide books to see what sights and activities are available in each of the cities? Or is this a "check the list" type of trip (which I was also guilty of in my younger days). I would suggest deleting 2 of the 6 cities and spend more time in the other 4 instead of packing/unpacking/ traveling every other day. You will loose at least 1/2 day every time you change cities.

Have a great trip- Be sure to spend some time away from the congress in Paris as it is a wonderful city!!!

Germany is big (okay, I live in Texas where after 4-8 hours of driving I'm STILL in Texas, but still...) and you will get many opinions.

But I'd highly recommend you choose 2-3 bases, since you plan to use the train system (good idea) and do day trips. So after a few days in Munich, seeing Dachau and at least one long day trip to Fussen, take train to Frankfurt. (Rooms fill and can get expensive so look soon). From there, after a day or so in the city, there are tons of day trips--Koln and Heidelberg just two. Mainz. The Rhine River. Worms. More. If you click on my name, go to my profile, and see my Trip Reports on my German trips; in 2012 I spent over 3 weeks in Frankfurt (well, a sort of suburb) and went on many day trips. You could easily spend a week here. Frankfurt is often overlooked as a destination itself; go on the Frankfurt on Foot walking tour for good introduction (although 5 year old might get tired--it's 4 or more hours).

Then head to Berlin for a few days.

This doesn't include Stuttgart. I suppose if this was a must it could be a one-night stop on the way to Frankfurt.

Just remember it takes longer than you think to move hotels, so I think the better use of time is to base yourself a few places and do day trips that are possible. Even if you decided to use a car (which you don't mention as a possibility), it takes time. I've not been to Berlin nor used Munich as a base for trains but I found Frankfurt to be a fantastic hub to go so many places. (And I used a GermanRailPass for much of my travel. Yes, it cost more than point to point tickets bought ahead, but it allows flexibility of time which was very very important to me. Some trips are close enough to a city to be eligible for some sort of regional day pass usually. Child may travel free? And some sort of discounts for more than one adult available, too. The DB Bahn website is quite user friendly and, if explored a bit, can show you discounts and "offers" that might work. I found the major train stations to have people who spoke more than sufficient English--even though they always say they only speak a little English!)

I'd urge you to decide soon, though, as rooms may be hard to come by some weeks.

Munich (city center) - Berlin (city center) is about 6 hrs by train and 4 1/2 - 5 hrs by plane.

Gott in Himmel - I thought that you would have 2 months, not 2 weeks for that itinerary. Honestly, Germany is a big place!

As you are already committed to flights from Munich to Berlin, and Berlin to Paris, it makes sense to work around those. Given the fact as well that you have a small child in tow, I would consider basing in around Munich/Fuessen for the first week, and Berlin for the 2nd and renting an apartment in each. loads to do in both cities and you could do many day trips using the trains. There is i believe some sort of Bayern ticket that covers up to 5 adults travelling together and probably something similar in the Berlin area.

have a look at seat61.com. also bahn.de for ideas of the times of trains and costings.

If traveling that much on intercity trains - the German Twin Railpass may be a great deal as it lets you hop on any train anytime with very very few exceptions (Thalys trains to Belgium and Paris excepted) - such fully flexible tickets can be very very expensive (www.bahn.de/en gthe German Railways site shows) you can get discounted fares if you want to book in stone (no changed allowed from the specific train you book and a hefty refund penatly).

There is also a night train between Berlin and Munich that your kid may especially find fun - save on the cost of a hotel and daytime travel time even over flying - the railpass would pay for the basic train fare but not the optional extra sleeping options, ranging from a reclining seat to multi-person couchettes - bunks on each side of an aisle or private singles, doubles, quads.

For loads of great info on German trains check out these IMO superb sites: www.budgeteuropetravel.com; www.ricksteves.com and www.seat61.com - this site's thrust is discounted tickets which in your case several of could be more than the cost of the fully flexible railpass.

"As a start we thought of visiting Cologne, Frankfurt, Heidelberg, Stuttgart, Munich, and Berlin."

As a start? How does this trip end? How many more WW II-flattened cities were you thinking of squeezing into a 2-week stay?

Heidelberg is the only one with a reasonably solid set of old bones.

"Need itinerary suggestions..."

Not knowing why you are going to these places, I can't tell you what to drop exactly. Probably most of them.

You need 4-5 days for Berlin. 5 for Munich if you do day trips. So you have 4 more days for all the rest - and all the hours of travel in between? It just doesn't work.

Nearly everything you're seeing is very urban and mostly rebuilt from rubble. I suggest you keep maybe 2 of your cities and then for 3-4 days at least, go somewhere less urban where you can enjoy some good scenery and see the past outside of a museum. There are several good regions where towns were not manufacturing and transport centers and thus were not bombing targets.

This site provides information on smaller towns with half-timbered buildings (like Hannoversch Münden, which has 700 of them.)

http://www.deutsche-fachwerkstrasse.de/uk/index.php

This site covers towns that figure prominently in German Fairy Tales:

http://www.deutsche-maerchenstrasse.com/en/

These old-world towns are on the Main River near Würzburg:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLUgpoQIFHI

The Rhine and Mosel River valleys are very scenic and full of castles, and the towns are charming:

http://www.welterbe-mittelrheintal.d...php?id=274&L=3

Wine villages on the Mosel betweeen Koblenz and Trier:

Winningen: https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4120/...50deb0ee_z.jpg

Cochem: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ade_Cochem.jpg

Cologne does have some nice Roman ruins and the Dom. Those alone make it worth visiting.