My husband and I booked a flight to Germany at the end of September, following 20 years of "someday..." We are headed to the Freiburg area and were supposed to be assisted by his niece, who has been living in Germany for 4 years, attending college. She encouraged us to come to Germany and said that we picked a perfect time, as many of her friends would be on school break, and she would arrange for us to sublet an apartment for the duration of our stay. We happily bought airline tickets, destination Stuttgart, September 23, and relied on her for housing. Today we received a note from the niece asking if we had arranged for hotel rooms for our 2.5 week stay, and sounding like she won't be available to act as tourguide and general trip assistant. Now we are in a panic. Anyone have any suggestions? What do we need to do at this late date to help our trip go smoothly? I booked a room in Stuttgart for the first few nights, just so we aren't stuck sleeping on our suitcases in a bus station.
Any assistance and advice concerning travel and housing in Germany would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!
Sonya

Don't panic. Use her as a resource. You will be just fine. The Germans are great hosts, many can speak some English.
Wing it.

Go to online resources such as Priceline, hotels.com, booking.com, etc. and search for hotels in Freiburg. It is a beautiful city and you will enjoy it. Take day trips by train to places in the Black Forest such as Staufen, Titisee, and Triberg, or rent a car and visit the Route du Vin and Colmar in Alsace (but if you do, make sure your car has a GPS with maps of both Germany and France).

Okay, take a breath.

You are going to one of the easiest countries in Europe in which to navigate. Full of friendly people, almost all of them (under 65, at least) able to speak English.

YOU WILL FIND NICE COMFORTABLE ROOMS AND WON"T BE SLEEPING IN A BUS STATION.

Since you have been thinking about this for 20 years you must have some idea of where you wanted to go. Instead of thinking of this as getting stood up by your niece and feeling a sense of dread, think of it as a great opportunity to plan your dream trip, albeit on short notice.

If you don't have a guide book, go get one. Start surfing everything you can related Germany Tourism, including any place you want to visit. Each town has a website with tourism links in the format www.townname.de, but you should probably start with www.germany.travel/en/index.html

www.booking.com and www.hrs.de are good accommodation research and booking sites for Germany.

You are traveling during Munich's Oktoberfest, so you might have to consider skipping the event at this late a date, at least form the prospect of finding a decent priced room. You could, of course, stay in a town an hour away and travel in for the day by train quite comfortably.

Since you were traveling to Stuttgart because of the connection to your niece and that is now "gone", you might want to consider staying somewhere else for those first few days. Stuttgart has some fine museums and monuments but it is not at the top of most travelers Germany lists.

Do you have any idea of the areas you want to visit besides Freiburg. If you can narrow it down a little there is a lot more specific help that the Fodorites can provide. Give us some broad strokes of your must see places and we can help you cobble together a plan.

Take another breath.

We used to live in Stuttgart and spent the weekends making day trips to lots of great places. Here are several choices which are two hours or less from Stuttgart--Freiburg (Black Forest), Strasbourg (France), Heidelberg and Rothenburg o.d. Tauber.

You might want to spend a week in the Stuttgart area and then go further afield. I'd recommend going to Munich, Fuessen, Garmisch and Salzburg.

You could rent a car to get around. (Driving is quite easy in Germany.) Or you could check out the train schedules and travel that way. See: www.bahn.de

Check out Venere as another resource.

http://www.venere.com/germany/freiburg/

You can sort by price, type of lodging and # of stars.

Read the reviews before you make a decision.

Get a guide book or two, and a local Michelin map. If you can't find one in the U.S., you'll find one at the German airport.

Use the local tourist offices, especially if you are after apartments of B&B's or private rooms. Their listings of accommodation have a much wider choice than the big portals because they know all the little locally owned places. These officies are usually part of the city's administration. They will also help with advice if you have particular needs or wishes, and they are gold mines of information about the place and its surroundings in any respect.

Here is the one in Freiburg: http://www.freiburg.de/pb/,Len/225803.html

In addition to what has been said, have you asked your niece?
You say you "think" she will not be around and maybe she just forgot that the initial plan had her to supply an apartment. Maybe she can still do that but you will not find out until you ask her to clarify the situation.

Thank you all for your input. We were able to meet with our niece and now have much better plans for our trip. We will be flying into Stutgart and spending three nights there. We plan to visit the Porsche museum and do some low key sightseeing in and around the city. Then we move to Freiburg for Seven days - plan to Dine in the Dark, see the Minster, take the cable car to the top of the mountain, and do some biking and hiking. We then will go to Konstanz, with a day trip into Zurich (chocolate factory tour!). Then we are heading to Ulm and Neo Ulm and back to Stuttgart for our flight home.
Any sites that we should see in these areas? We are not really looking for the typical "tourist" sites. We want to experience Germany and enjoy our stay.
Thanks again for talking me off the ledge!
Sonya

This portal website is a good starting point for castles and palaces throughout the state of Baden-Württemberg:
http://www.schloesser-magazin.de/en/

The one in Ludwigsburg near Stuttgart
http://www.schloss-ludwigsburg.de/en...me/267924.html

The tram up to the TV tower on Bopser. With a great view over the city and valleys.

Just for starters

By the way.. you could try to dig out the old threads of "hausfrau". She had lived in Stuttgart for quite a while, and I remember that her suggestions also covered many "non-tourist" sites or hidden gems like the villages and small towns in the vicinity.

I'd also highly recommend the Mercedes Benz museum in Stuttgart. The Porsche museum is awesome but the MB museum is much better (and I say that as someone who drives a Porsche).

7 days in Freiburg during the grape harvesting season has Strasbourg, Riquewihr, Hunawihr, Ribeauville, Haut-Koenigsbourg Castle and the Alsatian Wine Route written all over it.

Can you say "wine festival" anyone? I knew that you could.

Make it so Number One!

Also, if you like university towns, check out Tuebingen, just south of Stuttgart.

7 days in Freiburg during the grape harvesting season has Strasbourg, Riquewihr, Hunawihr, Ribeauville, Haut-Koenigsbourg Castle and the Alsatian Wine Route written all over it.

Can you say "wine festival" anyone? I knew that you could.

Make it so Number One!

Also, if you like university towns, check out Tuebingen, just south of Stuttgart.

try spending at least a couple of days in a smaller town in a smaller B&B

If you are going down to Lake Constance you might want to check the map to take a quick look at Mainau Insel (the flower island) and Lichtenstein, Meersburg, Lindau and even over to Fussen for Neuswanstein. I also like the wine tour through the Alsace? This sounds like it could be a great trip with or without the neice. Check with Gemulichkeit Travel Gemut.com to get a rent car set up. Have fun.