jennipur

My husband and I will be in Germany for 9 days. We are arriving in Stuttgart and plan on staying a few days with family. We would really like to see both Berlin and Amsterdam as well. Does anyone know the cheapest/fastest/most direct ways to travel between these 3 cities? We are flying in and out of Stuttgart. Also hotel recommendations for Amsterdam and Berlin for under 100 euro would be great. Any advice is appreciated!

kybourbon

For budget airlines from Stuttgart: www.whichbudget.com.
For trains in Germany:
http://www.bahn.de/international/view/en/index.shtml

traveller1959

www.germanwings.com - a subsidiary of Lufthansa - offers very cheap flights from Stuttgart to Berlin.

traveller1959

For hotels in both Berlin and Amsterdam, look www.hrs.com

For a flight Berlin-AMS, try www.transavia.com

For a flight AMS-Stuttgart, SAS might be cheapest.

jennipur

Thanks for all the great links! It seems that going to amsterdam is going to be a lot more expensive than we thought.

We are now thinking of just going from Stuttgart to Berlin and maybe driving instead of flying so we can explore the cities in between. Has anyone driven this before? What are the must see places in between? Also if anyone knows about how expensive this would be for gas or of good deals on rental cars.

Our only musts are Stuttgart and Berlin. We will have 5 or 6 days, maybe 7. We are considering going to Romantischer Winkel and I have always wanted to see Neuschwanstein Castle which I know is in the opposite direction. Plus we have both been to Munich before. TIA!

carolinetaylor

If you are only going to have 7 days i would limit your trip to Stuttgart and Berlin.

I'd do 3 days in Stuttgart and 4 in Berlin. Berlin is a great city and there is so much to keep you occupied for more then 4 days.

The last time we went we went for 3 days and got a deal on the Mercure Checkpoint Charlie, which was in a great location 189 euro for 3 nights (excluding breakfast)

Usually i stay in hostels so i can't really help out much more with hotels.

jennipur

Let me clarify. We have a total of 9 days in Germany. We plan on staying in Stuttgart for 2 or 3 days to visit Family. From Stuttgart we are considering either flying to Berlin, or taking a road trip to Berlin. If we decide to drive we will have 5 or 6 days to travel and see Berlin and get back to Stuttgart for our return flight.

Neither of us have done anything like this before so we are unsure of how long the trip will actually take (google maps indicates it is a 6hr drive) and how much this may cost us in gas, parking, etc, as well as what there is to see along the way.

Thanks so much for all your help!

traveller1959

If you drive from Stuttgart to Berlin, the trip will take 7 to 8 hours, fastest way (the route planners say 6 hours, but they do not account for speed limits, construction and congestions). Directly on the way, there is Nürnberg which is worth a visit (old town, castle, museums).

If you do not mind a little detour (one hour or so) you can drive via Eisenach (Wartburg, Luther), Erfurt (old town) and Weimar (classic town) to Berlin.

I would recommend one overnight stay, so you will have one afternoon and one morning for sightseeing.

Berlin is certainly worth several days.

In Berlin, you do not need a car; so flying to Berlin might be an option.

If you drive, you will need about 100 Euros for gas, one way. Parking might be expensive in Berlin, if you use a hotel's parking garage (15-25 Euros per day). And, again: you do not need a car in Berlin.

traveller1959

Another option on the way between Stuttgart and Berlin might be the Harz. Wernigerode and Quedlinburg are very quaint historical towns, equal to Rothenburg and less touristy. Here is a recent thread on this region:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=35110837