cami5

Yes, mom and the girls are off on a new adventure. Just the train passes and a hotel near FF airport to deal with. Has anyone stayed at Hotel Tannecke? Also, I'm looking for input on a few evening entertainments we can all enjoy (the girls are 15 and 18) with our limited German. History and shopping are taken care of in the day time.

Our itinerary looks like:
6 Arrive Frankfurt, fly into Berlin
7 Berlin
10 Train to Dresden
11 Next day train to Munich
12 Munich
13 Day trip to Salzburg (Bob's Sound of Music Tour)
14 Get car, drive north to Bamberg, then on to Rothenburg ob der Tauber for 2 nights
16 Drive south on Romantic Road to Fussen.
17 Castle touring day, back to Fussen
18 Drive to Meersburg
19 Drive to Baden-Baden (Spa time!)
20 Drive to Trier via the Weinstrasse route treplow suggested, spend 2 nights
22 Drive to Cochem (Burg Eltz visit).
23 Drive to Koblenz, turn in car, train to FF airport area hotel.
I decided to give FF itself a pass as I know how tired we are on the last full day of a trip. There's always another time.

I love beer so this will be a huge taste test. Not much though as I'm doing all the driving.

This site and the Fodors books are invaluable in planning a satisfying trip but Steves is some help too.

traveller1959

Well, this a beautiful schedule!

However, I am afraid, it won't be too appealing for the girls. So, my advice is to make good use of the few big cities which are in your itinary.

Berlin has very attractive options for teenagers. You can visit the show of the Blue Man Group (which is fairly) nonverbal, and the girls can find a discotheque later that night.

Dresden is not so eventful, but there is a very nice beerbar directly at the river.

Munich is the next place for some nightlife and probably the last one on your trip.

So, use these two places and let them loose a bit (you know, German laws are much more liberal).

Ingo

Too much hopping around for my taste. Especially the one-nighters are a waste. example: You cannot even scratch the surface when taking the train to Dresden from Berlin and getting on the next day train to Munich the other day.

Anyway, if you like beer try the Radeberger Spezialausschank on Brühl's Terrace in Dresden. They serve a "Zwickel", which is not filtered and you cannot get it anywhere else except here and at the brewery's restaurant in Radeberg.

You could explore the Neustadt in Dresden with your teens by night. Lively bar/restaurant/club scene - very popular among teens/students but also mid-age folks and you should have no problem with English. The Kunsthof Passage is particularly nice (good Spanish restaurant).

In case it is summer when you're travelling - there is often open-air cinema right by the river (or rock/pop concert).

Dresden celebrates its 800th anniversary this year and there are special events/festivals (also street festivals) all year round. Just ask at the tourist office ...

olyman

I agree with too much hopping around. I travelled with my two teens (17 and 15) this last summer. They much preferred to stay at least three days in one place because they didn't have to pack/unpack so much. They enjoyed Baden Baden and Meersburg the most. We stayed away from big towns for the most part. When we got back I asked them what was their favorite travel memory. To my surprise, it was simply to be in a place that they could wander around, BY THEMSELVES, acting as adults and feeling perfectly safe. The areas we went to in Southern Germany were perfect for that. Unfortunately , its not something they feel they can really do in the US a lot. They also much preferred older, run down castle ruins along the road that you can just climb around rather than the more touristy ones, although they loved the one in Meersburg. At the top of their list was the Crepe shop in Meersburg where they just happened to eat at three times a day!

RoadCrazy

It's true, teenagers love to go around by themselves and just hang out. They tend to be more interested in "experiential" traveling than sightseeing. As a consequence, they tend to prefer staying near the center of places, where other teens hang out, and not to be too scheduled. When my son has returned from trips, his best memories tend to be of things he did with his travel companions, an entertaining interaction with the locals, or offbeat stores or sights that he stumbled across. I don't hear much about the famous temple in Kyoto or the Colosseum in Rome; he saw them and they were interesting, but in his catalog of travel, they don't rank highly.

I guess that means I vote to slow down some. I also wonder about the speed with which you're passing through some of your destinations, even if you were traveling alone.

olyman

The other thing that we liked about both Baden Baden and Meersburg was that it is touristy, but with mostly German tourists. Its sort of like having your cake and eating it too. There are plenty of people walking around to watch but they are not all Americans or Brits. Both of my kids are taking German in high school so they could practice (although most people also speak German). In Meersburg we borrowed (from the hotel) bikes and you can ride (left or right) along the lake to see neat other small towns. You can also take ferries to other lakeshore locations, including Switzerland. And finally, the weather is usually a little better here than other places. My teens liked the street bands that play for tips in villages like Meersburg much better than the big time music in Salzburg. By the way, our clothes shopping in Germany was somewhat limited by the fact that all the "cool" clothes for the kids were full of "Americanized" slogans, etc. We actually struggled with finding clothes that indicated we had been in Germany. Soccer jerseys ended up filling the bill, especially the bright red Hannover 69 jerseys.

RufusTFirefly

I'd advise staying in Bamberg rather than than Rothenburg for 2 nights.

Bamberg's Altstadt is part of the real city. Never damaged in the war and not a walled-off tourist area. And I wonder if the girls will enjoy the geriatric bus tour crowd in Rothenburg all that much.

cami5

Thanks for the ideas you gave me.
Staying just one night in smaller towns is one thing my girls actually like -- time to wander about, have a meal, check out any cool clothing stores, historical buildings/ruins or entertainment.
Their top requests were Berlin, Salzburg, Rothenburg o.d. Tauber, a couple of Ludwig's castles, and clothing stores like H & M that we don't have on the West Coast of Canada.
I wanted to see Trier, the Mosel River and Baden-Baden so there's my route and it keeps my driving to under 3 hours a day most days.
I hope to get back one day and spend more time in places like Dresden, Munich and Meersburg, but at least I will have seen a bit of them this trip.