Travel to Karlsrhue
 

I have RCI and am a U. S. veteran travelling to Karlsrhue. Are suggestions on hotels, car rental, or best ways to optimize my trip?

Don't know what RCI is. We are Europeans here on this forum.

Please specify why Karlsruhe and what you want to do and to see while in Germany, so we can help you better.

RCI has 27 properties in Germany, 1 located not too far from Karlsruhe located in a very small town. Why Karlsruhe?

Check Kemwel.com and Autoeurope.com for rental cars. They are US-based consolidators and often offer the best prices. I use them every year for vacation rentals. If one doesn't have your pick up and drop off locations available, the other usually does.

And, thanks very much for your service!

Still don't know what RCI means.
Why a car ? Karlsruhe has a great trainstation.

I'm sorry I failed to share what RCI is and thanks for your help. RCI is a point sharing plan we have that we use in conjunction with our time sharing. It can be used worldwide. My son will be playing basketball with BG Karlsrhue team and we are coming to visit. We were there in 2014 and enjoyed it immensely but we booked through a travel agency before we left and I thought I'd check other options. We did rent a car from the airport in Frankfort before but there is great public transportation so we might not do that again. I'd like to ride the trains to do more sight seeing as it is less stressful than driving. I'd love to go to Paris and other sites nearby. I'm open for suggestions. Thanks again, I really appreciate your assistance.

Okay, now I know what RCI is and have looked on their website.

They have very few properties in Germany and most of them are in remote areas. The nearest property to Karlsruhe is in Deidesheim, which is a typical wine village, but an hour driving time away from Karlsruhe. With a car, you could base yourself there and visit your son in Karlsruhe and do some sightseeing in Heidelberg and Speyer. Otherwise, the location is somewhat mediocre.

It may be wiser to stay in a hotel in central Karlsruhe and do daytrips from there. As said, Karlsruhe has excellent train connections. You can visit Heidelberg by train as well as Strasbourg, Freiburg, lovely Gengenbach. The train ride to Paris takes less than 4 hours, so this is also in reach.

For train connections, check here: www.bahn.de

Traveller1959, Thank you so much. I appreciate you reaching out to help. I am looking forward to the visit and train rides. Karlsrhue is such a beautiful town, I look forward to seeing the other towns you mentioned as well.