I have a meeting in Ghent at the end of January. My family will join me at the end of the trip (Jan31-Feb 8), and they want to see Germany. I know it is not the best time but I will be there so it's the time I have.

I wanted to get some things, places, cities, and sites I can visit while there. I was thinking Berlin but 10 days maybe a little long for Berlin in the winter. I am open to some suggestions on some ideal itineraries.

We will arrive and depart from Brussels (Tentative). I have not decided on mode of transportation but am open to rental car, trains or combo.

My children are 16, and 11 boy and girl. My son has been studying German in school and it is why they wanted Germany over southern France, Spain, or Greece.

vidalcruz if you left Brussels as soon as your family arrived you could do Berlin for 4 days (5 nights) and Munich for 3 days (4 nights). But that won't give you time to get back to Brussels and spend a day there (which will be worth it - Mannekin Pis, Tin Tin, Atomium, Mini-Europe and all the museums, so plenty to choose from).

Plus they may be jetlagged so perhaps the first day in Brussels, then fly to Berlin, stay for 4 days and make your way back towards Brussels with a stop in Hamburg for a day and a stop in Bremen for a day and then either Munster or Cologne for a day. They are all short train trips and although they are sticking to the northern part of Germany, there's plenty to see in each town.

If you don't fancy that many one-two night stops (and I don't blame you if you don't), then go with Berlin 3 days and Munich 3 days (allows a day trip to the castles or Dachau) plus time either side in Brussels.

With just 10 days you can get a good taste of Germany without traveling so broadly. It's 7+ hours by train from Brussels to Berlin, 6+ from Berlin to Munich, 7+ from Munich to Brussels. Cologne is only 2 hours from Brussels - the cathedral, the Documentation Center, and several museums there might occupy you for a couple of days; maybe add a daytrip to Aachen. Then you might head south along the veryt scenic, castle-studded Rhine River to Koblenz (1.5 hours) or Mainz (2 hours) and/or up the equally scenic Mosel River to Trier, Germany's oldest city and former Roman outpost. Mainz is a fine, smallish city you can see on foot, and a good winter base for a daytrip to Frankfurt; Koblenz is a good base if you want to visit an old-world village or two nearby (Linz am Rhein, Boppard, Oberwesel, Bacharach) or tour a real castle - Marksburg in Braubach is a 10-minute train ride to the south and offers year-round tours:

www.marksburg.de

Alternatively, you can shun the cities as bases and book family rooms in two Rhine-area castle-hostels (Diez, Bacharach) at extremely reasonable prices in winter. This region's hostels have a winter special for families and will check an entire family in for two nights, with one dinner and two breakfasts included, for a price of 39 to 76€ total.

http://www.diejugendherbergen.de/cms...lienurlaub.gif

Your son, perhaps with his teacher's help?, could book such a place for you at the German-language webpages for these hostels:

http://www.diejugendherbergen.de/onl...-familien.html

Or if price is no object, look into the Auf Schönburg castle-hotel in Oberwesel:

http://www.hotel-schoenburg.com/

Castle-hostel photos:

Diez: http://stadt-diez.de/freizeit_kultur...kyline_neu.jpg

Bacharach: http://djtravel.homestead.com/files/...g_stahleck.jpg

When you say "they want to see Germany" - does that necessarily mean all those big cities (and why only big cities?) that have been mentioned so far that are so far apart? And why have them fly into Brussels if that’s not where you all want to be - together?

Here’s what I suggest:

Family flies into Berlin - you make your own way there after the commitment in Ghent ends. Fly, train, whatever. See www.bahn.de for trains, www.skyscanner.com or whichbudget.com or www.kayak.com or www.itasoftware.com for flights.

You take an apartment in Berlin for the duration - look at www.airbnB.com, www.housetrip.com, booking.com, any one of those.

You’ll lead a normal family life, with your own breakfast from your own fridge, and your own cozy evenings (it will get dark very early!), and you make day trips from there and you are glad to come “home” every night.

To get to know Germany means you need to see small towns, historic towns, not just the big cities. In winter when the sun goes down awfully early it’s okay to do day trips and then hop on a train “home” when it gets dark, you’ll be “home” by dinner time.

Berlin will easily keep you amused for a week - from the awesome antiquity at the Pergamon to the most hip and modern designs and art and cutting-edge culture (Berlin is what New York used to be back in the day...). Music, history, fun stuff, it’s all there. See www.berlin.de/en/ for example.

Then there’s a plethora of remarkable targets in the vicinity, on average about an hour by train or less: Potsdam (castle Sanssouci and much more - see www.potsdam-tourism.com), Altdöbern (with castle), Bad Wilsnack (remarkable church, biosphere on river Elbe, Wittstock/Dosse (medieval town), Teltow (bird park - a favorite with youngsters!), Oranienburg (famous castle), Frankfurt and der Oder (NOT Frankfurt am Main), and many others. Look them up, each is different.

You can make it as far as the fascinating city of Hamburg (about an hour and a half) - the tour around the harbor (one of the world’s busiest) alone is worth the trip (www.hafenrundfahrt-hamburg.com), but there’s much more.

That’s just scratching the surface! No need to waste time and money relocating to other parts of Germany - in and out of Berlin will do it just fine for your family.

For yourself get an “open-jaw” ticket (usually called Multi-City ticket on airline websites) into Brussels and home from Berlin.

I like michelhuebeli's ideas - it has given me places I must look up next time I go to Berlin!

If you did that for 7 days or so you would still have 3 days or so. If you want to stay somewhere smaller and slower paced around the halfway mark, consider Quedlinburg, Wernigerode or Goslar on the north side of the Harz mountains. They are close together and can be reached by train/taxi but travel between them (and each is worth some time) is easier by car so another way you could consider doing it would be to rent a car when you leave Berlin and drive to one of them for 2 or 3 nights. You could drop the rental car at a convenient train station point in Germany near the Belgian border and continue by train to Brussels on your way back.

I want to thank everyone for the wonderful suggestions. As a result I did some additional research on some of the castles and decided we will fly into Frankfurt and take a 6 day driving tour along the "Fairy Tale Road" or the "Deutsche Märchen Straße" it looks as if it ends in Bremmen. From there we will drive to Berlin and spend 3 days in Berlin touring the traditional sites and fly out of Berlin. I will post some pictures once complete. Again thank you as it was your recomendations that led me to find this option.