Southern Germany at Christmas

2,546 Views | 25 Replies | Last: 4 yr ago by ChoppinDs40
bobinator
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Wife and I are considering a trip to Germany right before the holidays. She wants to hit up the markets, I just want to have some good food and beer, maybe do some tobogganning or something, etc.

Looks like our best bet is probably Munich to fly into? How hard is driving around as a tourist?

Anyone done a trip like this? We aren't really trying to just see as much of Germany as we can in 7 days, we'd more like to pick maybe two or three places and spend a couple of days in each.

We're still in the early planning stages but just thought I'd see what people on here recommend.
HollywoodBQ
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My family did this in 1977. I'm still scarred from it

There's lots to see in southern Germany. Your rental car will have snow tires on it so, getting around shouldn't be too much trouble.
Garrelli 5000
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No opinion, just wasn't to say, i love this. Great place to say "F it, I want to drink beer, eat good food, and people watch".
Federale01
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Nuremberg is a must. Their market is magical. Driving is easy, finding parking in major cities is much more difficult.
AgOutsideAustin
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In Munich I would recommend staying at the Louis Hotel its right next to the New Town Hall at Marienplatz. Lots of great restaurants and a farmers market by the hotel. Easy walking to several of the restored old churches that were bombed in the war. Fantastic architecture in Marienplatz area that is easy walkable.
jwoodmd
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Driving in Germany is not bad at all. Just be very aware of following all rules. One example is on the autobahn it is highly illegal to pass on the right. Also, if a car going faster comes up on you, you MUST yield immediately and move over so they can pass. Lots of autobahn segments do have speed limits - and they have speed trap cameras - and yes, your rental agency will give the police your info and you'll get a ticket in the mail (and they sometimes will charge it to your credit card).

As for the trip, flying into Munich in the winter is fun - you have Munich, Garmisch, and Salzburg (Austria) all in easy range.
bobinator
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Are most of the rules pretty much the same? I'm kind of a stickler for the highway signs anyway. It drives my wife nuts but at least this time I can say this is what people said to do, haha.

It's a lot cheaper to fly into Berlin, but I figure if we're going to mostly be doing stuff in the south then we'd probably make up the difference in price with a train fare/time/etc.
HollywoodBQ
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You'll have no trouble driving in Germany. You might want to review the international signs for things like - no parking, etc.

The only real challenge I found was that you can be driving on the autobahn at a zillion miles/hour and then you exit off and you're driving in town as really slow speeds. As mentioned, you can get a speed camera ticket and it will catch up with you. I got one two years ago in a small town near Frankfurt. I think it cost me $40 in wire transfer fees to pay the stupid ticket.

And "Drive Right" is no joke when you're on the Autobahn. You might be jamming at 200 kph in your rental car but you better get out of the left lane because there will be somebody zooming up on you at 300+ kph. It happens fast.
Kurt Gowdy
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We did this trip in December.

Flew into Munich and drove to Salzberg and spent several days there.

Then we drove to Nuremburg and spent several days there.

Then we drove to Rothenburg and spent two days there.

Then we drove back to Munich and made stops at the market in Augsburg and toured Dachau before dropping our rental car back off at the airport and trained back into Munich for a few days.

The driving is no big deal. Stay out of the left lane unless your passing. If you go to Austria, you'll need to buy a vignette at a gas station prior to crossing the border.

We're big fans of MotelOne hotels in Europe. This far out should give you plenty of options to find one in the bigger cities. We used Booking.com to book guest houses in the smaller towns.

Mike's Bike tour in Munich is great as soon as you get there. Depending on your time, and their schedule and the weather, their trip out to Nueschweinstein was great (though we did that in the summer years back).
Kurt Gowdy
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Quote:

We aren't really trying to just see as much of Germany as we can in 7 days, we'd more like to pick maybe two or three places and spend a couple of days in each.
Rothenburg
Nuremburg
Munich

bobinator
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Thanks for all the suggestions, keep 'em coming.

I admit I'm kind of a weird traveler in that I don't really care for sightseeing (as far as buildings/museums/etc) unless there's some kind of unique experience you can do there. I do like seeing cool natural scenery, we've thought about doing some kind of train ride through the mountains or something.

I'm more of a food/beverage/what do the locals do here for fun type of traveler. We'll probably check out the Bundesliga schedule when it comes out and see if we can swing a match.
SwissAgg
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One city that I would suggest is Bamberg. It is a little northwest of Nurnberg.

It is maybe 2 hours from Rothenburg ob der Tauber. Heidelberg is also cool

for Xmas markets. Munich has great food and Bavaria in general.

Fly to Munich is probably the best idea.
Vernada
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I'm doing this trip soon - we ended up flying into Frankfurt and flying out of Munich.

We are only doing Rotenburg and Munich (w/ a day trip to Fussen).
et98
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I strongly suggest carving out a day to go visit Hitler's Eagle's Nest.
Also, I bet Neuschwanstein Castle is beautiful at Christmastime.

I think my Bavarian road trip is the best European trip I've ever taken. There are tons of things to see and do, but the two listed above are mandatory in my opinion. If you go to Bavaria without doing those two things, you've done it wrong.

jwoodmd
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bobinator said:

Are most of the rules pretty much the same? I'm kind of a stickler for the highway signs anyway. It drives my wife nuts but at least this time I can say this is what people said to do, haha.

It's a lot cheaper to fly into Berlin, but I figure if we're going to mostly be doing stuff in the south then we'd probably make up the difference in price with a train fare/time/etc.
Most rules are the same - mainly watch for autobahn with yielding to faster traffic (yielding to faster includes middle lanes - you have to stay as far right as possible to not impede), never pass on the right, and watch for speed limits (yes, lots of autobahn sections have speed limits - it's not open everywhere to as fast as you want to go). Couple others are simple like don't turn right on red - unless you have a flashing yellow "yield" arrow. Signs overall are similar enough. And think like a strict, uptight German - don't park on the line, not straight, etc.

And if you have construction where there is a sign saying it goes to one lane, merge with everyone else when they do like a kilometer ahead - don't drive up thinking you can line jump at the last second.
jwoodmd
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bobinator said:

Thanks for all the suggestions, keep 'em coming.

I admit I'm kind of a weird traveler in that I don't really care for sightseeing (as far as buildings/museums/etc) unless there's some kind of unique experience you can do there. I do like seeing cool natural scenery, we've thought about doing some kind of train ride through the mountains or something.

I'm more of a food/beverage/what do the locals do here for fun type of traveler. We'll probably check out the Bundesliga schedule when it comes out and see if we can swing a match.
If you want natural scenery and mountains, head down to Garmisch. Take the cable car to the top of Zugspitze - it's on the German/Austrian border and the 360 view is breathtaking.
dodger02
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Pretty sure Eagle's Nest is closed during that time of year (December). It's definitely a must-see. But I'm not sure I'm brave enough to take that bus ride up the mountain in the snow.

I'm almost positive that it's only open seasonally.
BigJim49 AustinNowDallas
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SwissAgg said:

One city that I would suggest is Bamberg. It is a little northwest of Nurnberg.

It is maybe 2 hours from Rothenburg ob der Tauber. Heidelberg is also cool

for Xmas markets. Munich has great food and Bavaria in general.

Fly to Munich is probably the best idea.
Went to Heidelberg one Xmas - great - can't forget the Santa standing outside a toy store - holding a switch !
BigJim49AustinnowDallas
dcAg
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You can actually take the train to most of the places mentioned if you make Munich your base.
bobinator
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dcAg said:

You can actually take the train to most of the places mentioned if you make Munich your base.
This is where we're probably leaning, but we've thought it might be fun to do a drive one day or to try and stay in a semi-remote AirBnB or something for a night.

We're definitely looking into Garmisch, that's been something we've come across a few times.

My wife likes to read the Fodor's travel books so she's been making notes as well.

Seems like a good time of the year to visit. Anyone have any tips for places to stay other than AirBnB/hotels/etc. I know sometimes there are places that are a little more off the radar.
Jefe07
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We did the exact trip this past December before Christmas. The point was for my wife to get to go to all the markets and for me to drink as much beer as possible. Due to my interests, we decided against driving. Drinking a lot of beer and driving all over the country seemed counter intuitive. One big difference is that we decided to see as many cities as possible instead of picking just a few. It was hectic, but we wanted to experience as much as possible.

We flew in to Berlin and then rode the train all over. With some research, it was very easy to do. I recommend buying a pass for your entire trip so that you don't have to worry about buying individual train passes. My only regret about the train is that we had to stick to the main cities. Wasn't as easy to get into rural towns. Probably for the better though.

For a combination of beer, market, and cathedrals, you HAVE to go to Koln (Cologne). The cathedral is unbelievable. Also, it's conveniently located very close to Dusseldorf, so you can get a two-fer in famous German beer styles. While these are very western Germany, I absolutely think it's worth it for the beer styles. If you stay in Bavaria, you really do yourself a disservice when it comes to drinking German beer.

Happy to share more about our trip and itinerary if you are interested.
bobinator
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That's pretty much what we're going for, although throw in some mulled wine and an (un)healthy amount of sausage as well.

BTW if anyone else is thinking about it, flights into Munich are pretty cheap right now. We found a fare for under $1400 round trip for both of us.

We're currently thinking of basically Munich -> Garmisch -> Nuremburg -> Munich and spending a couple of days in each place. When I travel I like to kind of get a sense for what a place is really like so I like to basically have at least half a day but usually a whole day to just walk around, talk to people and see what pops up. You never know what you'll come across. Though admittedly I probably need to start learning at least some conversational German.

My wife is more of an itinerary creator who tries to maximize experiences-per-minute, so by having a couple of days in each place we both kind of get what we want.

But we tossed around Koln, especially after watching the Anthony Bourdain episode there.

I hadn't heard about the passes, how does that work?

Anyone go toboggan-ing in the mountains or anything? Seen some folks say that's fun but haven't really come across a 'here's a good place to do it' or anything.
SwissAgg
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bobinator said:

That's pretty much what we're going for, although throw in some mulled wine and an (un)healthy amount of sausage as well.

BTW if anyone else is thinking about it, flights into Munich are pretty cheap right now. We found a fare for under $1400 round trip for both of us.

We're currently thinking of basically Munich -> Garmisch -> Nuremburg -> Munich and spending a couple of days in each place. When I travel I like to kind of get a sense for what a place is really like so I like to basically have at least half a day but usually a whole day to just walk around, talk to people and see what pops up. You never know what you'll come across. Though admittedly I probably need to start learning at least some conversational German.

My wife is more of an itinerary creator who tries to maximize experiences-per-minute, so by having a couple of days in each place we both kind of get what we want.

But we tossed around Koln, especially after watching the Anthony Bourdain episode there.

I hadn't heard about the passes, how does that work?

Anyone go toboggan-ing in the mountains or anything? Seen some folks say that's fun but haven't really come across a 'here's a good place to do it' or anything.


Personally, I wouldn't go to Nuremberg. It is overrun with tourists. There are way too many people in a limited amount of space. The fastest train to Cologne is 4:37 from Munich. Cologne is good to visit depending how long you'll be there.
Aggie87
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dodger02 said:

Pretty sure Eagle's Nest is closed during that time of year (December). It's definitely a must-see. But I'm not sure I'm brave enough to take that bus ride up the mountain in the snow.

I'm almost positive that it's only open seasonally.

It closes in mid October for the winter season.
BwdAg
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Last year we flew into Frankfurt and took the airport train to Dresden for about 3 days. Great markets

Took train to Bamberg for 2 days. Market did not serve beer. Better town to visit during spring (which we had before).

Took train to Nuremburg for day trip to markets. Good markets but over crowded like a previous poster mentioned. Very expensive place to say so we just dropped our bags at the train station for the day.

Got back on train and went to Cologne. Great markets and very interesting city. Kolcsh? Beer is great.

Oryx
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Be sure to drop by Heidelberg
ChoppinDs40
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Remember to go BEFORE Christmas. Main munich and Nuremberg Christmas markets close on Christmas Eve.
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