Dear all TA netters,
Planning for a conference related trip to Hamburg, Germany on Oct 7 till Oct 13.
First time traveller to Europe,
1.Will flying to Frankfurt and driving to Hamburg , more economical ( so I can tour Frankfurt and near by cities), I have more flight options to travel to Frankfurt?
2.Any advise about booking car rentals via priceline/Orbitz/Hotwire or any specific Europe related car rental web sites?
3.Having valid USA driving license is enough to drive in Germany ( do we have to apply for any temporary international driving permit?)
4.Which other major must see cities/attractions around Frankfurt ( even neighbouring international cities, with in a drive time of 5 to 6 hrs. max)
Appreciate any tip/adivse/suggestion, thanks in advance
FAmily of four ( 2 + 2 kids 11 and 5 years)
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You are absolutely focused on driving? Because if visting _cities_ is your main goal, a car is going to be a liability in most cases. A car is good if you want to go into the countryside, but between and especially in cities a car isn´t going to help a lot.
Flying to Frankfurt, taking a train to Hamburg (faster and more comfortable than driving) and then deciding on the basis of your destination whether you want to drive or take a train to these, is not an option?
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Thanks Altamiro,
No, I am not planning to drive absolutely, may be because I am used to travelling in cars here in USA between cities and even local travel, I thought if that would be an option especially with Kids.
If you suggest it will be a hassle , I will consider train.
Any advise on train travels to neighbouring big cities close to Frankfurt or Hamburg.
What is preferred mode of transport with in city , say in Frankfurt /Hamburg for tourist travellers?
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With a car, you will need 2 car seats. Kids under 12 have to sit in one of those booster type seats. Most kids adore riding trains, mainly because they are fun and interesting. Walking through the train while it is running, going to the dining car, watching all the wonderful scenery, and there are bathrooms too.
In the cities, public transportation is easy and cheap. The 5 year old would be free, the 11 year old gets a child ticket. Or, many places like Frankfurt have a group pass which is good all day long and only costs 8.70 euro. Travel between cities it is easy to use the Länder tickets which are good for up to 5 people. Travel all through Bavaria for 28 euro. The whole family! Each state has these tickets. You cannot ride the ICE fast trains, but you get better scenery with the slower, regional trains anyway.
Near Frankfurt is the entire Rhein region and all of the towns along it. Heidelberg is near. Würzburg is also not far. Mainz and Wiesbaden are only an S-bahn trip away, perhaps 30 min. Enough to keep you all busy for a week!
Frankfurt has a couple of museums that your kids might like. The Kinder Museum, which is all about life under the city - subways, water canals, archeology, bomb shelters from the war, and animals. The Communication museum is fun as is the Strassenbahn Museum. Near Frankfurt is the Hessen Park which is a wonderful Open Air Museum. There is also a Kite Festival in Bad Nauheim on the 11th.
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The world%26#39;s second largest beer festival is in Stuttgart ( www.stuttgart-tourist.de ), the Cannstatter Volksfest ( www.cannstatter-volksfest.de ), from 25Sept to 11Oct. It is also the world%26#39;s largest fun festival having more rides than Munich%26#39;s Oktoberfest.
There%26#39;s lots of other excellent things to do and see around Stuttgart such as the Mercedes Benz (loved by all visitors irregardless of age or gender) and Porsche Museums, after all Stuttgart is where the automobile was invented, and Wilhelma ( www.wilhelma.de ), Europe%26#39;s largest combination zoo-botanical garden set amidst the nice Moorish architecture of this former palace.
15 minutes away by public transportation in the form of the S-bahn are Esslingen ( www.esslingen.de ) with its well preserved medieval center; and Ludwigsburg ( www.ludwigsburg.de ) with Germany%26#39;s largest perfectly preserved Baroque palace (in www.schloesser-und-gaerten.de as are the Stuttgart palaces and other excellent places to visit), the Swabian Versailles, with the longest and best palace tour that I%26#39;ve been on in Europe, four excellent museums, extensive gardens including a fun fairytale one for children (at this time will also be the special pumpkin exhibition with Europe%26#39;s largest pumpkins and squash, plus large themed sculptures made out of these vegetables), porcellan sales and manufacture, and two smaller associated palaces set near a deer park.
50 minutes away by train is the lovely old college town of Tuebingen ( www.tuebingen.de ) with its hilly cobblestone streets, half-timbered houses, castle, interesting non tourist shops, one of Europe%26#39;s oldest universities, and you can take rides in a punt on the Neckar River like at Oxford and Cambridge. Just north of it is the lovely well preserved medieval Bebenhausen Monastery (in www.schloesser-und-gaerten.de ).
There are many more excellent things to see and do in Stuttgart which is about 70 minutes away from the Frankfurt Airport by the hourly fast ICE trains, and there are direct trains to Hamburg.
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Oh, you probably could also fly inexpensively from Stuttgart to Hamburg with Germanwings ( www.germanwings.com ). They are now having one of their frequent specials, and there should also be other airlines.
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Thanks Bornheimgirl and Marcopolko, for your highly informative tips/suggestions.
Through ur links and other internet links, I stumbled across the %26quot;Lander Tickets%26quot; and %26quot;Germany rail pass%26quot; information, kind of ended up little confused, will you be able to advise me if I should go for one or teh other or buy both, my scenario
NY to Frankfurt - land on 5th night,
have free time for 4 days 6,7,8,9 to visit places around Frankfurt, 10 to 12, have to be at Hamburg for conference
12th evening return to Frankfurt, 13th return from Frankfurt to NY.
If I buy Germany Rail pass can it be used to travel from Frankfurt to Hamburg also?,
Lander tickets, I learnt they are for regional/local use. In the first 4 days, can the Germany Rail pass be used in ICE trains to travel to any near by international cities
Thanks
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%26quot;If I buy Germany Rail pass can it be used to travel from Frankfurt to Hamburg also?,
Lander tickets, I learnt they are for regional/local use. In the first 4 days, can the Germany Rail pass be used in ICE trains to travel to any near by international cities%26quot;
Lander tickets are day tickets for transportation by any means (trains, S-bahns, U-bahns, trams, and buses) within a German state (Lander), or possibly several in the case of city states, excluding the use of fast long-distance trains. Tickets are valid from 9AM to 3AM the next day on weekdays, and from midnight to 3AM the next day on weekends or holidays. Excluded are the fast long distance trains, ICs, ECs and ICEs. They come in single or group (2-5 people) tickets, the Baden-Wuerttemberg group day ticket is 28€ when purchased from a machine, and 2€ more if purchased from a person. In general, I think that most Länder have this or a slightly higher price. Some places beyond the Lander%26#39;s borders may also be included, such as Basel and Schaffhausen, Switzerland using the B-W ticket, but not local transportation there.
Then there are the Schönes Wochende tickets for day travel to anywhere throughout Germany on a weekend with similar restrictions. Local transportation may or may not be included depending on the German state. Such a group ticket should be around 35€.
Then there are the local transportation networks%26#39; day tickets, again for either singles or groups (2-5 people). These cover all means of transportation within their district including regional trains and are much cheaper than a Lander ticket. There are usually several versions of this involving zone validity. For the Stuttgart local transportation system, VVS ( www.vvs.de ), for a three zone ticket you can travel anywhere in Stuttgart and to the places I mentioned in Esslingen and Ludwigsburg. For travel to Tuebingen, a Lander ticket works out cheapest.
Train information can be found at www.bahn.de , then change to English near the top of the page. When using a Lander ticket, select the option only local transportation.
I%26#39;m not familiar with rail passes, but you certainly can use them on any trains including ICs, ECs and ICEs. They have a validity for the specified countries and number of days. For some routes in other countries such as France, you may be required to have a seat reservation. In Germany, trains cannot sell out, this means that you can always board a train but are not guaranteed a seat. You can make seat reservations at the time of ticket purchase (discount for doing this) or even without a ticket on ICs, ECs and ICEs, but not on regional trains.
However, it makes little sense for your short trip to venture to other countries, the grass is not greener on the other side of the fence. All you%26#39;re doing is taking up your precious time with expensive travel leaving less time to ENJOY yourselves seeing things. Germany has over 30,000 castles and palaces alone, so there is no shortage of places to visit and things to do.
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By the way, your kids have to be mentioned on your tickets but travel for free.
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Thanks a lot, for all of you.
I Appreciate your patience in detailed info. on all.
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