Berkeley Parents Network: Going to Germany

Berkeley Parents Network

Going to Germany

Berkeley Parents Network > Reviews > Places to Go > Going to Germany

Nuernberg

April 2004

We will be in Germany this summer, spending at least a day in the Nuernberg area. A web search reveals that there is a Playmobile FunPark nearby. Is anyone out there familiar with this park? Is it too young for a 10-year-old (he still plays with his playmobile stuff now and then)? Is it worth a couple of hours? Or - any other ideas near there? (no major amusement parks - he doesn't do big rides). R.K.

I'm not familiar with playmobil funparks, but you were asking from alternatives what to do in Nuernberg with a 10 year old child, too. There's a castle hill in the middle of the city, with many traditional buildings, a wall around, museum, all this open to the public. You can easily hang out a whole day there, explore, make up stories, and try ot imagine how people used to live a few hundred years ago. (Well, some people, other's had to live in little huts rather than castles... ) The Youth hostel of the city is right there, too, and as many Youth hostels it's in a historical building. This one has 7 attic storeys, that means you see 7 rows of dormer windows. When I was a child, I wished my parents and me had spent the night there in a B & B. We learned about life in Middle ages in elementary school. If you son had no information about this yet, I'd prepare him a little bit, with books etc. Have a good trip, Julia

Tour group or on our own?

Feb 2004

We are planning a two week trip to Germany and wanted to get recommendations on places to stay and semi-leisurely itineraries. Anyone take an escorted tour on a bus? What was your experience? We are having a difficult time planning this and deciding if we should do Germany on our own or book it with a travel agent for an escorted bus tour. hana

I suggest the Mosel River Valley (yummy, cheap wine...not the nasty super sweet stuff that is sold here as Mosel River Wine). My favorite weekend trip while living in Europe was to that valley. Write to me if you choose to visit this part of the country. I can give you specific suggestions on places to stay, a fabulous wine maker, etc. My second favorite place is down in Garmisch (down in the Alpine region). From there, you can see Saltzburg (cheesey Sound of Music still lives on, but it is goofy fun anyway) or Venice without too much of a drive/train trip. I would suggest booking your own trip and using trains when possible. Hanging out with a bunch of other American tourists is hardly the way to experience Europe. Jan

Check out Rick Steves' 16-day tour of Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. www.ricksteves.com My husband and I did a 21-day ''Best of Europe'' trip with ''Rick Steves' Tours'' -- the guy who does the travel show, ''Europe Through the Back Door,'' on PBS. He offers a variety of different itineraries and packages. My husband had never been to Europe, so the ''Best of Europe'' was the best introduction to Europe for him (I've been several times). This trip was my first time, in 20 or so years of independent travel, going on an organized trip. I did some research, and found that Rick Steves adhered, as much as possible when you are traveling with a group, to my philosophy of travel -- stay in small hotels/pensions, walk lots, eat well, and travel light. It was the best of both worlds -- a tour to get you around and into see the highlights (both big cities and small villages), and time to wander on your own. Of course by the end of our trip we wanted no schedule, and so we planned at the end of our tour to stay an extra 6 days in Paris on our own.

We were very pleased with the trip and found it excellent value for the money we paid. Please read the website to see if this type of travel/group tour is for you. Happy travels! Kathleen

Berlin

December 2002

We'll be traveling to Germany in March and plan to stay for two weeks. The first week will be in Goettingen (attending a conference)and then we are on our own. We'd love to see other parts of the country (we are considering Berlin and Munich) and are curious if folks have any recommendations (hotels, cities to visit, ways to save money) and insights into traveling with preschoolers in Germany. kvorhies

We visited Berlin last summer with our now-two-year-old. We rented a private apartment in Charlottenburg, which was a good idea for several reasons: it was close to public transit and many interesting and child friendly restaurants. We had a kitchen, so we could prepare meals before or in between excursions. The bathroom had a real bathtub (many moderately priced European hotels have only showers). Since the building was residential, it was pretty quiet -- important for naptime! Eric

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