My husband and I would like to visit Germany where we have friends near Frankfurt. We want to spend 3 days with them and then rent a car and drive to Switzerland, Austria and northern Italy (maybe 12 days driving). We would like to go this year and are wondering when we should visit? We are thinking June, July, September or October, but it sounds like late June might be the best. We are most interested in the countryside and walking/hiking with very little shopping. Any advise you can give with regards to the weather, crowds and places to visit would be appreciated. We’re in our 30’s with no kids.
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It depends a bit how long you want to be in Germany and if you need hotels. If so and not a football fan, I would avoid travelling here between June 9 and July 9 because of the FIFA World Cup (soccer). It%26#39;s taking place in big cities all over Germany and hotels and transportation might be a lot more expensive than usual. Plus there will be lots (and I mean LOTS!) of additional tourists at that time, so everything will be more crowded.
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I agree with Markk Hanau that in 2006 June-July is not a very good time to travel in Germany because of the World Cup. Besides, I always prefer early Septembner - early October because (1) the weather tends to be good (2) the German school vacations are over and you won%26#39;t have any problems getting hotels and you will also avoid the horrendous %26quot;Staus%26quot; on the autobahn (Stau = traffic jams of mnay miles).
If you want to do the %26quot;must see%26quot; tour for Americans, drive from Frankfurt to Rothenburg either by way of Miltenberg, Wertheim, Bad Mergentheim (my preferred route) or Wuerzburg - Bad Mergentheim. Spend the night and half a day in R., then take the autobahn A-7 south to Fuessen
Spend the night in the vicinity and see the Koenigsschloesser (Neuschanstein and Hohenschawangau) in the next morning.
Then drive from Fuessen to Lindau (an island in the Lake Constance/Bodensee), by way of Reutte, Weissbach, Nesselweangle, Oberjoch, Hindelang, Oberstaufen.
Spend the night in Lindau ( Hotel Reuteman-Seegarten) or go on to Meersburg. On the next day take the ferry across the lake and visit the flower island Mainau (for a couple of hours), than drive on to Luzern. Spend the night there. On the next day, head for Interlaken and Lauterbrunnen. Spend three nights there (Hotel Silberhorn is good), and take the train to the Jungfraujoch, and the cable cars to the top of the Schilthorn (do both early in morning, to make sure you have a clear view of the Swiss Alps). Then head to one of the Italian lakes - - - Como, Lake Garda (my favorite city is Sirmion, Hotel Ideal), or Lago Maggiore.
It is important that you plan to return to Germany to drop off your car in that country, because in Europe, if you drop off your car in another country you incur big drop-off charges.
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Treplow%26#39;s route from Fuessen onwards is lakes and the Alps for rest of trip so perhaps not as much variety as you might like. I%26#39;d also suggest spending a bit longer in the Romantic Road area.
We%26#39;ve spent a couple of summers in northern Italy (Veneto/Alto Adige) and Austria. Fuessen is on the border with Tyrol and via Innsbruck and the Brenner Pass you can get quickly to Bozen-Bolzano on edge of Dolomites (very different mountain landscape from the Alps). Bozen-Bolzano is bilingual as it used to be part of Austria (South Tyrol), but towards Cortina d%26#39;Ampezzo it%26#39;s Italian Italy.
Or from Bozen you can carry on down past Lake Garda to explore Verona and more of the Veneto if that appeals. It%26#39;s a beautiful area too, rolling hills and plains with mountains in the distance.
We%26#39;ve spent a week just outside vicenza, surrounded by vineyards, and really enjoyed exploring the villas, villages and towns (incl day-trip to Venice). There%26#39;s been a long thread on Italy forums/Veneto forums about Bassano del Grappa. Maybe that area wd appeal for a few days. You could go up into the Dolomites from there and do a circular route back to the Brenner if you%26#39;d come down via Verona.
If however you wanted to spend more time in Tyrol in Austria we can recommend Romantikhotel Post in Imst, in Inn valley west of Innsbruck. We%26#39;ve stayed twice, first time we were driving home and went Fuessen-Imst-upper Inn valley via San Moritz-Lake Como. Second time we drove over Timmelsjoch pass from Merano, near Bozen in Italy through Ötztal to Imst. It%26#39;s the area where the mummy was found in the glacier (hence name %26quot;Ötzi%26quot;). Good hiking country; whitewater rafting etc. We stopped for lunch at Vent in a side-valley near the Timmelsjoch Pass and that was really away from it all, with lots of hiking possibilities.
The hotel Post in Imst is in a historic building Schloss Sprengenstein, and family-run: very friendly, wonderful food and they speak good English.In fact Tyrol is very popular with the British so you would have no language problems there at all.
If you were to book the hotel, use tiscover booking service not the Romantikhotels website which uses Worldres. I got failure notices on 2 attempts at booking through Worldres and yet my credit-card was debitted twice and I had a real fight to get money back.
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Thank you all,
We will get our maps out and start planning! Thanks for the recommendations.
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Is wildlife viewing very good in September? Or do you recommend visiting a wildlife reserve?
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Since my last post I%26#39;ve had a look at a route-atlas and have another variant which wd give you a round-tour of the areas I%26#39;ve mentioned from Fuessen. Instead of going Innsbruck-Brenner-Bozen, go from Fuessen to Imst, along Inn Valley to Landeck,then turn to Nauders and then take the Reschen Pass into the Vinschgau/Val Venosta in South Tyrol and from there you get to Bozen.
We spent a day in the valley (day trip from Bozen this summer) and it is very beautiful, full of apple trees (big industry). Glurns/Glorenza, near the pass is really pretty, a medieval walled town and we also visited Churburg castle nearby.
From Bozen down to Verona, Vicenza, Bassano, as mentioned before. From Bassano you can head to the Dolomites via Belluno on to Cortina and finally take the Pustertal via Bruneck to Brixen and then to the Brenner Pass. Over to Innsbruck and on to Germany via Fuessen or Garmisch.
Alternatively from Bozen there is the Great Dolomite Road to Cortina, which is very spectacular (look at posts on Italian forum, we%26#39;ve not done it). You cd then reverse my route heding down to Belluno, Bassano etc.
Fuessen itself is very pretty and the castle-museum in the centre worth a visit (genuinely medieval unlike Ludwig%26#39;s dream castles).
If you happen to be keen on Kandinsky, Macke and other German Expressionist painters, go to the Buchheim-Museum at Bernried on Starnbergersee which has a fantastic collection and also to Murnau south of there. Kandinsky an others from the Blaue Reiter group spent time in Murnau and the castle-museum has paintings from that time. You can also visited Kandinsky and Münther%26#39;s house. Murnau itself is very pretty too: we stayed in Hotel Ludwig and can recommend it. South of Murnau is Köchel am See where you can visit Franz Marc%26#39;s house.
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I truly appreciate all input provided on this forum. It is a wonderful guide for us. Thank you.
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