I need help from people who know Germany well

[juneau]

We're considering taking our two-week summer holiday in Germany next year, but we're pretty clueless about where to go. We've been to Berlin and Munich (we preferred Munich), and DH has done a few business trips to places like Frankfurt and Cologne, but aside from that its embarrassing how little of the country we've seen (particularly as DH is a quarter German!).

We would be driving from the London area, we have two boys who will be 7 and 4, we like picturesque towns/cities, lakes, mountains, swimming, theme parks in small doses, historic sights, good food and wine , but the destination doesn't have to contain all of that list - some is fine.

If anyone can shed light on an area we should look at (please not too hideous a drive from the UK with small DC in the car), then I'd be delighted. I know our criteria point towards Bavaria, but we're open-minded and any other picturesque region with lakes, etc, would be good.

What about going down the Rhine / Mosel - castles/forests/river/wine and not too far from UK. Koblenz sort of area.

I live near Dusseldorf and we're a 4hour drive from Calais - the area described is prob 2-3hrs from here.

You could also ask the good MN ladies who live in Germany - thread here for their tips!

Oh thank you - I was looking for the 'living in Germany' thread and I couldn't find it!

Would the Rhine/Mosel area be Baden-Wurttemburg?

Pretty much that area - and slightly north B-W is Stuttgart / Black FOrest type place - lovely but quite a trek from the UK.

Thuringia is an area that gets overlooked a lot by the usual tourist hordes (probably because it used to be in the DDR so less accessible to the English-speaking world) but it actually has everything you're looking for. Cute historic towns, culture e.g. Weimar which has the Bauhaus museum and a Nietzsche museum plus links to Goethe, Schiller etc. Other towns like Erfurt and Eisenach have big castles and cathedrals. There are areas for hiking and outdoors stuff too.

Downside is it's the south-east so not a quick drive from the UK. If you want a nice area closer to the UK I would aim for Hamburg, which is a great city to visit. You could drive up from Hamburg to Kiel, on the coast which has some lovely beaches and maritime things to do.

I used to live in Regensburg which is a lovely city in Bavaria. Some ideas:
Cathedral
Loads of great restaurants
Stone bridge over the Danube
Historic sausage kitchen
Thurn and taxis museum
Close to spa town of bad abbach
Befreiungshalle in kelheim about 24 km away
Walhalla is really close
Wurzberg is also lovely as is rothenburg on der tauber.
I realise it's a long journey from uk, but this area is fantastic.

We're going to the Black Forest tomorrow for 2 weeks. Hoping it's going to be fab. I'll let you know!

Playmobil land near Nuremberg is fun and Nuremberg itself is good for a wander and a bit of history.

If you are doing the Hamburg-Kiel thing, definitely visit Lübeck and especially Travemünde. I spent a fair bit of time there growing up and it is the "German Riviera". I love it.

P.S. Lübeck is the marzipan capital of the world

Did someone say marzipan? I LOVE marzipan! German marzipan is definitely the best too - its not too sweet.

Hamburg and Lubeck look very handsome too. I can see I'm going to spoilt for choice here.

bellabelly I'll be really interested to hear how your holiday goes. Please do report back. Where will you be based?

Lubeck is lovely, Kiel has improved since the cruise ships started calling. I like Bremen.

The Koblenz-Mosel area is lovely. And then there's Heidelberg, one of my favourite places, especially the castle.