Germany holiday, any advice please?

[brownjumper]

Hi,

My daughter is learning German at school and we would like to holiday in Germany this summer to encourage speaking German!

Problem is where to stay. We would like to go south to get good weather and we'd like a pool. Problem is we can't find a holiday company or gites like they have in France or Spain. We are open to self catering or hotel but things seem to be very different than Spain or France , not so easy!

Can anyone advise?

I agree it's much trickier. You have to do everything yourself.

I've researched Berlin then the Baltic coast (North!) and the Black Forest. (Not actually going as the kids preferred the idea of Dresden and Prague instead).

I looked at Ryanair and Easyjet flights, car hire and apartments on Booking.com.

Have always had to search hard for holiday parks in Germany unlike France where there are so many.
We stayed at Ferienpark Tennenbron in Schramberg. Stayed for a week in a winnetou house. Proper German wooden house. Quiet but immaculate site. Fabulous water park 2 minutes walk away heavily discounted.
Lots to do around as long as you have a car.
Europa Park about an hour away & so much better than Disney.
So many lakes to visit with beautiful towns especially Titisee.
Frieberg an hour away.
Villingen-Schwenningen is a great place to visit.
Love Germany. So clean and we found eating out so much cheaper than France.

I always book our holidays myself and never through tour operator. I'm finding campsite websites abominable and they look dreadful.

Pensions, guests houses and hotels again mostly look like Eastern Germany orange carpet bright orange pine 80s hell. Very depressing

Fly to Nuremberg, usually cheaper flights than Munich.
Look on Airbnb or HomeAway for accommodation. We go to Bavaria most years and love it. Search Ferienwohn or Bavarian farm stays.
It’s harder to find somewhere with a pool than France or Spain but it is possible

@brownjumper Did you manage to get any further with your research into a holiday in Germany?

I've posted a similar thread, having also come from lots of experience of French/Italian campsites.

We've only done cities before, Berlin, Munich, Hamburg. I'm trying to get my head around Bavaria at the moment!

Some nice looking rentals here: www.schwarzwald-travel.de/ferienwohnungen-ferienhaeuser-Breisgau/
If you look on fe-wodirekt.de then you can filter your search to include a pool. I don’t think you need to necessarily go south for the weather - everywhere I’ve been in the summer except the coast had been roasting.

We drove to the Mosel Valley from the cross channel ferry - about 4 hours I think. Was very nice. I got an apartment in a village right on the river through HomeAway. DS spent much of the time translating for us as we tried all the local wine... we visited the castle Burg Eltz, went to Trier on the train, hired bikes and cycled along the river.

We stayed in Hornberg in the Black Forest and loved it so much we went back 4 years in a row! The place we stayed at is no longer available as a holiday rental but the site we used was belvilla.com. We didn't have own pool but there's a fantastic pool and water park in the town, very reasonable price and you get a free visit with your schwarzwald vouchers that you get given. Also free train and bus travel within the black forest area which is brilliant, saved us a fortune with rail fares

Hi, we've stayed a couple of times at Landal Greenparks Warsburg near Saarburg. It was a few years ago, and we were in our own touring caravan, but we loved it. The sites have lots of bungalows, mobile home type accommodations and safari tents.

There is an indoor pool, kids club, good restaurant (or at least it was when we were there...), bar. At least one evening there was entertainment - a band on the terrace by the bar.

The site is on top of a hill and there is a cable car to take you to town if you don't fancy the drive.

You are quite close to Trier (a must visit if you are a Roman history fan smile) and the Moselle valley. There are other Landal parks in Germany, both along the Moselle and in the Eiffel region.

www.landal.com/countries/germany/

Another option would be to look for a holiday in the Alsace. We stayed in France one year but only a couple of miles from the Rhine so we spent much of our holiday over in Germany. There was a free car/bike/pedestrian ferry where we were.

Lol - not smile

Still new to this

I'm German, based in Bavaria but I have been on holiday in various other parts of Germany.
The baltic sea has beautiful beaches and the tides aren't as noticeable as they are at the north sea.
I've been to Mecklenburgische Seenplatte (Lakes. Lots of lakes) for paddling, which was nice but the cottage was kinda meh.
City trips are always a win, Hamburg is beautiful and there's lots of things to do, also Weimar is nice if you're interested in history.
Bavaria in my opinion is the best place to go on holiday (but I am biased). You have gorgeous cities like Munich and Nuremberg but also the mountains for hiking, swimming in clear mountain lakes, castles to explore...
If you have any specific questions or need advice, feel free to PM me, I'm happy to help

@ritzbiscuits if you need advice about Bavaria feel free to ask as well, didn't read your post properly before

I've got some links for when I was looking for a holiday rental in North Germany a few years ago.

www.landal.co.uk/europe/germany

www.landreise.de/

www.bauernhofferien.de/urlaubsthemen/englisch.html

www.gastgeber.net/Deutschland

In the end I found a place through the tourist information office website of the town I was visiting.

I second the suggestion of Bavaria. We went to Garmisch in December and it was picture perfect, the food was really good and there was plenty of opportunity to speak German. Bigger cities I find you don't get to speak German so much, because even if you start off in German, they reply in English. Travemunde and Lubeck in the north are also nice (and historic). my favourite place though is Cologne.

@DowagerDuchessOfSass Thanks so much, I'll PM you shortly

Something to bear in mind in Germany, particulary South, is that a lot of small towns have outdoor public pools (Friebad) which are often very nice and included in a local visitor pass. So, if you were to find an Airbnb or other rental, you could have a (free) pool nearby.

*freibad! Grr

There are some eurocamp in Germany also centre parks and feather down farms. Maybe worth looking at them.

We went to Bodensee - didn't have a pool but great places to swim on the lake.

How old is your daughter?

The holiday industry caters either to city breaks or more outdoorsy, often hiking or cycling based, or farm holidays, in southern Germany - there is a big tourist industry but it's not like Spain or France, no.

You could try a farm holiday in the German Alps or Austria. You won't usually have your own pool though, that's unusual. Alternatively stay near Europa park if she likes theme parks.

If you stay in Bavaria you can do a city break in Munich and go to www.therme-erding.de/en/ for your pool fix. In summer there are loads of swimming lakes and all sorts of open air pools open - some landscaped, some with slides, lots of choice.

Lots of child friendly hotels with pools exist obviously - if you also have younger children a Kinderhotel may be a good idea

These are farm based holidays with outdoor pools

www.urlaub-anbieter.com/urlaub-am-bauernhof-mit-pool-deutschland.htm