Austria/Bavaria/Germany for tweens

[Bavariamaria]

Can anyone recommend an area/attractions/things to do, places to stay etc for one adult and one 11 year old in early July please?

Flying into Munich but very flexible from there (no car, public transport only). Would like to visit Nuremberg and possibly Austria but aware these are in different directions.

Into history, especially military history and cute towns/beautiful architecture. Not sure what would be a good base, maybe Munich itself.

Thank you for any ideas.

I’ve never been, but if/when I do, Europapark is top of my list. It’s meant to be amazing 😃

How long are you there for?
Munich does some informative walking tours for Nazi German history. If you haven't ever paid respects at a concentration camp before then Dachau is an easy train ride away but that's obviously seriously hard-hitting and might feel too much with an 11 year old (I personally feel it's a human duty to go and learn at least once, to keep the memory alive and ensure never again) I can't remember the recommended age.

Train to Innsbruck is easy for a bit of Austria.

Just a word of caution on 'military history'. Germans are, in general, very reluctant to talk about the war and it can create a palpable sense of upset. This is less true of younger adults but still so. I'd recommend planning your trip and tours via the internet rather than pitching up and asking the hotel/locals.

Other great tourist things to do in Munich:

• Olympia park and tower
• BMW museum
• The Englischer Garten and the surfers on the river at its edge
• A beer garden - there's one at Chinese Tower in the English Garden and another at See Haus further over. Hirschgarden also good and sometimes has an Oompah Band playing.
• one of the municipal outdoor swimming pools in the city on a sunny day. Look them up and work out which one is closest to where you are staying. Shyrenbad is beside the river and a bit of a walk from an Ubahn. You might prefer a different one if you want more choice of slides and whizzy water jets. Beer, icecream, chips - it's sooo good.
• A beer hall - I think Hofbrauhaus in the centre is the putsch one but I could be wrong
• A tour of the Allianz if you like football
• Depending on when you are there Sommer Tollwood might be on - fun festival vibes adjacent to Olympiapark
• the city centre is nice enough for a day - Marienplatz is pretty, walk up to Odeonsplatz and Residenz with the gardens beside.

• Never went to Nuremberg so can't help with that. I do know that a Nurenburger is a skinny sausage/bap with skinny sausages though! 🌭

The Bodensee (Lake Constance) is a fabulous family location. Lots of cycling, sailing and outdoor activities, but especially the various thermal pools ("therme") dotted around the lake.
Base yourself in or near Konstanz, on the German side.
And a trip to the Zeppelin Museum in Friedrichshafen is fun too.

Also, you can get the train to Konstanz, and then there's a great, 100% reliable bus service. And go across the lake by ferry.

Also, for cute towns by a picturesque lake, check this out

https://www.germansights.com/munich/lakes.php#:~:text=Simply%20take%20the%20frequent%20BOB,options%20to%20explore%20the%20lake.

I'd personally avoid Starnberg as it's the yuppie place to live and not so old world pretty.

The walk from Amersee up to the Andechs monastery when they make the beer is good (but more beer - it's a beer-based region!)
The palace on the island in Chiemsee is so interesting, as is the (somewhat sad) story of the King that built it.

Try a Sommerrodelbahn, they are great fun. There are a few in the countryside south of Munich.

Also, if you get to Salzburg, take a bus out to Hellbrunn on the edge of the city and do a tour of the Wasserspiele built by mad King Ludwig. It's terrific fun, getting unexpectedly squirted for different angles on a hot summer's afternoon. You could also visit another of his castles in Bavaria, Neuschwanstein, which the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang castle was based on.

https://www.hellbrunn.at/en/

https://www.neuschwanstein.de/

Edited to say it apparently wasn't Mad Ludwig at Hellbrunn, but otherwise both suggestions come highly recommended!

Nürnberg is beautiful, I was a student there one summer, but not so interesting for your DC probably.

Thank you so much everyone, so much research to do and so helpful.

@Howareu That looks fab!

@astonssandboxisalittertray Thank you for your suggestions - there for 8 days.And thanks for your point about military history, absolutely something I'd not considered. My son is very very into museums about regiments, we've been to a few and he's absolutely loved seeing the medals/watching the videos from those who were there, and I hadn't considered your point at all, so thank you. I think Dachau would maybe be for when he's a bit older but I'll check online.

@BeaRF75 Thank you, cycling at Lake Constance looks amazing!

@SeatonCarew That sounds amazing! Especially on a hot day. He would absolutely love that

Linderhof near Ettal is worth a visit. Much less overrun than Neuschwanstein with a wonderful park, plenty of bling in the schloss and mountains. There’s a huge monastery nearby too.
Are you renting a car?

In terms of cute towns, Bad-tolz, Fuessen ( this is where Neuschwanstein is) Rosenheim, Garmisch-Partenkirchen.. there are lots. There’s a chairlift near Bad- Toelz to go up the Blomberg which has a summer sledge. There’s a restaurant on the top too. In terms of lakes, there are more than you can shake a stick at: Tegernsee, Ammersee, schliersee, Chiemsee, worthsee… just pack a bit of a picnic and don’t forget that shops are closed on Sunday in Bavaria (except bakeries in the am and petrol stations)! Restaurants are open however.

If it's military history you want to explore, there actually are some dedicated museums. There's the Bundeswehr Military History Museum in Dresden (https://mhmbw.de/). There's also the Military History museum at Schloss Rastatt (wgm-rastatt.de/),
next to Baden-Baden at the northern tip of the Black Forest, which according to reviews is great with kids. For both areas, there's plenty to do in the wider area, certainly enough to for a one week trip.

We had a brilliant holiday on the Bodensee with 2 young teens - swimming, bikes, boats, mountains, museums, the prettiest little towns - couldn't fault it.

I live in Munich - you can be like all the locals and go to a lake! It's like the beach for us, take a picnic, swim stuff, the water is clean and lovely. The Lustsee is reachable by public transport and there is another lake on the opposite side of the city, the Feringasee.

Munich.de is the city portal and has loads of suggestions for days out - Freizeit is very important to Germans!

The Olympiaturm is now closed for 2 years for renovations. If you don't mind a bit of climbing, you can go to the top of the Old Peter Church in Marienplatz. It's 300 steps and the view is lovely. Not expensive either

Don't do Hofbraü, go for Augustiner!

For Dachau, they recommend from age 12. It's very well done, you can spend hours reading all the info there but it is very sombering. You can see inside the living quarters and the crematoriums.

A lot of museums are €1 entry on Sundays, though not the Deutsche Museum.

Schloss Nympenburg in the city is lovely, it's quite small but you can spend ages walking around the grounds.

Also second Bad Tölz and Blomberg. We have visitors coming who have requested to go again! Tegernsee is a lovely place too, you can go on a boat trip out on the lake. Also very nice places for lunch on the lakefront.

Also have a look at Berchtesgadenerland, on the border with Austria, near Salzburg. The salt mines are fascinating and you get to ride down a giant slide to get in!

Salzburg is also a lovely city and easy to reach by train from Munich

Hope that helps, enjoy your trip!

Regensburg!
https://historicgermany.travel/historic-germany/regensburg/#:~:text=Regensburg%20is%20the%20best%2Dpreserved,forming%20a%20bridge%20through%20time.

This museum about the nazis in munich is excellent. www.nsdoku.de/en/about-us/the-nsdoku
Munich is great with tweets. My two loved the surfers near the English garden.
Outside of Munich we got the train to schliersee which is a lovely lake and you can climb the mountain there fairly easily and then ride a toboggan down. Amazing fun.
We enjoyed a beautiful little neardy town called fischbachau that had a gorgeous outdoor pool with a slide. And you can gey there by train too. There'd do much to do.
One thing to note though is that in some of the smaller places English is not widely spoken. Also lots of places in bavaria only take cash. We were there only two years ago and were not prepared for that!

Tweens not tweets

Thank you so much everyone, so helpful!

@Knnniggets no car, I do drive but not confident enough to drive abroad unfortunately. Thanks for the tip on the shops!

@GrumpyPanda thank you, I will check those out.

@ZittiEBuoni that sounds great fun.

@Schlobbob thank you so much for the detailed reply, it is super helpful - I hope my fellow country men didn't cause too much chaos last week 😬

@ShanghaiDiva Thank you, looks so beautiful. I think we will have trouble narrowing it down!

@Chilli81 thank you very much, I will make sure to take some cash!

Yes was also surprised by how much we needed cash rather than card in Munich