Germany this Summer

[Georgieporgie29]

I was thinking of taking my DD to Germany in the Summer if I can find something cheap enough. She's taking the language as a gcse so thought it might help.

Does anybody have any recommendations?
I would like a pool if possible but aside from that we're pretty easy going.

Thank you.

Germany as plenty of outdoor and indoor swimming pools.

The question is, what kind of holiday do you want. City break, hiking, beach/lake. Do you drive/hire a car, rely on public transport?

It's like you say I want to go to England. Germany has everything from beaches to mid-range mountains to the Alps.

Bavaria is fairly expensive, it's popular with Germans and foreign tourists.

Berlin, Hamburg, Munich - all great for a city break.

If you like hikes/walks and watersport look at Frankonia, mid-range, lakes, rivers, rural but plenty of towns with history to explore.

Never been but the Europapark in Rust is popular.

Plenty of people like the Black Forest but I personally wasn't keen.

If you are going to drive perhaps look at the Black Forest or even the northern coast, we are heading through this summer staying in lubeck before heading to Denmark

Ryanair fly into Memmingen airport - near Munich. From there you can hire a car and stay in the Black Forest, or on lake Bodensee. There are eurocamps like Gitzenweiler Hof, and center parcs like Allgau. You would need a car for these holidays though.

Flying into Düsseldorf is often cheap too, due to there being so many flights in. It's not a tourist destination per se, but you can hire a car and take it from there. Or public transport and city break.

DS & I went to Berlin for the first time last July and stayed in Adina Apartment Hotel. It was a treat for end of year 11 and we loved it.

There are 3 hotels in Berlin - Mitte, Hackescher Markt and Checkpoint Charlie. We stayed in a one bedroom apartment in Mitte which had a pool, I’m not sure if the other two do.
Mitte was not as close to all the attractions as the other two depending on what you want to see but was there was a taxi rank at the end of the road but most of where we wanted to go was around a 30 mins walking distance. Berlin Central Station was a 10 min wall which is huge and easy to get to & from Brandenberg Airport (we went on AirPort Express FEX double decker train)

Adina hotels seem to have a lot of destinations including 14 hotels in Germany.

https://www.adinahotels.com/en/all-destinations/

Hannover has a reputation for speaking the clearest standard German, if it's exposure to the language you're looking for.

Your DD must have had a reason to choose the language, does she have related interests? What about Leipzig, home of Bach? Berlin, divided by politics for decades? Hamburg, fifth biggest port in Europe?

Memmingen is NOT near Munich! Typical Ryanair middle of nowhere airport.

Thank you for all of these. I should have said we would be using public transport/taxis and when I said pool I meant at the hotel if possible because I noticed a lot of the hotels don’t have pools.

I was actually looking at the Adina apartments @leosayershair the Mitte one in particular because it has a pool. Did you book it as a package and if so who with? I’m nervous booking everything separately as have never done it before but I don’t mind giving it a go.

I will have a proper read through everything when I get home from work tonight. Thank you.

I have a colleague from Hannover and while his German is clear, he admits the area is not really that interesting.

@Georgieporgie29 If you go to the seaside, North Sea or Baltic, you may find hotels with pools. You have some Center Parc/similar style holiday camps.
You could go to Hamburg for a couple of days and then move over to the Baltic Sea by Travemünde, Lübeck. Easy to get there by train from Hamburg but I don't know if there is enough for a teen to do with no car. DD was 7 when we went.

I never went on holiday without a car so I can't say how easy it is to get around outside the bigger cities.

@Georgieporgie29I booked flights and apartment separately.

I used the pool twice & on both occasions I was the only one in.

I’m not sure what time the trains run to but our flight arrived in Brandenberg at 11pm and we booked a taxi online with transfer company called Welcome Pickups who meet you in the airport. It’s a bit more than a taxi from outside the airport but as we’d never been before I wanted to make sure transfer was as easy as possible.

We got the FEX train for the return flight which was direct and easy to use. If you do use public transport you have to remember to validate your ticket before boarding. More info here

https://www.berlin.de/en/public-transportation/1772016-2913840-tickets-fares-and-route-maps.en.html#:~:text=Before%20the%20journey%20starts%2C%20tickets,not%20stamped%20is%20not%20valid.

My db lives in Mitte, it’s great! Berlin in summer can be lovely and warm. You could take a daytrip to Potsdam or Schloss Charlottenburg, but what I’d personally do is book a couple of nights at Tropical Island Berlin and take the train down there (about an hour + a shuttle bus). It’s good fun.

Planning for trains
https://int.bahn.de/en

Public transport is very easy to use in Berlin. You can buy a pass that allows you to use buses, trains and the subway. We didn't have to wait more than 5 mins. Very easy to get around.

Bavaria and the Black Forest area both have quite strong dialect so not that good for practising German.

Hannover is pretty good for getting to Berlin & Hamburg, they’re easily accessible by train- trains are much more affordable there than here!

If she’s wanting to improve German, she might not find Munich particularly helpful, the accent is quite different to how German language is taught (I have German family [Hannover], and a German A-Level, and I struggle to understand my Bavarian cousins).

If you want a city break, Cologne airport is very easy to get a train into the city from and the central station is right by the cathedral and art gallery and a few minutes walk from the Rhine. Fantasialand is an incredible theme park not too far from away, if you like that kind of thing.

Grew up in the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg. Absolutely love the place however I’d avoid big cities for anyone wanting to practice their German language skills, as the first sniff of being a native English speaker will mean that many people you encounter will want to speak to you in English

look at the Lundburge Heide area for delightful villages with easy public transport access to Hamburg.

Enjoy. xx

#freeEnglishlessons

Yup went on a school trips there! I’d recommend Cologne/Koln.

and this…/

https://www.schokoladenmuseum.de

We Interrailed through Germany last summer- it's a great country to do it in.

Are you sure you need a hotel with a pool, because Germany seems to be the world capital of outdoor public swimming pools (Although I hear Austria is pretty good too!) They're called "Freibaden" or "Sommerbaden", and they all seem to be huge, cheap and have massive grassy areas for chilling out in.

In addition, there are swimming lakes in some places. I reckon Berlin has to be the capital of this- it's ringed by hundreds of great swimming lakes! (We swam in the Schlachtensee). And I would definitely recommend visiting Berlin.

Our second favourite was Nuremberg (visited a massive outdoor pool that just happened to be next to the old Nazi Party rally grounds. Which was an interesting juxtaposition). The castle and medieval centre are lovely.

We also stopped in Cologne for the night, which we liked but felt we'd seen all the sights in one morning (entirely possible there were a load we didn't discover though).

Wasn't so keen on Heidelberg- it seemed a bit over touristed and over manicured.

If I'd had more time I also liked the sound of Lubeck, Trier, Dresden, Regensberg, Aachen and Ulm.

I second this. We went last Nov/Dec.

We had to (literally)go the wrong side of the tracks to a working class and immigrant area in Nuremberg (we were actually on the trail of a launderette, which happily turned out to be on a street with loads of good Turkish food places) to find somewhere to get the chance to practice my woeful Duolingo German 😆

Cologne in the summer is STUNNING. Lots to see, lots of parks, the ruver, the catherdral.

I enjoyed Cologne, loads to see. If you like industrial history, there's the whole Ruhrgebiet, but I realise not everyone finds that interesting (I did 5 mining museums on my last UK holiday, and I loved the German National Mining Museum in Bochum, so i might not be normal...) There's the whole Route Industriekultur - which actually covers all Europe,not just Germany.

I've found the D-Bahn website very good, and quite easy to use public transport (generally better than the UK.) Ticket machines often have the option of other languages, particularly English - which may not be so great for your daughter, but is good for practicality. There are often regional travel card options, which give good reductions,or cities like Berlin will have cards that cover public transport and free or reduced entry to most of the main attractions,often valid for 25, 48 or 72 hours.

I've been to Berlin 3 times, and it's been a totally different trip each time - so much to see there.

We also stayed in Adina in Berlin. Near the Hautbahnhof. Was that Mitte? Had a pool. Fabulous hotel. Near Lidl and a posh deli. Great facilities. We walked everywhere we could, but used the trams & underground. Perfect location.

@socialdilemmawhattodo Yes it sounds like the same one. Next to Berlin Central & Lidl. We loved it.

@EBearhug "There's the whole Route Industriekultur - which actually covers all Europe,not just Germany."
I have found my people!

As you were.

https://www.route-industriekultur.ruhr/en/