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.

(Not just Germany)
https://www.erih.net/

@crackofdoom 😁

I recommend Munich. It is so cheap, great vibe, excellent public transport. You can get the train easily to lakes for swimming. The city has a river to swim in, clean and well used by locals, and many excellent outdoor pools with beer gardens and slides and all sorts, so cheap to visit. The zoo is great. The Englisch Garten is fun. Therme Erding is such a lot of fun if it rains or you just fancy a super fun day. She will love it. Our school does an exchange to Munich and the students tend to stay in touch afterwards and visit again, as they love it there so much. No issues with accent. Munich is fabulous.

I just wanted to come back to this thread and say thank you for all your help.

I have given up on the hotel with a pool as I realised how niche that is and I have taken on board the outdoor pools so we will have a look for some of those, thank you.

I wanted to book a package with all the uncertainty going on at the moment, just so that we would be covered if anything cancelled. So because of this we were quite limited on options. We have booked Berlin and I am very excited. My daughter’s homework is to make a bit of an itinerary of where she would like to go and to research the public transport (thanks for the links on here).

If anybody has any recommendations for places to visit in and around Berlin, that would be appreciated. We love museums and art and all the usual stuff, I think we’ll take a trip to the zoo too to see the pandas but anything else please do recommend.

thanks again for all you help.

Our favourite 2 things in Berlin were: the Teufelsberg, an artificial mountain made from the piled up rubble of WW2 Berlin right in the middle of the Grunewald forest, with an old American satellite listening station on top completely covered in excellent street art;

And Berliner Unterwelden tours- they do various underground tours- we went on one to see a surviving Cold War escape tunnel under the Wall.

The S Bahn is really cool in Berlin, and there's also a U bahn (underground). A 24hr travelcard is about 10 euros, and if DD is under 14 she is included on that for free!

@crackofdoom shes actually 15, typical 😂

thank you so much for this, these are right up our street.

The Museumsinsel has the traditional art galleries. There's also the modern art gallery, which has some B&W images of missing works, as they were destroyed by the Third Reich as degenerate art. There's a Bauhaus gallery, too.
I enjoyed the DDR museum, too. There's a cold war bunker you can visit, think it's off the Ku'damm. And it was great covering the museum that looked at Berlin's pre-20th century history, because obviously all that overshadows it a bit, but it had a long history before, and there'slots of 18th and 19th century architecture. We just did was walks around the streets, too.

How long are you going for? You will need to pick and choose. I've been to Berlin 3 times, and every visit was quite different.

We just came back from Bavaria, Germany is a good choice! We went to Berlin pre-COVID so it's been a while, but the Reichstag building (have to book) is very cool and the East side gallery can't be missed. Our kids were small at the time (3&6), so we only did the Pergamon museum on museum island as the kids obviously had a limited patience for art museums in those days. I always buy a guide book, rough guide or Lonely Planet, that's my favoured planning method.

Oh yes, I also went with a 15 year old (Although it was slightly tempered by also having a 10 year old who went for free!)

Has she discovered that she can legally drink beer if accompanied by you at that age in Germany? It didn't take DS1 very long to find that one out! 😆

https://www.tropical-islands.de/?utm_id=GMBtraffic&utm_medium=OrganicGMB&utm_source=google

We went to this pool. It was great and was a train ride from Berlin.

No! I didn’t know that either 😂

@EBearhug were going for a week and I’m quickly finding out that we will not have time for everything!

It's actually from 14- and once she turned 16 she'd be able to buy her own!!

My DC enjoyed a visit to the parliament building. It’s free but you need to register in advance. We booked a tour for children but you can just book a visit to the glass dome ( with free audio tour). I think it’s well worth it if you get the chance. DDR museum was also a hit.

And mine 😉

My main recommendation for Berlin is to book the longer guided tour of the reichstag. Its free. You need to take your passport. Its fabulous. You need to book it well in advance. Try now. If you cant get in then book the shorter tour. Its fantastic. You and your dd will love the view inside the dome.

Must see the east side gallery. There's a food market called the
Markthalle Neun near there which you
might enjoy if you like that kind of thing.

I think the DDR museum is fascinating. Obviously there's lots of history things your DD might want to see. I found the information about life in East Germany and under communism really different. Book ahead.

Day trip to potsdam was lovely and easy by train. We got the tram from the station to the centre of the town, hit the tea room for coffee and cake, as it was raining. Poked around some lovely shops which woukd appeal to you and dd then walked to and around the unesco heritage sanssousci pparkland then hiked back to a closer station for the train home.

Like you we went to the zoo. Its a great day out. The area around the zoo is amazing for shopping. There's a shopping centre called I think bikini? That teens are meant to love. My 15yo dragged me around many shops in the area (like an even bigger Oxford Street) and we went to hard rock cafe for dinner. I wanted to see the U2 trabant. The kids love hard rock.

There's also a free lunchtime concert at the berlin Philharmonie which I decided to do instead of seeing the berlin symphony orchestra. Because it's shorter and my dc would have no patience for it.

We loved the Rausch chocolate shop in Mitte. There's a little cafe downstairs and a bigger cafe upstairs plus models of berlin attractions in chocolate. Must call by if you are staying near there just to see the models. They sell expensive but very delicious chocolate and the hot chocolate and the cakes and biscuits are to die for.

Next door to the rausch chocolate shop in mitte is the hilton and I think you could pay to use the pool and sauna if you fancied a treat. It's only a small pool but quiet and lovely and there is a sauna and steam room. It says textile free in the sauna and steam room but I went in in my swimming costume!

Do you fancy a trip up the TV tower? The height scared my younger ds and we'd got our ariel view of the city from the reichstag.

@ZenNudist can I ask how you book the Reichstag tour please? And if you have to ask for one in English?

sole other great ideas, thank you.

https://www.bundestag.de/en/visittheBundestag/dome/registration-245686

Do I just email the details to the contact on this page? I can’t see a form to fill in that’s all.

Absolutely love Berlin (and Munich as previously discussed).

If you are looking for a pool in Berlin, I highly recommend Badeschiff but it is needs to be booked https://en.arena.berlin/venue/badeschiff/

There is a branch of Burgermeister in a 19th century toilet nearby at Kottbusser Tor. Does a great vegan burger as well as meat. Kottbuster or Kotti is a very cool area.