Planning trip to Germany - Advice needed

polonyk

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I am planning a trip to Germany for October. The main purpose of this trip is to visit the main auto museums.

So far the plan is:
I fly to Stuttgart, I visit there the Porsche and Mercedes museums.
I take a train/bus to Munich, I visit the BMW museum then a train/bus to Ingolstadt for the Audi museum. (Also it might be the other way - first Ingolstadt then Munich)
From Ingolstadt(Munich) I get back to Stuttgart where I fly back home.


Questions:
1) How much time should I allow for each museum? I need to crash overnight somewhere and If I manage to go to Porsche and Mercedes and still have time to get to Munich in one day, then I'll make a hotel reservation in Munich. If not, then I have to make a reservation in Stuttgart and go to Munich the next morning. This is where the second question comes into play.
2) I saw in lip's pre-ringmeet trip thread some nice pictures from the Deutsches Museum, so - what any other places should I consider visiting in these cities so that I don't feel like a fool that I've been in that town and didn't visit that place?
3) Is goeuro.com a good source for train/bus tickets? Suggest any other if there are better ones..
4) I don't know any german, are german people willing to speak english?

Also I'm trying to do this thing on a budget, that's why I am trying to visit as many places as I can in the shortest possible time frame.

Any advice is appreciated :cheers:
 
Unfortunately I can't say anything about the first two questions, but questions 3 and 4.

3) Is goeuro.com a good source for train/bus tickets? Suggest any other if there are better ones..
There is only one mean of getting from Stuttgart to Munich as well as Munich to Ingolstadt by train, and that's via Deutsche Bahn so the only choice is if you want to go by train or bus since flying is much more expensive. I just compared prices at the official Deutsche Bahn-site and goeuro for a random date, they are identical (19 Euros one-way if you book it in advance, but then you have to take the train you are booked on) so it doesn't matter if you book via the official site or goeuro.

I haven't used the long distance buses at all so I don't know the condition of the buses, but since the market for them has been opened just 4 or 5 years ago they should be fairly new-ish. That said, at 19 Euros for a train ticket where you can choose a highspeed connection via ICE I'd say it's a no-brainer to take the train.

4) I don't know any german, are german people willing to speak english?
In the bigger cities where you want to stay it's pretty much guaranteed that people will at least try to speak english, of course with mixed outcome in accent. ;) Younger people will probably speak better english than older people, but in hotels, museums, at the train etc. you won't have any problems finding people who speak english.
 
My daughter went to Germany hoping to learn a bit of German and everywhere she went young people in particular wanted to speak English to her to practice - you should have no problem with younger people speaking English.
 
Well, first of all, in early October, there will be the Oktoberfest in Munich and Cannstatter Wasen in Stuttgart, which are on one hand a great thing to experience, on the other hand all hotels around Munich and Stuttgart will be full and stupidly expensive at that time.

1. Uhh, I don't know, maybe an hour for Porsche and 2 for Mercedes? I'm not that much of car nerd, I'm sure some people can spend a lot more. Definitely should be possible to do both in a day.

2. I would say not much else interesting to do in Stuttgart, when the Volksfest is not on. The city centre suffered a lot of damage in WW2, and no serious effort had been done to restore it afterwards. So it's mostly made of concrete. I guess a quick walk may be in order. There are some smaller towns that still have well preserved historical city centres typical for the area - kinda close to the Mercedes museum, there's Esslingen, and a really nice one is Tuebingen - that one's not so close though, around 50 km south of Stuttgart.

As far as the technical museums are concerned, the one in Sinsheim is pretty good: http://www.technik-museum.de/. About 100 km north-west of Stuttgart so not really on the way, then again it's likely more worthy of a detour than Ingolstadt.

As far as Munich is concerned, the city centre is much better preserved than the one in Stuttgart, so definitely worth spending some time there, and having pork knuckle and beer in some beer hall - better to go a bit off the centre and avoid the tourist traps though.

Other than that, Alps maybe? Start about 100 km south of Munich.

3. Already covered EyeQ. I generally try to avoid taking public transport. Maybe it's worth checking the rental car prices, if you're not travelling alone, it may well even come out cheaper.

4. Kind of average. Better than in southern Europe, worse than in northern Europe. You'll get by for sure. Just don't expect every restaurant to have an English menu.
 
[...]As far as Munich is concerned, the city centre is much better preserved than the one in Stuttgart, so definitely worth spending some time there, and having pork knuckle and beer in some beer hall - better to go a bit off the centre and avoid the tourist traps though.
Well, if he?s going in October, he may be in time for the Octoberfest ... full of awful beer and drunk americans ... ;)

[...]4. Kind of average. Better than in southern Europe, worse than in northern Europe. You'll get by for sure. Just don't expect every restaurant to have an English menu.

Well, nobody beats the Dutch (90% - better than Canada) in that area, not even the northern countries ... Germany still has 64% english-speakers, and the percentage is much higher in (former) west-Germany and Berlin. The former Communist Part of the country is dragging that statistic down a bit ... you?ll be generally fine in southern germany with english.

for reference: France 39%, Czech Republic 27%
 
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Just fyi, Oktoberfest this year is from 20th September to 5th October, so unless you go right at the beginning of October it should be pretty easy to avoid.
 
you?ll be generally fine in southern germany with english.

When surrounded by schw?bisch people it's not a matter of language but of luck, he'll have to be lucky to interact with the small % of them who are nice.
 
1) that depends a lot on how much you will enjoy them, but the mercedes museum is fairly large while the porsche museum is a little smaller and i haven't been to the bmw and audi one, although audi's looks rather small as well. i guess somewhere between 2-5 hours depending on the size and how fast you go through them.

3) for travelling i would suggest to go by train, because they're easier to get around with for strangers and you're much better off in case something goes wrong.

you don't have to book your train tickets in advance unless you want so save money. you could just as well go to the station, buy a ticket and hop on the next train, which would cost you around 55? from stuttgart to munich.
if you book well in advance you can get tickets for as low as 19? depending on the time of day. however, its been mentioned but i want to stress it again, these tickets can only be used for the very connection that you have booked,
if you're late to the station then they become invalid (if the train is delayed or canceled however, you can take any other train of course). so it depends whether you want flexibility or price.


and i would also suggest to avoid the octoberfest time unless you specifically want to go there...
 
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In my mind those newfangled cheap buses are a ticking timebomb waiting to go off, I'd chose the train every time. Tired drivers, tired buses, tight schedules, low fares... that doesn't mix well. Yeah they only started a few years ago, but they didn't go any buy 100% new buses :lol: mostly I see older models in new colourful branding on the Autobahn.
 
Great stuff, thank you all :thumbsup:

The bus vs train thing comes from the time I was in France - the train was all crowded and in the bus we were like 6 people. But then again, I am talking about a local-ish bus (~70km) and the TGV Paris-Lyon, so it's not fair to compare these two.

I totally forgot about Octoberfest. I guess the atmosphere is great, but it gets too complicated for me (if I put it on the list as an attraction).

I thought about renting a car and going to the place I want to visit most of all in Germany - Nurburgring.
But I am trying to do this whole thing in a week (5 days would be great, so I can have some time to rest at home) and going to Nurburgring it's at least +2 days and it gets too expensive for me. Flying to Germany just for the Nurburgring also makes no sense.

If I was to spend some time just walking around the city I am guessing it shoud be Munich?


Now I think I am better off visiting Porsche and Mercedes and going to Munich in one day (even as I write this it seems a bit too optimistic :rolleyes:). If I get a hotel there for 3 nights I can go to Ingolstadt the next day and then I'll have the rest of that day + one whole day to walk around Munich...
 
You should plan an extra day just to visit the Deutsches Museum. lip was totally right, it is a really good museum for the technically interested person. And huge. Let's make it simple: Two days in Munich, one for Deutsches Museum, another for BMW and the city itself.
The Technik Museum(s) in Sinsheim and Speyer are also really good places to visit, but unfortunately are kind of out of the way when returning from Ingolstadt to Stuttgart by train.

Regarding a visit to the N?rburgring: Remember that normal rental car companies forbid to take their cars onto the track.

For the transfer between cities I also recommend taking the train. Use the Deutsche Bahn website for your search for connections and online purchase of tickets - don't use some third-party company.
If you have some specific connections/travel dates, you can also ask here, the German members of this forum will happily use their expertise in navigating the DB offers to get you the best offer - the DB ticketing system can be rather tricky.

There are other nice places to visit in Southern Germany - also automotive museums - but without a couple of days to spare and a rental car to go around there's no point.
 
There are plenty of Ring-Rental companies though, giving you lovely Swifts for reasonable(ish) prices. Would mean two rentals though, one to get to the Ring and one to drive it.
 
lovely Swifts for reasonable(ish) prices. Would mean two rentals though, one to get to the Ring and one to drive it.
My initial plan exactly. But that means that I have to spend a couple of hundred Euros just for ~30 minutes on the 'ring.
I couldn't justify it, so I've decided to go museum hopping in the south.
 
Berlin and D?sseldorf are not really viable options for one-day-trips when you already have Munich and Stuttgart on the list and have just 5 days. ;)
 
Those are the former meilenwerks right? There's one near Stuttgart as well, in Boeblingen. Now called Motorworld: http://www.motorworld.de/stuttgart/

Not sure if it's still wort doing along all those museums (then again I've never planned a trip centered around museums myself), and a certain advantage is that it's for free.
 
A few hints regarding the BMW related sights and Munich in general:
Don't miss out on the BMW Welt. It's admission free. Also check out the factory tour which starts at the Welt if you have the chance (it isn't free but well worth it).

When you're done with the BMW Welt & Museum, stay in the area and make sure to take a long stroll through the Olympic Park. Make sure you do climb the mountain. If the weather is fine, the view is awesome.
If you're OK with a hike you might as well stay on foot from there on and continue from Olympic Park towards Luitpoldpark (The hill there also has a fantastic view over Munich). From there, you can either head over to the English garden and south from there towards Deutsches Museum along the Isar river or head directly south from Luitpoldpark into Schwabing and make your way to the University/Odeonsplatz/Residence and to the city centre.
You could cover a lot of Munich in a day just in this one long hike with time to spare in the evening.

About Deutsches Museum:
It's humongous. It covers everything science and technology known to men and includes the famous electricity and lightning strike show where they also put either a staff member or a volunteer from the audience in the Faraday's cage and strike it with lightning.
It actually also has two more large subsidiaries besides the main site on the island in the Isar River: The transport section at Theresienh?he (which includes the car collection and is conveniently located close to the site of the Oktoberfest) and the Flugwerft Schlei?heim. The last one is located slightly outside of Munich and probably requires about half a day by it self, including the trip.
 
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When you're done with the BMW Welt & Museum, stay in the area and make sure to take a long stroll through the Olympic Park. Make sure you do climb the mountain. If the weather is fine, the view is awesome.
If you're OK with a hike you might as well stay on foot from there on and continue from Olympic Park towards Luitpoldpark (The hill there also has a fantastic view over Munich). From there, you can either head over to the English garden and south from there towards Deutsches Museum along the Isar river or head directly south from Luitpoldpark into Schwabing and make your way to the University/Odeonsplatz/Residence and to the city centre.
You could cover al lot of Munich in a day just in this one long hike with time to spare in the evening.
I took a quick look on Google Maps, it looks fun. I also saw there are many hotels in that region, very convenient. I already like Munich :p

Thanks for suggesting bahn.de site. It has the platform number written and everything, it's awesome!

Quick questions:
I take that HBF means central station?
How much is a ticket for public transport (S-line in Stuttgart if it matters)? Is it available at every station? Is it just for one ride or for a specific period of time? Is there a one-day pass? I saw something saying 1.2 Euro/ticket but there is a lot of information on that site and I'm really lazy today :rolleyes:
 
HBF = HauptBahnhoF = Central station :nod:
As opposed to Bhf = BahnHoF = any station :lol:

Public transport tickets in Stuttgart start at 2.2?, the 1.2? is a kids ticket. For multiple trips in a day there are TagesTickets, they make financial sense from three trips.
 
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